"Cliff Notes - Tale of Two Cities, A" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

father, Dr. Manette, from the Bastille, Lucie is the agent who
restores his damaged psyche through unselfish love and devotion. She
maintains a calm, restful atmosphere in their Soho lodgings,
attracting suitors (Charles Darnay, Stryver, Sydney Carton) and
brightening the life of family friend Jarvis Lorry.

Home is Lucie's chosen territory, where she displays her fireside
virtues of tranquility, fidelity, and motherhood. It's as a symbol
of home that her centrality and influence are greatest. Even her
physical attributes promote domestic happiness: her blonde hair is a
"golden thread" binding her father to health and sanity, weaving a
fulfilling life for her eventual husband, Charles Darnay, and their
daughter.

Lucie is central, too, in the sense that she's caught in several
triangles--the most obvious one involving Carton and Darnay. Lucie
marries Darnay (he's upcoming and handsome, the romantic lead) and
exerts great influence on Carton.

A second, subtler triangle involves Lucie, her father, and Charles
Darnay. The two men share an ambiguous relationship. Because Lucie
loves Darnay, Dr. Manette must love him, too. Yet Darnay belongs to
the St. Evremonde family, cause of the doctor's long imprisonment,
and is thus subject to his undying curse. Apart from his ancestry,
Darnay poses the threat, by marrying Lucie, of replacing Dr. Manette
in her affections.

At the very end of the novel you'll find Lucie caught in a third
triangle--the struggle between Miss Pross and Madame Defarge. Miss
Pross, fighting for Lucie, is fighting above all for love. Her
triumph over Madame Defarge is a triumph over chaos and vengeance.

Let's move now from Lucie's influence on other characters to Lucie
herself. Sydney Carton, who loves Lucie devotedly, labels her a
"little golden doll." Carton means this ironically--he's hiding his
true feelings from Stryver--but some readers have taken his words at
face value. They see Lucie as a cardboard creation, and her
prettiness and family devotion as general traits, fitting Dickens'
notions of the ideal woman.

Readers fascinated with Dickens' life have traced Lucie's origins to
Ellen Ternan, the 18-year-old actress Dickens was infatuated with
while writing A Tale. Ellen was blonde, and she shared Lucie's habit
of worriedly knitting her brows. Of course, the artist who draws on
real life nearly always transforms it into something else, something
original.

Finally, consider viewing Lucie allegorically--as a character acting
on a level beyond the actual events of the story. Dickens frequently
mentions Lucie's golden hair. The theme of light versus dark is one