Tale Of Two Cities Caricature Analysis

Caricature is a description of a person or even an object in which certain characteristics are exaggerated. Caricature is used quite often by Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities. Many say that Charles Dickens created characters that are “flat” or one dimensional when using carituature in his writings such as in A Tale of Two Cities. Many say when Charles Dickens uses caricature, it leads to his characters being meaningless. The characters that he describes turns out to be “flat” or one dimensional instead of being “round”. The characterization used in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities does not detract from the novel’s ability to speak to the human condition for some characters while it does detract from the novel’s ability to speak …show more content…
Sydney Carton is shown to be a “round” character. When Dickens uses caricature, it is able to show different sides of Sydney Carton. For example, “Sydney Carton, idlest and most unpromising of men, was Stryver’s great ally. What the two drank together, between Hilary Term and Michaelmas, might have floated a king’s ship. Stryver never had a case in hand, anywhere, but Carton was there, with his hands in his pockets, staring at the ceiling of the court; they went the same Circuit, and even there they prolonged their usual orgies late into the night, and Carton was rumoured to be seen at broad day, going home stealthily and unsteadily to his lodgings, like a dissipated cat” (Dickens 105). In this quote, it is shown that Carton is worthless man. He seems to be drunk all the time. But also in this quote, he is seen as the brains behind the case. Dickens is able to use caricature to show that he is both a worthless man by seeming to be drunk and a smart man by working on Stryver's cases. Another example of carctiture showing a different side of him is, ““Rot the admiration of the whole Court! Who made the Old Bailey a judge of beauty? She was a golden-haired doll!” (Dickens 110). Dickens is able to show that Carton has feelings for Lucie by exaggerating the way he is stated the sentence. Carton is shy about admitting his feelings about Lucie Manette that he has. But things take an interesting turn, ““The utmost good that I am capable of now, Miss Manette, I have come here to realise. Let me carry through the rest of my misdirected life, the remembrance that I opened my heart to you, last of all the world; and that there was something left in me at this time which you could deplore and pity”” (Dickens 186). Carton isn’t shy at all anymore, he was able to take the courage and was able to tell Lucie about the feeling he had for her. At first he wasn’t able to