Discussion Topic
Darnay's acquittal in A Tale of Two Cities
Summary:
In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Darnay is acquitted when his lawyer, Stryver, and assistant, Carton, reveal the striking resemblance between Carton and Darnay, creating reasonable doubt about the identification of Darnay as a spy. This pivotal moment underscores themes of sacrifice and duality in Dickens' novel.
What fact clinches Darnay's acquittal in "A Tale of Two Cities", Book the Second, Chapter 3?
Reading this chapter carefully reveals that the case very quickly seems to hang on the identification of Charles Darnay in the coffee-room of a hotel, waiting for another person. However, Sydney Carton shows his genius by recognising that a peculiar similarity between himself and Charles Darnay exists, which leads him to give Stryver the suggestion that, in the end, leads to Darnay's acquittal. Stryver thus asks the witness to identify the similarity between Darnay and Carton, and the following scene is described:
Allowing for my learned friend's appearance being careless and slovenly if not debauched, they were sufficiently like each other to surprise, not only the witness, but everbody present, when they were thus brought into comparison.
The uncanny likeness between Darnay and Carton thus allowed Stryver to "smash this witness like a crochery vessel, and shiver his part of the ase to useless lumber." Thus it is that the...
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similiarity between these two central characters is shown to be the lifeline that leads to Darnay's salvation in this chapter, which of course foreshadows how Darnay will be saved by their likeness once more at the end of the book.
How was Darnay acquitted in A Tale of Two Cities?
Charles Darnay is on trial for treason. Specifically, the prosecution maintains that Charles has been engaged in treasonous correspondence with the French. This is about the most serious offense that anyone in Great Britain can be accused of; it is a capital offense that is punishable by death. For all its faults, however, the English criminal justice system is a good deal fairer than the one operating on the other side of the Channel. Unlike the tribunals of Revolutionary France, English courts of law insist on the presentation of evidence before convictions are secured.
Charles's bacon is well and truly saved by his astonishing physical resemblance to Sydney Carton, junior associate of the lead defense counsel Mr. Stryver. While cross-examining a key prosecution witness, Stryver draws the witnesses's attention to the resemblance between the two men. As a good defense attorney, Stryver has introduced more than a hint of reasonable doubt into the minds of the jury, and much to Charles's relief, it proves sufficient to secure his acquittal.