Charles Dickens ' A Tale Of Two Cities

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

In Charles Dickens’s historical fiction, A Tale of Two Cities, set prior to and during the French Revolution, Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay look almost identical and even share a few characteristics, such as their love for one Lucie Manette and their being orphans, but overall they are opposites of each other. The former is an alcoholic, aimless man, while the latter is more ambitious. Despite these similarities and obvious differences, Sydney Carton’s foil is not Charles Darnay, but rather Madame Defarge, the wife of a wine-shop owner in Saint Antoine, a suburb outside of Paris. Like Carton and Darnay, the two share similarities and differences. While Sydney Carton and Madame Defarge share the ability to go unnoticed while taking charge

Throughout the entire novel, one is introduced to characters and how their past dramatically affects the people they are now. When we first meet Madame Defarge she was busily knitting away, seemingly feminine and harmless. According to Dicks, she “knitted with nimble fingers and steady eyebrows, and saw nothing” (Dickens 42), depicting a submissive wife who did not take interest in political or social issues. As her character develops, however, the reader learns she is deeply involved in the plot due to the injustice served to her family in the past. Madame Defarge’s knitting serves both the Revolutionaries’ goal and her personal vendetta against the aristocrats, more specifically the Evrémonde brothers (Wilson 374). Her seemingly harmless

When the reader learns more about Madame Defarge's past, they have already seen her as a ruthless vengeful monster. Therefore it is hard for the reader to sympathize with her because of all the cold and dreadful things that she has committed. You see this very clearly in the scene where Lucie Manette goes to beg Madame Defarge. “As a wife and mother,” cried Lucie, most earnestly, “I implore you to have pity on me.” (Dickens ). Madame Defarge just looks coldly at Lucie and just continues

A Tale Of Two Cities In, A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens portrays some characters in his novel as villainous characters. Dickens shows that he believe that humans have the ability to change from good to evil. And Dickens also shows that circumstances can drive human beings to their acts of cruelty. Madame Defarge is a prime example of what Charles Dickens tries to show about humans being evil.

Dickens characterizes Madame Defarge as “absolutely without pity” to where it “was nothing to her that an innocent man was to die for the sins of his forefathers”(281). She has no qualms about killing an innocent man, and she cannot see the man for

In Book the First, Dickens only casually mentions knitting when describing Madame Defarge. As he describes her he states, “Her knitting was before her . . .” (24). It is not revealed why until later chapters, but is only stated now that she spends all her time knitting. The reader only realizes later what she is really doing, and how barbaric is it that this is how Madame Defarge spends all of her time, premeditating the murder of thousands. In Book the Second, Dickens reveals Madame Defarge’s pastime. Her husband declares, “Knitted, in her own stitches and her own symbols, it will always be as plain to her as the sun” (132). Monsieur Defarge is referring to the register his wife spends all her time knitting, which is a list of all those who have committed crimes against the peasants of France and their families, and who are to die in the revolution. It is the “hit list” of the revolutionaries. It is a system to make sure everyone who “deserves punishment” receives it. However, it makes no distinction between the innocent and the guilty. This is apparent in Book the Third, when Dickens describes the death of the seamstress. He writes, “She goes next before him—is gone; the knitting women count Twenty-Two” (292). In this scene, the innocent seamstress meets her death at the hands of the guillotine on no other account than suspicion. She is only one of the many innocents who dies for no cause and cannot escape the revolutionaries’ killing machine. During all these unjust executions, the French revolutionary women casually knit on the sideline, planning more deaths. This is the most horrid development of the theme of inhumanity yet. As the peasants move through their organized revolution, they carry out the deaths they had planned, and move to killing

A second character of questionable integrity in the story is Madame Defarge, the wife of Monsieur Defarge, who is an avid participant in the revolution. While Monsieur Defarge believes that the reformation is a noble cause and wants to see a change in the social and political system, Madame Defarge’s reasons for supporting the revolution are more personal. It is revealed later in the book that Madame Defarge was the younger sister of a peasant girl that the Marquis raped. This instilled a hatred of the aristocracy in her from a young age. It seems that Madame Defarge’s main motive is revenge, and eventually this is the cause of her death. When going to murder the Marquis’ nephew’s wife and daughter, she gets into a fight with the girl’s nanny and is accidentally killed.

Although a time of tremendous social upheaval unfolded, the aimless revolution achieved little. Instead of an organized force, the mob lashed out as an anarchic crowd that pinned all their problems on individuals. A perpetrator of this fault, Madame Defarge, attributes much of her anger to her family’s deaths at the hands of a noble. As she describes why she feels so strongly, she cries out “Those dead are my dead, and that summons to answer for those things descends to me!” (354). As a vicious proponent and power holder of the revolution, Madame Defarge obtains the ability to lead her followers to achieve their goal. However, due to to her feelings of mistreatment, she focuses on inflicting as much damage to the Evremonde family, although the exact members who caused her family much aggrievement no longer live. Despite her ability to achieve equality for the Third Estate, she decides to squander her power throught the immense infliction of bloodshed. Likewise, a poor man, Gaspard, takes similar actions on the nobleman who killed his son.AFter MArquis Evremonde’s murder, villagers find him with a note: “Drive him fast to his tomb. This from Jacques” (134). The killing of the nobleman who killed his son relieved the anger Gaspard felt, but led to his execution, administering him useless toward the revolution. Similarly, in the

She is also one of the biggest advocates and allies of the revolutionary cause. Madame Defarge is loyal to the revolutionary cause above all else. She is an old friend of Dr. Manette, due to her her husband’s previous employment under him. Based on these alliances, Madame Defarge is on the protagonist side of the conflict involving the common person vs. the aristocracy. Her loyalty to her allies is unrivaled, but only when it benefits herself. Her self-serving bias is apparent when she knits Darnay’s name into her list, knowing he is the son-in-law of Dr. Manette. While Madame Defarge has her fair share of allies, she shows no mercy to those who represent the enemy of the revolution and will not hesitate to take action. When informed of Darnay’s relation to an aristocrat, she responded, “Her husband’s destiny, will take him where he is to go, and will lead him to the end that is to end him. That is all I know” (Dickens 325). The mystery begins to build up around her character and her quiet work in the background as she was “knitting, knitting, counting dropping heads” (Dickens

Characterization of Madame Defarge Madame Defarge would be considered the antagonist in the book “Tale of Two CIties” by Charles Dickens. She is the true definition of ruthless and hateful, there are many demonstrations to prove this in the book. This story takes place 1780s around time of the french revolution, which helps me to explain why i’m characterizing Madame Defarge as Ruthless and Hateful and it helps me explain why she became the person that she is in the book. To understand the character Madame Defarge you have to first understand her background , then i’ll explain her ideal vision in life period which is a destructive future where all of authority and ones who sympathizes with them fall everyone including children. Madame Defarge’s

After the beheading of the King, Madame Defarge was well known through the city. Even stepping out of the shop she immediately feels the beams of people along the street staring at her. But she was not worried who saw her today, nothing was going to stand in her way.

In Dickens's novel A Tale of Two Cities two pivotal characters are the French revolutionaries Madame and Monsieur DeFarge, presented as leaders in the French Revolution. Though synergetic at first, the minds of these leaders come to be increasingly divided. By the last book, it is evident Madame has evolved into a more ruthless character and Monsieur into a more merciful one. Along with this, Dickens subtly presents the DeFarges as portraits of the two divergent types of revolutionaries, good and bad, with the difference in their motives and actions during the revolution due to their contrasting pasts.

Defarge’s arguably more important counterpart is Madame Defarge. She, like her husband, is a staunch revolutionary. She works together with her husband in the syndicate to bring down the aristocracy. Although unassuming at first, her role as scribe for the

The women in Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities, are important characters that inspire others and serve as essential parts to the plot of the story. Miss Pross serves as a motherly figure and nurturer towards Lucie Manette, Madame Thérèse Defarge condemns the people she resents to death, and Lucie Manette’s love and compassion inspire other characters and bring light into their lives.