Sydney Carton is Charles Darnay's look-alike. The physical resemblance between the men is striking to all who see it, but their personalities could not be more dissimilar. Darnay is a respectable, kind man, while Darnay is an alcoholic who has wasted his talents in a stupor for years.
The resemblance between the men is revealed at Darnay's first trial in the book, where he is accused of being a spy by someone who claimed to have seen him engaging in suspicious activity. However, when Carton stands up and the accuser is asked if he could tell the difference between Darnay and Carton from a distance, thus leaving room for error from the eyewitnesses, Darnay is acquitted.
This early rescue of Darnay by Carton foreshadows Darnay's final salvation from the guillotine by Carton at the end of the novel. During the initial rescue, Carton does not have to do much other than stand up and be seen, but in the final one, he must sacrifice his own life and become more like Darnay not just in appearance, but in nobility of heart.
Charles Darnay has been put before an English court on a trumped-up charge of sedition. With war against Revolutionary France in the air, this is a very serious charge indeed, and if convicted Charles is looking at a possible death sentence.
Thankfully, however, he's the beneficiary of a truly astonishing stroke of luck. His barrister's assistant, one Sydney Carton, bears an astonishing physical resemblance to him. Sydney hits upon the idea of using that resemblance to undermine the evidence of the prosecution's eyewitnesses. Mr. Stryver, Charles's lawyer, runs with the idea, and when one of the prosecution's witnesses takes the stand he asks him to compare Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay and say for certain if he knows which one was the man he claims to have seen. As the witness is unable to do so, the prosecution's whole case against Darnay collapses, and he is acquitted of all charges.
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