How does Lucie react to learning her father is alive in chapters 1-6 of A Tale of Two Cities?
After the Dover stage arrives in France in Chapter IV of Book the First in Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, Mr. Lorry takes a room at an inn where he is to meet Miss Lucie Manette. As they meet, Mr. Lorry introduces himself as a representative of Tellson's Bank, and he delicately broaches the subject of the physician of Beauvais. As Lucie begins to put together the details and realize that Mr. Lorry speaks of the possibility of Dr. Manette's not having died, Lucie entreats him to continue. When Mr. Lorry asks, "You can bear it?" Lucie responds, "I can bear anything but the uncertainty you leave me in at this moment."
Continuing, Mr. Lorry emphasizes that he speaks merely of "a matter of business." But, Lucie grips his wrist more tightly. Then, when Mr. Lorry informs her that her father is yet alive and has been taken...
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to the home of an old servant in Paris where they will go to identify him. At this news, Lucie has a shiver that runs through her body, and she speaks "as if she were saying it in a dream,"
"I am going to see his Ghost! It will be his Ghost--not him!"
Finally, as Mr. Lorry urges Lucie that it is futile to inquire about Dr. Manette's treatment in prison as it may be dangerous, Lucie stares blankly and grips his arm. She is in a faint as a typical Victorian heroine. Mr. Lorry calls out, and the faithful Miss Pross rushes in, scolding him, "And you in brown!...Couldn't you tell her what you had to tell her, without firghtening her to death?" With smelling-salts, cold water, and vinegar the loving servant revives Miss Manette.
What does Lucie's reaction to her father's survival reveal about her character in A Tale of Two Cities?
The chapter you want to look at is Chapter Four of Book the First, which reports the conversation that Mr. Jarvis Lorry has with Miss Lucie Manette when he reveals to her that her father is still alive. What is key to note is the physical response with which Lucie greets this news and how it reveals what a typical Dickensian heroine she is:
A shiver ran through her frame, and from it throgh his. She said, in a a low, distinct, awe-stricken voice, as if she were saying it in a dream,
"I am going to see his Ghost! It will be his Ghost--not him!"
The complete shock and silence with which she greets this news reveals the tender nature of her character, and how she is presented as a weak female figure in need of support from other characters, as the swift arrival of Miss Pross to restore her amply demonstrates. Interestingly, Dickens pictured Lucie Manette as the perfect female, and the way she exposes her vulnerability and weakness in response to the news of her father's existence illustrates this, and also Dickens' rather chauvanistic notions of what a "perfect female" constituted.