A conversion in the Webster’s Dictionary is described as a change from one belief to another. In the novel A Tale of Two Cities, the acclaimed author Charles Dickens uses his great imaginative power to create a superior artwork in literary terms. A Tale of Two Cities is an in-depth story about the lives of people in the two countries of France and England during the French Revolution. Through the process of the novel many of the characters go through changes. The most drastic of these changes are moral or immoral conversions which empower the characters to become greater or lesser of human beings. The three characters who take moral or immoral conversion to the greatest extent are Sydney Carton , Dr. Manette, and Madame Defarge.The character who goes through moral conversion to the greatest extent is Sydney Carton. Sydney is a frustrated alcoholic who does not really seem to care too much about life, because life for him has not been too good. His moral conversion begins the first time his eyes see Lucie Manette, the beautiful young daughter of Dr. Alexander Manette. This occurs during the first trial of Charles Darney. Barbara Hardy describes this first trial and how Carton comes about saving Charles in her essay “The Change of Heart in Dicken’s Novels.” She writesIt is significant that when Sydney Carton first sees Darnay, he performs a good act, using the striking resemblance to break down the witness who is identifying Darnay, and saving his double for the first time(43).To the reader Sydney is presented as a man who places alcohol as his first priority. But now that he has met Lucie, he begins to set his priorities straight and he pyts Lucie in front of everything else. As his love gets stronger for Lucie he begins to change. For example, he drinks less and finds more meaning to life. Befor he had met lucie he didn’t really care for anything in general, but now he really has found somet...
