"A Tale of Two Cities": The Victorian Era and the Abandonment of Spirituality

Dickens says, “The shadow attendant on Madame Defarge and her party seemed then to fall, threatening and dark, on both the mother and the child.” (Dickens 277). This quote brings to life the darkness of Madame Defarge and how she affects the feeling of the rooms she enters. Although Dickens presents Madame Defarge in a terribly dark way, readers can understand why she acts the way she does because they know her background. Through the extreme differences between Lucie and Madame Defarge’s upbringings it is no shocker that they are extremely different. By seeing the large contrast in these characters readers are able to understand better why Madame Defarge is so cruel. Dickens uses foils not only to gain sympathy for the revolutionaries, but also for the upper class, including Charles Darnay. Charles Darnay is a noble man and he comes from a family of wealth, and has money himself; however, he uses his money and power completely different from his uncle Marquis Evremonde. Although these men are related they are complete opposites. Darnay shows compassion towards lower class members and even risks his own life to help a servant, Gabelle. Unlike Darnay, Marquis Evremonde treats those lower than him terribly. Dickens uses the foil of these two characters to show

Dickens uses the needs and wants for people to get an image in their head about what life was really like before the French revolution. "Cold, dirt,

Justice is one of the main theme from this book, as each character tries to get justice. In this book we see the distress and agony that Madame Defarge suffers with. Mainly because of her sister’s deaths and family suffering, due to the Evremonde brother’s, Charles Darnay’s father and uncle. Ever since that happened she’s wanted justice for her and her family. The justice that Madame Defarge wanted later turn into retribution, which lead her to a path of darkness, making her wanting the death of Charles Darnay and his family. At the same time, she was fighting for justice for France, which made her want more lives to be dead for the good of her people. those dead are my dead, and that summons to answer for those things descends to me!’… “Then tell Wind and Fire where to stop,” … “but don’t tell me.” (Dickens 339) Many readers might portray her as the “villain” of this book, but she really is not. All she wanted is justice for what was done

Madame Defarge is portrayed as the condemner of death; she lurks the corners, as she continues to knit an endless kill list of all who have exasperated her. Dickens reveals Madame Defarge’s true intentions when Monsieur Defarge mentions, “To be registered, as doomed to destruction,”(p.7). Furthermore, Monsieur Defarge declared that Madame Defarge will never forget who is on the kill list. Madame Defarge holds an undeniable grudge against Charles’ father, thus meaning that Charles poses a threat to the Defarges, due to the fact that he is guilty by association. In Madame Defarge's eyes, murder is a virtuous necessity, in order to clear out the hazardous individuals who have in any way “wronged” her.

Dickens’ Madame Defarge develops a vast amount of hatred towards the Evremonde Family after the atrocities committed by them on

Dickens wrote in this way to to cause people to see the faults in their priorities, that they placed work higher than family. In A Tale of Two Cities, the abuse of power is more prevalent than that of money. Two characters in particular use their “rights” to oppress, Marquis St. Evrémonde as a member of the French nobility, and Madame Defarge as a leader of the revolution. The Marquis has a personal adage that, "Repression is the only lasting philosophy.

This book may be analyzed as a story of two totally different cities, London and Paris, as Charles Dickens writes in this book, “Every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.” where he describes how isolated

Social class systems in the nineteenth century were comprised of the upper class, the middle class, the working class, and the underclass. The different social classes can be “distinguished by inequalities in such areas as power, authority, wealth, working and living conditions, life-styles, life-span, education, religion, and culture” (Cody). The poor, also known as peasants, were usually mistreated and segregated from the wealthy, or those of higher class. During his time, Charles Dickens “seen as a champion of “the poor” by some of the poor themselves” (“What was”). It is said that one of his greatest achievements “was to bring the problem of poverty to the attention of his readers through introducing varieties of poor persons into almost all of his novels, and showing the “deserving” majority of the poor, bravely struggling against the forces arrayed against them” (“What was”). This is clearly evident in A Tale of Two Cities. During the nineteenth century Victorian era, social class systems were a common excuse for the division and mistreatment of many individuals, as evidenced in Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities.

As Madame Defarge knits away at the names of her victims, she is efficaciously denouncing them to their deadly fate. Lucie Darnay; however, weaves her "golden thread" through people's lives, bringing them closer together into a better destiny. Throughout the novel, Dickens emphasizes that their human destinies are either predetermined by fate or they are a part of something much larger. In this, Madame Defarge and Lucie are complete opposites to each other. While Lucie creates and encourages life and happiness, Madame Defarge destroys it in her knitted

Western literature is historically and inherently rooted in a masculine bias largely as a part of the past millennium of patriarchal order. Amongst the abundance of works of which can be attributed to reflect this bias, Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities is most suiting. Written in the Victorian Age, Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities seems historical, as to the plot revolves around the French Revolution, with its bloody guillotine blade, the poor, starving bourgeoisie, and the indifferent aristocrats of whom inevitably fall. Yet, from a critical perspective, Dickens’ seems to be critiquing society. Throughout the work, he encompasses the idea that as long as violence and inequality exist, human suffering will notoriously subsidize as a contemporary

This novel shows Dickens’ belief in the possibility of resurrection and transformation, and it is shown to the readers on both a personal and societal level. The very beginning of the

In Charles Dickens’, A Tale of Two Cites, the theme is prominent that sacrifice culminates in life and vengeance in death. Entwining the letter of Dr. Manette’s dark and frayed past, Madame Defarge skillfully and ardently weaved with revenge the malicious pattern for the denouncement and death of Charles Darnay, in recompense for his uncle’s transgressions against her sister. Ending, this design of hate led to the near ruination of Darnay and Carton’s demise.

Dickens argues that a person should be defined by their own self, character, personality, actions, and other traits which are specifically not their clothing, which is their wealth, which is their social class. He includes several descriptions of the higher social classes, both as opposites to and comparisons with the dress of the poor, but also as examples of how such arbitrary, socially constructed class can hurt even the wealthy – that this is a universal issue that must be resolved, not just a ‘poor person’ problem.

This is a very important passage because it establishes the theme of duality from the get-go. It was the most luxurious time for the upper class, and the worst of times for everyone else. It was the age of wise philosophy and learning, it was also the age of\ foolish policies and unnecessary suffering. This theme is further expressed in the first chapter when Dickens talks about the religious and justice systems in each country. England is fascinated by supernatural ghosts and other religious phenomenon. In France people pay attention to religion out of fear rather than actual interest. The author also compares France's harsh justice system to England's lax one. Criminals overrun England; And when the courts do serve justice they do so indiscriminately,

This book is historically significant because it used the perspective of the French Revolution to reflect on social inequality in Britain. As Dickens put it at the beginning of his novel “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” While the clergy and nobles in France were getting richer and didn’t have to pay taxes, the poor were starving from