"this property and france are lost to me...I renounce them," (161)
Charles Darnay was born into French aristocracy as Charles Evremonde, destined to be the Marquis. However, Charles just so happens to be the only aristocrat with a conscience; he doesn't agree with the way his family is treating the people of the lower classes and tries to escape the atrocities they have committed in the past by running away to England. In England, he establishes himself as Charles Darnay, a French tutor.
Running away really comes back to bite him. Unfortunately for him, you can't choose your family, and his family's horrible history will never leave him alone. When he's tried in England as a traitor to the Crown, the readers are introduced to his doppelganger, Sydney Carton (see themes, motifs, and symbols). Sydney saves Darnay's life and he is acquitted. Now, this is where things get a little complicated. Well, they don't get complicated at all, and that's the problem. Dickens doesn't develop Charles Darnay's character much at all. You'd think that the readers would get a glimpse inside Charles' head after just being saved from death, but it isn't given.
Darnay fits the ideal archetype of a hero, being charming, handsome, intelligent, brave, etc., but he isn't one. He appears to be the man who has it all, but he has to be saved from every trial he's put through during the novel. Carton saves his life in two of them; Dr. Manette saves his life in the other. He's a flat character; the only glimpse of his thoughts that readers are given is in chapter twenty-four of the second book, when Charles decides to return to France to right the wrongs committed by his ancestors: "The latent uneasiness in Darnay's mind was roused to vigorous life by this letter...he knew very well that, in his horror of the deed which had culminated the bad deeds and bad reputation of the old family house, in his resentful suspicions of his uncle, and in the aversion with which his conscience regarded the crumbling fabric that he was supposed to uphold, he had acted imperfectly. He knew very well, that in his love for Lucie, his renunciation of his social place, though by no means new to his own mind, had been hurried and incomplete. He knew that he ought to have systematically worked it out and supervised it, and that he had meant to do it, and that it had never been done," (285). The audience is briefly introduced to Charles' conscience; however, he is not developed further by Dickens, leaving him a relatively flat character and allowing Sydney Carton to surpass his heroic stature.
Running away really comes back to bite him. Unfortunately for him, you can't choose your family, and his family's horrible history will never leave him alone. When he's tried in England as a traitor to the Crown, the readers are introduced to his doppelganger, Sydney Carton (see themes, motifs, and symbols). Sydney saves Darnay's life and he is acquitted. Now, this is where things get a little complicated. Well, they don't get complicated at all, and that's the problem. Dickens doesn't develop Charles Darnay's character much at all. You'd think that the readers would get a glimpse inside Charles' head after just being saved from death, but it isn't given.
Darnay fits the ideal archetype of a hero, being charming, handsome, intelligent, brave, etc., but he isn't one. He appears to be the man who has it all, but he has to be saved from every trial he's put through during the novel. Carton saves his life in two of them; Dr. Manette saves his life in the other. He's a flat character; the only glimpse of his thoughts that readers are given is in chapter twenty-four of the second book, when Charles decides to return to France to right the wrongs committed by his ancestors: "The latent uneasiness in Darnay's mind was roused to vigorous life by this letter...he knew very well that, in his horror of the deed which had culminated the bad deeds and bad reputation of the old family house, in his resentful suspicions of his uncle, and in the aversion with which his conscience regarded the crumbling fabric that he was supposed to uphold, he had acted imperfectly. He knew very well, that in his love for Lucie, his renunciation of his social place, though by no means new to his own mind, had been hurried and incomplete. He knew that he ought to have systematically worked it out and supervised it, and that he had meant to do it, and that it had never been done," (285). The audience is briefly introduced to Charles' conscience; however, he is not developed further by Dickens, leaving him a relatively flat character and allowing Sydney Carton to surpass his heroic stature.