Compare and Contrast Sydney Carton and Stryver.

There are no points of similarity between Stryver and Carton. They are classmates and they spend a lot of time together but they are totally different in their attitudes, values reactions and philosophy. They are told contrary to each other.

Similarities and Dissimilarities of  Sydney Carton and Stryver:

While Stryver is a reputed lawyer, Sydney is his assistant due to whose talent, Stryver has succeeded as a lawyer. At Darnay's trial at Old Bailey, Stryver can do nothing. It is Sydney who sees the resemblance between Darnay and himself and brings about Darnay's release. Thus Sydney works hard for Stryver who lives on his brains.

Though both Sydney and Stryver love Lucie, their attitude is different. Stryver feels that his offering to marry Lucie would be an act of charitable for he knows that her father cannot offer him a dowry. But when rejected by Lucie, he says that she is a fool to have missed the golden opportunity of marrying a lawyer like him. Unlike Stryver, Sydney on the other hand, is fully aware that he is not a fit match for the delicate Lucie. He feels she would be destroying her life by marrying him and as such he does not even propose to her directly.

Though Sydney Carton's proposal has also been turned down, it has not disheartened him at all. He has not been blessed with marriage, but Lucie has loved him in her own way. As she listens to the story of his intense suffering she has shed tears of profound sympathy and compassion. All the great things he is to achieve, have been possible only because of the healing touch of Lucie. Love can work miracles. Stryver has on susceptibility to love.

While love resurrects Sydney, Stryver appears more of a materialistic. Stryver marries a rich widow with three sons and he is happy because in his conception of marriage love has hardly any role to play. It is money that matters to him and the rich widow has brought plenty of money.

If Sydney Carton is a lover of mankind, a Christ figure, Stryver is in the placid shell of self-love. Sydney shares the sufferings with the masses, Stryver avoids the polluting touch of the common people. Self-complacency is his trait, noble action is Carton's characteristic. Sydney Carton dreams of a better world, Stryver thinks of self-interest.

Dickens ironically calls Stryver the lion and Sydney the jackal. Like a lion Stryver is proud and gets the lion's share. Sydney, on the other hand, is clever but lives on the leftovers of the lion. He has no pride and ambition like Stryver.

Thus Stryver is a mean, utterly selfish person while Sydney is a man doing good things, thinking good deeds for mankind. Sydney Carton is anthropocentric, while Stryver is egocentric.

 

 

You Can also Read:

 

•                Dickens's Art of Characterization in the Novel “A Tale of     Two Cities”.

•    Plot Construction of "A Tale of Two Cities"

•    Show how “A Tale of Two Cities” is a Tale of London and Paris.

•   “A Tale of Two Cities” is a Novel about Rebirth.

•     "A Tale of Two Cities is a Tale of Two Heroes". Discuss.

•    "Charles and Sydney are opposite side of the same coin". Discuss.

•   Comic Elements in “A Tale of Two Cities”.

•   Treatment of Self-Love in “A Tale of Two Cities”.

•    Tragic Elements in A "Tale of Two Cities".