Why has Charles Darnay given up his inheritence in Tale of Two Cities? What is his Uncle's reaction to his decision? Who is Charles Darnay's...

Charles Darnay is the nephew of the Marquis de Evremonde, a cruel and unscrupulous member of France's aristocracy.  He was responsible for the imprisonment of Dr. Manette and has been responsible for multiple deaths among the peasant class.  The Marquis, predatory and completely lacking in humanity, exemplifies everything about the ruling class which makes them so hated by the common people.  He lives in luxury while the "surrounding vulgar" starve, and in a hall in his great mansion are a collection of cruel weapons and tools which he and his family have used to keep the peasants in line.  The Marquis knows that the Evremondes are hated by the common people, but believes that "detestation of the high is the involuntary homage of the low".  He lives by the rule that "repression is the only lasting philosophy...the dark deference of fear and slavery...(the way to) keep the dogs obedient to the whip".

Charles Darnay hates the way his family has lived.  He says "we have done wrong, and are reaping the fruits of wrong...we did a world of wrong, injuring every human creature who came between us and our pleasure".  He knows that, as an Evremonde, he is "bound to a system that is frightful to (him), responsible for (the system), but powerless in it", and so he renounces his family and gives up his inheritance.  It is Charles Darnay's objective to live a good and honorable life in England, and to "exectue the last request of (his) dear mother's lips, and obey the last look of (his) dear mother's eyes, which implored (him) to have mercy and to redress", to make reparation for the sins of the family.

The Marquis reacts to Charles Darnay's repudiation of his family and inheritance with bemusement.  He points out that the inheritance is not yet his to renounce, since he, the current heir, is still living.  He then asks Darnay where and how he intends to live, and when Darnay says he will stay in England, notes that he has had the help of his family's money to survive there.  Darnay acknowledges his indebtedness to his family but resolves to continue to seek refuge in England and do what he must do to live like everyone else - he will work.  The Marquis counters by asking his nephew in a cryptic manner if he knows "a compatriot" who has also found refuge in England, "a doctor with a daughter".  The Marquis' manner is sinister, and he is smugly secretive, giving Darnay no more information about why he has brought up the subject of the Manettes, and the two retire to their beds (Book the Second, Chapter 9).