Wanting revenge, defined as a harmful action against a person or people in response to a grievance, is a natural feeling when suffering from the wrongdoing of someone else. However, acting on that want for revenge can end up putting the revenge-seeking party in the wrong as well. Examples of this are prominent in literature, such as in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. This novel tells the story of London and Paris during the French Revolution. Madame Defarge, a revolutionary in the French Revolution, is a prime example of a character seeking revenge who ends up taking things too far. While she has good reason for seeking revenge on the Evrémonde family, and her want to overthrow aristocracy is understandable, Madame Defarge takes her revenge too far. With her ruthless killing of innocent people, and her burning desire for bloodshed, Defarge is a clear example of the darker side of revenge.
Madame Defarge endured a painful childhood, filled with death and despair. She lived through nobles oppressing her family, and members of her family being hurt and killed because of the Marquis St. Evrémonde, an aristocrat. A letter written by Dr. Manette during his time in jail tells the story of what happened to Madame Defarge’s family. Because of his status as a doctor, he’s brought in by the Evrémonde’s to see patients, who end up being the brother and sister of Madame Defarge. “The patient was a woman of great beauty, and young; assuredly not much past twenty. Her hair was torn and ragged, and her arms were bound to her sides with sashes and handkerchiefs. I noticed that these bonds were all portions of a gentleman’s dress. On one of them, which was a fringed scarf for a dress of ceremony, I saw the armorial bearings of a Noble, a...
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...her arms and clapped as at a play” (226). The revolutionaries have killed Foulon, a man who once told them to eat grass. Not only do they kill him, but stuff grass in the mouth of his corpse. This brings Madame Defarge joy, as seen by her laughter and clapping. For her, it no longer seems to be about the revolution, but rather about her own revenge as she takes her ill intentions farther through more drastic measures.
Controlled by her traumatic past, Madame Defarge’s actions are a prime example of the darker side of revenge. Wanting to get revenge for the tragic deaths of her family members, Madame Defarge ultimately goes too far, mercilessly killing people while seemingly void of any remorse. In the end, two wrongs don’t make a wrong; While the Evrémonde brothers are wrong for what they did, Madame Defarge is just as wrong for what she did to try to get revenge.
“The fingers of the knitting women were vicious, with the experience that they could tear” (Dickens 391). Considering she keeps to herself and plots against many people, she has few friends, and customers are conflicted towards her. Although she has few people in favor of her actions, Defarge still has alliances. Madame Defarge is in alliance with a character named “The Vengeance” and they both kill for their own sake. They both tie together in the way of their actions. Although Madame Defarge and The Vengeance kill for themselves, Defarge’s killings are justified by the way her family was
Revenge is the opportunity to retaliate or gain satisfaction for a real or perceived slight ("revenge"). In “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, Montresor, the narrator, is out for revenge. Montressor seeks revenge against Fortunato and thinks he has developed the perfect plan for “revenge with impunity” (Baym). Montresor never tells the reader why he feels Fortunato deserves punishment. He only says that Fortunato causes him “a thousand injuries”until “[venturing] upon insult” (Baym?).
A very violent scene given to the reader by Dickens is when he describes the crazed revolutionists sharpening their tools on the grindstone, “The grindstone had a double handle, and, turning at it madly were two men…and their hideous countenances were all bloody and sweaty,” (Dickens 272). Dickens paints in the readers mind that the revolutionists are savages and crazed for blood, they won’t stop killing until the job is done. It is known to the readers that Madam Defarge is the most blood crazed of them all. She and her husband are conversing when Defarge is wondering when it will all stop (the reader can tell that he is starting to feel remorse for what he has started), but Madam Defarge replies with “At extermination,” (Dickens 353). Such a small quote, but it means so much to the novel, it shows that Madam Defarge will not stop what she is doing until all aristocrats have been put to death because of what had happened to her as a young child. This is the point in Dickens’ novel when the reader can tell that Dickens’ point of view on the Revolutionary has changed, it is now evident that he believes that the Revolutionists are taking what they are doing too far. It’s important to the novel as a whole because it helps to picture the unjust of how far the revolutionists go to “get back” at the
Madame Defarge, on the other hand, does not just hate Lucie, but she hates the Manettes and all the Evremondes. One would think that such a strongly fueled hatred would permit Madame Defarge to overpower Miss Pross, but, as the reader finds out, Miss Pross' determination to keep her darling "Ladybird" safe, from any harm that might come to her or her family, allows her to overpower and kill her enemy. This time, the power of good overcomes the power of evil due to Miss Pross' true love and dedication to Lucie. Another struggle between love and hate can be found within Monsieur Defarge. In this particular case, it is evil that eventually triumphs.
Revenge is best served cold or so says the well-known expression. This idea of revenge that they seek is usually to restore a balance and take an “eye for an eye” as the bible says. Revenge, if by chance everyone were in Plato’s perfect utopia, would be in a perfect form, where justice and revenge would be one, and the coined phrase an “eye for an eye” would be taken literally. By taking an eye for and eye, and punishing those who did wrong equally as they did wrong, there is justice. However, this revenge sometimes goes to far and is consequently not justice. This notion of Revenge and justice is often in literature, one of the better-known being the novel The Count of Monte Cristo, written by Alexandre Dumas. However, literature is not the only time that revenge and justice is discussed in. Works and Rules and real-life events that took place like the Bible, Hammurabi’s code, Twelve Tables, and others each have something different about the topic. More religious texts seem to forbid violence, while laws, such as the Hammurabi’s code, recommend revenge, but equal revenge. By judging from literature, it can be concluded that most authors have different opinions on the matter at hand, and revenge is sometimes justice, but usually not, and tends to lead to violence that was not intended.
...to revenge. She turned into this cold killer to kill the entire Evermonde family for what they had done to her family. She uses her power in the revolution to take revenge on the Evermonde family. Madame Defarge loses her true self and becomes someone who disregards the lives of people include hers. Dickens’s theme of how history repeats itself appears again when Madame Defarge kills innocent people similar to what the Marquis of Evermonde did.
In response to “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe, revenge can get the best of everyone. Like most individuals, I too have found myself once glaring from the sidelines annoyed. It takes a lot to make a calm person like myself resentful, but similar to Montresor, it is possible to become so aggravated that a revengeful plot begins to form.
Almost all of the characters in the film are a depiction of aristocracy and their struggle to maintain their status and glory and to live their lives as expected by the society they live in. Infidelity is also evident in the film wherein Jourdain and Elmire are included. Disloyalty also comes in on the part of Moliere as a servant to Jourdain, when he had an affair with Elmire and on the part of Dorante as a friend of Jourdain, when he fooled Jourdain. Hidden agendas and plans are also apparent on the part of Jourdain’s older daughter: her secret love with her piano teacher and on Dorante’s part of performing his hidden evil plan to Jourdain.
I was gratified to see that this critic agreed with my interpretation of the Duchess’s demise, viz., the Duke had her murdered. The theory advanced by my brilliant and magnificent Professor had been that the Duke gave her so many orders and restrictions that she pined away. I had been looking at his famous line “And I choose/never to stoop.” He married her for her beauty but would never lower himself to tell her when she angered him.
Mathilde is a furious and turbulent woman consumed with jealousy who would sacrifice anything and do all in her power to cure her “misfortune” and reverse “destiny’s error” that has her living a unacceptable and incompetent life. Due to her materialistic and flirtatious personality, Madame Loisel is an unsympathetic character, she covets wealth and affection from prosperous playboys and neglecting all devotion Monsie...
It is the idea of revenge that sends a cool shiver down the spines of justly men when they begin to question as to why someone would stoop to such a level. But yet it is still more than an idea for revenge has been carried out in various forms along all the eras of history side-by-side of that of novels and tragedies. Even so, revenge is still a dark scheme; an evil plague of the mind per se. It is such a plague that will turn even the greatest persons of the brightest, optimistically capable of minds into lowly, as well as lonely, individuals. Thus, revenge will, and can, only end in despair and agony of the mind. Therefore, provided that all that has been said is true, revenge would appear quite unseemly to the observant onlooker. However, taking an in-depth insight into revenge you can uncover quite a compelling feature, which is best summed up into one word. Pride. Pride is the one clear motivational proprietor needed to push a protagonist into the downward spiral of personal vendetta. Without pride, revenge is no more than a mindless massacre of flesh and bone ending in the obliteration of any hope for reconciliation.
”Revenge tragedy has long been recognized, on the one hand, for the speed with which it becomes virtually synonymous with stage misogyny and, on the other, for its generic and sometimes profound investment in recognizably Renaissance process of mourning- revenge, after all, is the private response to socially unaccommodated grief- but typically mourning and misogyny have been considered in isolation from one another, in separate studies and only insofar as the duplicate Renaissance habits of thought articulated elsewhere in medical or philosophical discourse.”(Mullaney)
Details about the modest apartment of the Loisels on the Street of Martyrs indicate Mathilde’s peevish lack of adjustment to life. Though everything is serviceable, she is unhappy with the “drab” walls, “threadbare” furniture, and “ugly” curtains (5). She has domestic help, but she wants more servants than the simple country girl who does the household chores in the apartment. Her embarrassment and dissatisfaction are shown by details of her irregularly cleaned tablecloth and the plain and inelegant beef stew that her husband adores. Even her best theater dress, which is appropriate for apartment life but which is inappropriate for more wealthy surroundings, makes her unhappy. All these details of the apartment establish that Mathilde’s major trait at the story’s beginning is maladjustment. She therefore seems unpleasant and unsympathetic.
The protagonists, The Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, consider it their life’s ambition to sadistically control and dominate those around them through sexual intrigue. These two villains are indeed locked in psychological combat to see who can actually ‘out-do’ the other in stalking, capturing and destroying the souls of others. Taking absolute pleasure in ripping any virtue from the hearts of their prey, Merteuil and Valmont wave their accomplishments in front of each other like spoils of war. The less the chance of surrender, the more relentless is the pursuit.
In his “A Tale Two Cities”, Charles Dickens uses the characters of Lucie Manette and Madame Defarge as two strong women that contrast against the rather manly group of characters. These women are both driven to do what they believe is right. Although Lucie and Madame are strong willed and independent, they both use these strengths differently. Lucie is a woman who is driven by love and affection. Whereas Madame Defarge is driven by hate and rebellion. Both these women, although similar, have such significant differences.