"Among all my books, `A Tale of Two Cities' becomes the gall and bitterness of my life. I vow to God they make me wretched and taint the freshness of every new year..."
These words, spoken by Dickens illumine us on the stark hatred, the unflinching desire for revenge that makes Dickens so "wretched." His "the sun was going down and flaring out like an angry fire at the child-- and the child, and I, and the pale horse stared at one another in silence for some five minutes as if we were so many figures in some dismal allegory", reflects so vividly the spirit of hatred personified by Madame Defarge. She shows no compunction, neither would have allowed any weakness to deflect her from her purpose.
Revenge reigns utmost in `A Tale of Two Cities', but the basic element beneath the theme of revenge is `Rape'--the violation that initiates the novel's entire cycle of violence and guilt. Dr. Manette's imprisonment in the Bastille for eighteen years and Madame Defarge's hatred and her thirst for revenge combine together and form this one word, for it all started with the rape of one girl.
Dickens calls this primal rape scene `The Substance of the Shadow'. This incident was the beginning of the hatred within Madame Defarge for the Evremonde brothers, as it was her sister who went through this physical violation. Brutally ravaged by the twin brothers, she falls victim to death.
"They have had their shameful rights, these nobles in the modesty and virtues of our sisters, ...We were so robbed by that man who stands there, as all we common dogs are by those superior beings--obliged to work for him without pay, and forbidden for our lives to keep a single tame bird of our own."
Thus, physical v...
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... But the concentration of evil is never on Charles Darnay; it is all on the wild frenzy of people who have committed everything to violence. Dickens hated and feared such violence; there is not a sign of approval or defense of it; he attributes every kind of monstrous wickedness to its leaders; but he projects in to his treatment of it his own feelings of desperate impotence in the face of the problem of political power. The first set of oppressors might have become so due to lack of sympathy or humanity, but the second set is born out of a need revenge. The bases of all their actions, thus, is blind fury and a need to avenge all wrongs done to them. The evil Madame Defarge, The one-tracked Vengeance, Gaspard, and in fact, the entire revolution, is a product of this need. Thus, revenge comes out to be one of the strongest themes in Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities."
In the first book of the novel, the goal of Madame Defarge includes exterminating the noble race. She is constantly knitting in the wine shop she owns. The knitting shows a passive way to express her hatred towards others. “Her knitting was before her, but she had laid it down to pick her teeth with a toothpick” (Dickens 55). The quote shows how even in her first showing in the book, she is knitting. Her knitting and constant plotting brings frequent fear to her husband, Ernest Defarge, and all other wine shop patrons. Considering even her own husband is afraid for his life, Defarge keeps death in secrecy and shows extremely negative qualities. Defarge knits a register for the intended killing of the revolution in secrecy to show her hatred towards certain people. She has negative characteristics in regard to the loss of her family and her plot to kill all of her enemies. Madame Defarge lasts as the leader attributed to all women fighting in the revolution and
To support a major theme of this novel, scarecrows and birds of fine song and feather, wine and knitting, all represent the theme of man’s inhumanity toward his fellow man. The Revolution was a tragically devastating time full of senseless and meaningless violence, deception of neighbors as well as treason towards the government, and blissful ignorance of the surroundings. Many scenes and dialogue from this novel point out what contributed to make the revolution a period of intense political destruction. In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens includes many themes pertaining to the French Revolution and the moralities and immoralities that goes with violence, betrayal, and ignorance, by using many different types of symbolism.
The opposition would state that Madame Defarge was just a basic evil figure because she always was thinking of getting revenge. However, they failed to recognise that not only did Madame Defarge constantly knit, a key trait of the Fates, but she also handed out justice to those who deserved it. Although Madame Defarge is a scary old woman, pointing her knitting needles at little Lucie, she is not just evil. Dickens words about the “finger of Fate” clearly illustrate that there is more to many people than meets the eye (still not little Lucie’s). In this case, it was to understand clearly that even though Madame Defarge seemed evil, she was meant to represent the Fates, and to hand out justice to a world that needed it so
A Tale of Two Cities Essay Throughout history, the powers of love and hate have constantly been engaged in a battle for superiority. Time and time again, love has proven to be stronger than hate, and has been able to overcome all of the obstacles that have stood in the way of it reaching its goal. On certain occasions, though, hate has been a viable foe and defeated love when they clash. In the novel A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens presents several different power struggles between love and hate.
...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.
On the subject of the French she says, “I am a subject of His Most Gracious Majesty King George the Third and as such, my maxim is, Confound their politics, Frustrate their knavish tricks…God save the King.” (338) Since she is such, she is the perfect foil for Madame Defarge. Madame Defarge epitomizes chaos and violence. With her unrelenting bloodthirstiness and unceasing desire for revenge she symbolizes the intensity and bloodiness of the French Revolution. “The Evrémonde people are to be exterminated, and the wife and child must follow the husband and father.” (418) Madame’s chilling certainty and willingness to kill an innocent mother and child show the hatred that makes up the revolution she personifies and the peasants that were a part of it. Although Madame Defarge and Miss Pross are foils they share a common ground. They both have an uncompromising sense of duty; Miss Pross to Lucie’s safety and happiness, and Madame to a new and better France. They are both willing to do anything for these causes, including lying down their lives. As Miss Pross says, “I don’t care an English Twopence for myself. I know that the longer I keep you here, the greater hope there is for my Ladybird.” (427) Dickens uses these similarities he suggests that even seemingly opposites can have underlying
Charles Dickens writes this book explaining the French Revolution, in which the social and economic systems in France had huge changes and the French monarchy collapsed. This causes high taxes, unfair laws, and the poor being mistreated. Charles Dickens shows that cruelty of other people will lead to a revolution and in addition to the revolution more cruelty will occur. He explores the idea of justice and violence through the use of ambiguous characters with positive and negative qualities, meaning that they have to different sides to them; for example, Charles Darnay, Sydney Carton, and Dr. Manette. Throughout the story of A Tale of Two Cities, Charles dickens uses ambiguous characters to shows how violence and cruelty can be stopped through the power of true sacrifice.
Charles Dickens’s mastery of syntax and style is perhaps the most unique style of any writer to walk this Earth. His diction unrivaled; his mood unmatched. One could determine these truths simply by reading his passage in A Tale Of Two Cities about the carmagnole. In this passage, Dickens demonstrates how he believes like throngs of people, revolutions often become violent and represent the cause they originally aspired to thwart. However, he never outright says any of this, it’s all in his figurative language and syntax that creates mood.
The blue flies, Madame Defarge’s knitting, and the sea are just three of Dickens’ many symbols that develop the theme of man’s inhumanity to his fellow man in A Tale of Two Cities. Although Revolutions are not particularly humane in themselves, the individual characters and the majority of the peasantry in this book took inhumane to its extreme. Because the revolutionaries follow their ruthless leader, Madame Defarge, they do not question the humanity or morality of the massacre of the aristocracy. In a Revolution meant to free peasants, peasants should be last on the list of those being murdered, and this injustice should be realized. In the French Revolution as well as A Tale of Two Cities, the oppressed become the oppressors and the main cause behind the revolution is lost.
During a time of conflicting warfare, a person’s social position and temperament play a significant role in the ideals of society. A Tale of Two Cities manifests society’s response to the French Revolution. Times like this result in two options, either to keep moving on with life, or give in to the vengeance. Charles Dickens portrays both sides of humanity through his characterization. Madame Defarge is the most prominent character that represents the inability to resist violence during the Revolution. In Madame Defarge’s quest for revenge, her continuous knitting and dominance prompt her character development, establishing her character as the antagonist.
...remonde bloodline, most of which is innocent, must be exterminated to compensate for the deaths of her two siblings. The distinctions between the two women are especially evident when they engage in battle over the Evremonde family because they are speaking in different languages. Neither can understand the other linguistically, nor on a moral level. The message Dickens is attempting to convey through these characters is that of the many applications of passion, such zeal is best employed “with the vigorous tenacity of love [because it is] always so much stronger than hate” (365). In a decision between using one’s energy for love or hate, it is more productive and personally satisfying to choose the path of love because it is able to overcome that of hate.
Dickens notes that in the midst of a revolution, heavy bloodshed must be made in order to achieve the vengeance that the peasants desire. Though the peasants were originally people of good faith, they were forced by the aristocratic government to take drastic actions. Poverty, the mother of all crimes, along with the aristocrats “crushing humanity out of shape once more” gave the peasants no choice.” Dickens conveys here that because of the negligence of the government, the people were forced to sacrifice their good nature and engage in the violent acts that caused a time of great animosity and dejection. Sacrifices are often made to strengthen bonds, and no other bond in the novel is stronger than the one that Lucie Mannette shares with her father, Dr. Manette.
Throughout the novel, Dickens employs imagery to make the readers pity the peasants, have compassion for the innocent nobles being punished, and even better understand the antagonist and her motives. His use of personified hunger and description of the poor’s straits made the reader pity them for the situation caused by the overlord nobles. However, Dickens then uses the same literary device to alight sympathy for the nobles, albeit the innocent ones! Then, he uses imagery to make the reader better understand and perhaps even feel empathy for Madame Defarge, the book’s murderous villainess. Through skillful but swaying use of imagery, Dickens truly affects the readers’ sympathies.
The French Revolution was a period of time when the entirety of France went against the monarchy. King Louis XVI was taken down by the people at this time. The change brought along a replacement for the monarchial society (French Revolution 2). The now formed republic run by the people is now forever an example of what can happen to those whom live in places run by kings and queens, and that those who wish to escape tyranny can always make a change. The tyranny that was present brought along the eventual execution of the two royalties (2). This is evident in Dickens’s novel, in which the story centers around the revolution. Madame Defarge exists as on...
Charles Dickens is a talented author who wrote many notable novels, including A Tale of Two Cities. Barbara Hardy notes that at a young age Dickens’ father was imprisoned for debt, leaving young Charles to support himself and his family alone (47). Dickens strongly disliked prisons, which shows as a motif in A Tale of Two Cities. Many of his interests contributed to the formulation of the novel. In the essay “Introduction” from the book, Charles Dickens, Harold Bloom claims Dickens hoped “to add something to the popular and picturesque means of understanding [the] terrible time” of the Revolution (20). Dickens’ reading and “extraordinary reliance upon Carlyle’s bizarre but effective French Revolution” may have motivated him to write the novel (Bloom 21). Sir James Fitzjames Stephen believed that Dickens was “on the look-out for a subject, determined off-hand to write a novel about [French Revolution]” (Bloom 20). In Brown’s book Dickens in his Time, Dickens guided the writing of the play Frozen Deep where two rivals share the same love, and one ultimately sacrifices himself for...