Audience Surrogate: While he's seldom at the center of the action, a substantial portion of the story nonetheless gets told from his perspective (possibly due to the fact that, being exceedingly English in every respect, he holds a natural appeal to Dickens' audience).
Creature of Habit: To the point where he seems to have been wearing the same brown suit every day of his adult life.
Cool Old Guy: He's willing to break out of his usual routines to help out his friends, and is able to maintain a cool head in the face of severe danger.
Innocently Insensitive: He could hardly have picked a worse way to tell Lucie that her father is actually alive. When she goes into a state of shock from the news, he becomes extremely flustered.
Stiff Upper Lip: He rarely shows strong emotion, even when he's stressed.
Team Dad: Basically functions as this for the entire Manette-Darnay unit, even though he's not officially part of the family.
Technical Euphemism: He's given to these whenever he has to break bad news or broach a sensitive topic with another person.
Tin Man: At the beginning of the book, he tries to conceal his fatherly affection for Lucie, claiming to be a representative of Tellson's Bank and nothing more. (He doesn't pull it off too well.)
Hometown Nickname: He's frequently referred to as the "Doctor of Beauvais" (Beauvais being a town north of Paris on the road to Calais).
Inspirational Martyr: His status as this to the revolutionaries means that he's able to prevent Darnay's execution (at least, until his letter is uncovered).
Trauma Button: Being reminded of his time in prison and the circumstances that led to it.
Younger Than They Look: He's described as looking like a haggard, grey-haired old man when Lucie sees him for he first time, though he's probably only in his forties.
Charles Darnay
Honor Before Reason: Goes to Revolution-era France in attempt to help out an old family servant. A bit of critical thinking could have told him that that's not a good idea.
Nice Guy: He's affable and cares about his adoptive family.
Shed the Family Name: Does this (and renounces his inheritance) to avoid association with the misdeeds of his Blue Blood father and uncle.
Sins of the Father: It doesn't matter to the Defarges that he wants to live a life away from his terrible family. The very fact that he shares their name is enough for them to put him on the chopping block, with Madame Defarge wanting to also kill his wife and daughter as retribution to what Charles' uncle and father did to her family.
White Sheep: He's seemingly the only male member of his family who isn't an utter bastard that treats the lower class like dirt. He's well aware of just how terrible everyone else in his family is, which is why he goes by a different name.
Lucie Manette
All-Loving Heroine: Treats others—including those who are actively antagonistic towards her—with as much respect as possible.
The Ingenue: She's a Wide-Eyed Idealist who believes that anybody can be reformed through kindness. Madame Defarge doesn't buy into this at all, and treats her coldly.
Living Emotional Crutch: Willingly serves as this for basically any troubled individual who comes into her life, with her father and Carton being the most notable examples.
Proper Lady: Falls squarely into the Victorian ideal of the perfect woman. While we regularly see her effect on the other characters, we rarely know what she is thinking herself. This has the unfortunate side effect of making her somewhat difficult to relate to for more modern readers.
Sydney Carton
Anti-Hero: He can't be bothered to care about anything, but he finds a cause by the end.
Breakout Character: To the point where it's easy to forget that he's actually absent for large portions of the story (Lorry, Dr. Manette, Darnay and Lucie all appear significantly more often). Some adaptations essentially make him the main character by giving him scenes that aren't in the original text, which often leads to Dr. Manette and Mr. Lorry being Demoted to Extra.
Brilliant, but Lazy: Subverted. He is quite skilled at his job and does it very diligently, but he allows Stryver to take all the credit for the cases they win. Not to mention, of course, that he is the only one able to save Charles Darnay and get the rest of the family out of France at the end of the book. He only pretends to be lazy, as in this exchange:
Sydney: Business! Bless you, I have no business.
Mr. Lorry: If you had, perhaps you would attend to it.
Sydney: Lord love you, no! - I shouldn't.
The Chessmaster: Just when there seems to be no hope, he manages to put together a complicated plan to free Darnay—although it involves sacrificing himself.
The Cynic: The guy can't be bothered to even entertain the possibility of things going right of him one day.
Functional Addict: His work seems to improve when he's drunk, although his personal life suffers massively.
Heroic Self-Deprecation: To a crippling degree. It's his loathing towards how far he's let himself fall in life that keeps him from ever attempting to pursue happiness.
Honorary Uncle: Becomes this to Charles and Lucie's daughter, Little Lucie, who apparently greatly enjoys his company.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's snarky and often outright antagonistic, but is a good guy deep down. Spending time with Lucie helps him to get in touch with that side of himself.
Loser Protagonist: While he's very smart and—given his resemblance to Darnay—he seems to be good-looking, he's unrecognized for his skill as a lawyer, his romantic life is nonexistent and he's an alcoholic.
Ernest and Thérèse Defarge
Big Bad: Both are leading figures in the revolution and seek bloody revenge against the Evrémondes.
Blinded by Rage: Applies to Madame Defarge in particular, who becomes more and more of a revolutionary extremist as the book progresses.
Brains and Brawn: Ernest Defarge is the brawn; Thérèse is the brains (although each has elements of the other).
Even Evil Has Standards: Madame Defarge ends up wanting to completely extinguish the Evrémonde line by murdering Lucie, her daughter, and even her father (because why not?); her husband is content with executing Darnay and is highly uncomfortable pursuing his innocent family.
Dark Action Girl: Madame Defarge wields weapons and is one of the most bloodthirsty revolutionaries.
Family Honor: The reason for Madame Defarge's Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the Darnays is that her father and brother were killed by Charles' father and uncle, with her sister also dying as a direct result of their actions.
Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: While Madame Defarge's hatred for the Evrémonde brothers may be entirely justified, it leads her to commit increasingly appalling acts against people who did not personally harm her in any way.
It's Personal: Both Ernest and Thérèse have reasons for deeply hating the Evrémondes in particular: they dishonored and murdered Thérèse's family, and threw Dr. Manette—for whom Ernest worked as a teenager—into the Bastille for attempting to report them for their crimes.
Knight Templar: They think they are doing what is best for the lower classes in France; however, their ideals lead to their supporting the mass slaughter of innocent people.
Would Hurt a Child: Plans to murder both Lucie and her daughter simply for being the wife and child of an Evrémonde.
Does Not Like Men: Well, some men, at least—the men who arrive at her house looking for Lucie's hand in marriage, all of whom she deems unsuitable.
Mama Bear: Fights off Madame Defarge when she arrives to kill both Lucie and her child.
Patriotic Fervor: Is very proud of being English and dislikes France, a trait she shares with Jerry Cruncher (which leads to their forming an Odd Couple of sorts at the end of the book).
Selective Obliviousness: Despite all evidence to the contrary, she refuses to believe that her brother Solomon is anything but a good yet misunderstood man. She changes her tune when she realises he's become a spy.
Jerry Cruncher
Domestic Abuse: He's violent towards his wife. Lorry calls him out for this at the end of the book.
Funetik Aksent: The way his dialogue is written makes it very clear that he's a Cockney.
I Work Alone: He doesn't want his wife or son coming with him when he's grave robbing (for fairly obvious reasons).
Sidekick: Is the thug-like aide to the genteel English banker Mr. Lorry.
Stryver
Abhorrent Admirer: He's this to Lucie. However, she's too nice to tell him what an ass he is, so the task eventually falls onto Mr. Lorry (who seems to enjoy doing it).
Toxic Friend Influence: Being partners with him certainly doesn't help Carton's neuroses.
The Evrémonde Brothers
Asshole Victim: The Marquis St. Evrémonde is murdered in his sleep by the father of a child he ran over with his carriage.
Disk-One Final Boss: Dialogue between Darnay and his uncle suggest that the Marquis played a hand in the false charges of treason against Darnay at the beginning of the book.
Evil Prince: As much of an asshole as Darnay's father is, it's pretty much universally agreed among the peasants that his younger brother—Darnay's uncle—is substantially worse.
Idle Rich: They don't need to work due to their wealth.
Hate Sink: Completely vile and sadistic, Darnay's uncle openly takes pride in how his family has a history of oppressing the lower class and expresses disdain at how recent laws have limited their ability to do so. He's also suggested to be the mastermind behind Darnay's false treason charges against the English crown and that he would have had him extradited to be imprisoned in the Bastille if he were still in favor with the French Imperial Court simply to protect the family honor.
Jerkass: Make no mistake, these guys are terrible people—they behave sadistically towards their tenants seemingly for the fun of it.
Old Money: They're part of the landed gentry of France and live in a chateau.
