Lucie Manette, in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, is a quiet young woman. She is deeply compassionate but never develops a real believable character. Her feelings, which are similar in all cases, are revealed to us when she interacts with her father Dr. Manette, Charles Darney, and Sydney Carton. During the scene in the shoemaker’s shop the reader learns about daughter Manette through description, actions, and her words. First off, we picture her slowly coming out of the darkness.
Next she is described as young, with golden hair, and a dress. Her words are the main point of study, though. The reader has been drawn in by the first superficial description and now we expect that her words will build a strong character in Lucie. Her words however, may be important to the revival of Dr. Manette, but do not create a real, strong, true-to-life character. The comforting words are just a bad sentimental melodrama and she says, “weep for it, weep for it! ,” over and over.
Miss Manette’s conversation with Carton is a similar type of conversation in which she reassures Carton several times. The line “If that will be a consolation to you”, is a summary of the conversation between Carton and Lucie. Lucie Manette is at the center of the group in Soho, a suburb of London. Because Lucie is a main character we expect her to be in the middle of gatherings. Miss Pross says that hundreds of people visit Lucie, an exageration but still many pay visit to her house in Soho.
Because Lucie’s character is not fully developed and because we don’t fully know her, we are left wondering what part of her character, or personality, makes her so attractive to everyone. After studying the character of Lucie Manette, we can conclude that she is a compassionate, young, quiet, and attractive young lady. However, many of these traits do not ever become fully developed. Some scholars feel that Dickens did not make Lucie as much of a true-life character as he should have.
