If Sydney hadn't saved Charles.

[Sandy]

Would Lucy love Sydney?
She knew Sydney had been loving her, she was soft to him too, also Sydney and Charles looked alike.

I think very likely she would, which makes me think Sydney was really really unselfish, great and respectable.

[Sandy]

Jay wrote: "Hmmm. Interesting question. I think Dickens'd have taken them back to England where Lucy + Sydney would've finally gotten married and named their son, Charles or daughter, Charlotte. A spin-off wou..."

Good idea, good names. :)
I love Sydney more than Charles. ;)

[Timothy]

A common criticism of Charles Dickens is that his characters tend to be rather two dimensional, almost a caricature of some human principle, emotion, or motivation rather than fully developed characters. I think the depth of Sydney Carton's self-loathing and his tendency toward self-destructive impulses would still overwhelm his noble and caring side. He would not have been able to climb out of the pit of his own depression and eventually death would still have found him at the bottom of a bottle. Although his love for Lucy was pure, it was not enough for him to overcome this.

Lucy would certainly have been grateful to Sydney for his friendship after the death of her husband. She would even have genuinely cared for his well-being, but it would not have been the love she had for Darnay. It would have been a love borne of worry and obligation. A marriage between them would still have ended in tragedy -- death for Sydney and an unhappy marriage ending in premature widowhood for Lucy.

Sydney was fated to die because he was a fatally flawed person. It was only through his love of Lucy and opportunity for self-sacrifice by taking Charles Darnay's place that Sydney Carton was able to find meaning in his self-destructive behavior.

All of that having been said, Syndey Carton remains one of my personal literary hero's of all time. I think all of us identify with his personal weakness, his self-loathing, and the kernel of nobility that exists in the core of his soul. Maybe I am wrong, but I know that I certainly identify with the man. Let us hope that we are able to nurture, or have nurtured, the better part of ourselves so that we may find happiness without martyrdom.

[Sandy]

Timothy wrote: "A common criticism of Charles Dickens is that his characters tend to be rather two dimensional, sometimes almost a caricature of some human principle, emotion, or motivation rather than fully devel..."

Thanks Timothy, probably you are right.