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"Spiritual reassessment" is a standard AP English question. AP English teachers will ask it about almost any novel.

In Fay Weldon's opinion, a good writer does not always need to conclude his story with a joyous flourish in order to satisfy his reader. "The writers, I do believe, who get the best and most lasting response from readers are the writers who offer a happy ending through moral development. By a happy ending, I do not mean mere fortunate events - a marriage or a last-minute rescue from death - but some kind of spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation, even with the self, even at death."

"Spiritual reassessment" is when one of the characters looks at himself and how he's been living his life, and as a result of the events of the novel, comes to some sort of awareness that there needs to be a moral or spiritual change. It's usually a kind of repentance. (Repentance is realizing you've been doing the wrong thing, deciding to live differently, and then demonstrating that change in some outward way.)

As far as "The Tale of Two Cities" goes, there's lots of room to talk about "spiritual reassessment" in Sidney Carton.

Sydney Carton proves the most dynamic character in A Tale of Two Cities. He first appears as a lazy, alcoholic attorney who cannot muster even the smallest amount of interest in his own life. He describes his existence as a supreme waste of life and takes every opportunity to declare that he cares for nothing and no one. But the reader senses, even in the initial chapters of the novel, that Carton in fact feels something that he perhaps cannot articulate. In his conversation with the recently acquitted Charles Darnay, Carton’s comments about Lucie Manette, while bitter and sardonic, betray his interest in, and budding feelings for, the gentle girl. Eventually, Carton reaches a point where he can admit his feelings to Lucie herself. Before Lucie weds Darnay, Carton professes his love to her, though he still persists in seeing himself as essentially worthless. This scene marks a vital transition for Carton and lays the foundation for the supreme sacrifice that he makes at the novel’s end.

Carton’s death has provided much material for scholars and critics of Dickens’s novel. Some readers consider it the inevitable conclusion to a work obsessed with the themes of redemption and resurrection. According to this interpretation, Carton becomes a Christ-like figure, a selfless martyr whose death enables the happiness of his beloved and ensures his own immortality. Other readers, however, question the ultimate significance of Carton’s final act. They argue that since Carton initially places little value on his existence, the sacrifice of his life proves relatively easy. However, Dickens’s frequent use in his text of other resurrection imagery—his motifs of wine and blood, for example—suggests that he did intend for Carton’s death to be redemptive, whether or not it ultimately appears so to the reader. As Carton goes to the guillotine, the narrator tells us that he envisions a beautiful, idyllic Paris “rising from the abyss” and sees “the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out.” Just as the apocalyptic violence of the revolution precedes a new society’s birth, perhaps it is only in the sacrifice of his life that Carton can establish his life’s great worth.

Spiritual Reassessment

Reassessment Definition

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Can anyone define spiritual reassessment?

Im working on my summer reading novel "The Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens, and I could really use some helpful answers?

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yes. some tragedies have "good" endings. according to British novelist Fay Weldon, "The writers, I do believe,who get the best and most lasting response from readers are the writers who offer a happy ending through moral development. By a happy ending, I do not mean mere fortunate events--- a marriage or a last-minute rescue from death---but some kind of spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation, even with the self, even at death." This good ending can happen, even when the play ends seemingly badly. take King Lear for an example. SPOILER ALERT pretty much everyone dies, one of the last three characters alive exits stage planning to kill himself. a complete tragedy. but it has a happy ending, because the king reconciles himself with himself, and his youngest daughter. it leaves you sad, almost disbelieving, but satisfied. Or, if you're considering the entire book, not merely the ending, you have to look at the topics discussed. Farewell to Arms leaves the reader unsatisfied, gaping, waiting for the real ending. it's... annoying, but perfect. one, it fits the book, but more important is the fact that even though the end is not classic, the book is. because a good book is defined by it's ability to connect with people outside of the time period in which it was written, and it's coverage of issues that transcend time and place. to finish, yes, it is very possible for a book to be literarily good, even if the ending leaves something to be desired by a certain reader.

Good: These endings are mostly in teen&above books. The end may not be happy, but it fulfilled many things. For example: The book In the Beginning, by Chaim Potok, is about an Orthodox Jewish boy with a brilliant mind. He wants to be a Rabbi but gets ahead of himself with his brains and finds that he can no longer complete this act, for a reason I won't say, mainly because it'd ruin the ending. The boy, then a man, isn't exactly happy at the end because his decision distances himself from his family and people, but it is good and well-written. Bad: Nothing is accomplished. Loose ends are not tied up and you're just happy the book is finally finished. Example: none. Happy: Everything turned out excellent for the character and everything is fulfilled and, well, happy. Many of happy endings are in children's books. Example: A Sesame Street book. Sad: You as the reader want something to work out so badly in a book but, in the end, find out it doesn't happen. Example: Not a precise one, but in a love novel you may want two characters to get together but in the end find out that one of them dies or they find that they just can't be together. Ooh! Like LOTR:ROTK. I don't know the book ending, but in the movie Frodo leaves his friends and what he knows with the knowledge that he probably would never return to see them. That's sad. EDIT: And for you last question, of course a book can still be good if the you feel unsatisfied for the characters! The Queen of Attolia, written by Megan Whalen Turner, had been the last book in a series of two. I fell in love with the main character and in that book he wanted to marry the queen of Attolia. In the end, she finally consents, but I felt so unfulfilled because I didn't know how it was going to work out. Luckily for me, however, Turner made a third book not too long ago.