Revenge, By Charles Dickens

In many novels, the society created by the author is surrounded by wealth and corruption. Numerous amount of times these settings are produced based on the life in which the author lives. Charles Dickens is no different. In the midst of most of his novels, Dickens exposes the deception of Victorian England and the strict society that holds everything together. In Dickens' novel Our Mutual Friend, a satire is created where the basis of the novel is the mockery against money and morals. Throughout this novel, multiple symbols and depictions of the characters display the corruption of the mind that surrounds social classes in Victorian England.

Revenge is the action of inflicting hurt or harm on someone for an injury or wrong suffered at their hands. The theme of revenge is used to drive the plot of the story and motivates such characters as Beowulf, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon. But in all, it was Beowulf’s adventure to become an epic hero. In fact, where there is revenge there is vengeance.

Revenge is an urge that one might seek to feed after their sister cleans the toilet with their toothbrush. As the saying goes, “Revenge is a dish best served cold”. In the novel, A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens prolongs the theme of revenge, as it develops throughout the entirety of the novel. As tensions arose between the aristocrats and peasants, the French Revolution was born. Sixty years later, Charles Dickens addresses the war through through the stark revenge among the people, which is demonstrated by many characters. As the novel progresses, the reader is exposed to the strong desire of revenge from Madame Defarge, who is the embodiment of the pure

The word revenge is heard all over the news today. The news shows how people are trying to get revenge such as terrorist groups or individuals harming each other. However, even though the use of the word is frequent, not everyone has a clear understanding of what revenge clearly means. Revenge is defined as someone taking action to harm someone who has done something wrong to that certain person. Bryce Nelson the author of Revenge: Sweet, Universal and Self-Destructive: [Home Edition] stated: “As the victim contemplates revenge, he hopes desperately to overcome his feelings of impotence and to regain his former sense of self-worth” (Nelson 1). This article demonstrated how revenge was human nature by showing an example of someone getting revenge. The examples are demonstrated in definitions, characteristics, stories, and real-life events.

“The soul of the furious woman whose body lay lifeless on the ground” (Dickens 287). Revenge can be either positive or negative, depending on what an individual believes. In this case, Dickens creates a character whose unforgiving past and relentless actions destroy them in their nature of Revenge. A Tale of Two Cities, written by Charles Dickens, is a warning for his contemporaries on the situations seen in the French Revolution, from the nobility’s mistakes to the revolutionaries’ mistakes, created to hopefully prevent a future war in England and France. Madame Defarge symbolizes the inevitable revolution through her troubled childhood built on hatred of the nobility, her insatiable lust for Revenge on the Evrémonde family, and her desire

Revenge is the act of doing something to hurt someone because that person did something that hurt them. People have been getting revenge on others for thousands of years. People usually get revenge to regain power because when someone wrongs them they feel like power has been taken from them. Sometimes people like to go outside of the law to get revenge. This is because they feel like the law is not enough to give the person who wronged them the right amount of punishment for what they have done. “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath, “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston, and “Cask of the Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe all show the things they or their characters would do to get revenge on the person that wronged them and the different ways they did it.

Quintessentially speaking, revenge is a thing that many have sought in response to a tragic event unfolding. Typically, as a result, vengeance is contemplated upon by the victim as a means of retribution, a way of making things right and seeking justice on the behest of the victim, if the law will not grant justice through due process due to corrupt forces stemmed deep within it- corrupt seeds of a corrupt plant. Therefore, revenge become an apparent option for those willing to walk that path [of no return]. However, instances of revenge not being attained in the “clear cut” way it is ordinarily acquired have occurred from time to time throughout history. One of the most prominent examples of unconventional revenge attainment can be found within the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, entailing the revenge path walked by its eponymously named main character, Prince Hamlet. Specifically, his intentful delay in attaining his revenge against his uncle Claudius for his direct role in the death of his father, King Hamlet. This literary conundrum has dumbfounded literary critics for over 400 years and counting- due to the fact that a universally accepted consensus amongst them as well as the general public as to why Hamlet delayed his revenge has not yet been reached.

This wasted potential is emphasized when both Darnay and Carton fall in love with Lucie Manette. Darnay, as the typical charming hero, is chosen over desperate, brooding Carton. As a result, Carton finds himself channeling his love and his physical advantage of being Darnay’s double into keeping Lucie safe and happy by way of rescuing Darnay from the guillotine. Thus, Carton is able to become the proverbial “good guy,” a role he saw for himself in his counterpart, Darnay. He also managed to thwart the Defarges’ plot to murder all those connected to the aristocracy in any way. In this way, Dickens is able to use the comparisons and contrasts between the two men to show how love is capable of victory over violence and vengeance.

Humanity is a spectrum. There is no one person who is unequivocally bad or good. Every individual is ambiguous, and merely has the strength of their character and the choices they make. In some cases, these choices are influences by external factors that push fundamentally good individuals to commit deplorable acts. One of the most interesting of these factors is the concept of revenge, and the lengths to which humans will go in its pursuit. Throughout A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens is deliberate in his portrayal of the deleterious effect that a desire for revenge can have on even the most unimpeachable of characters, especially in the lives of Dr. Manette, Madam Defarge, and Gaspard.

Madame Defarge is first introduced as a stern woman with a rather ominous habit of knitting, with no indication of her bloodthirsty habits. However, it is later noted that Madame Defarge is actually knitting the names of the victims of the Revolution, and we find out that she wants to eliminate the aristocracy because the Marquis and his brother raped her sister and stabbed and killed her brother-in-law. She eloquently describes her destroyed childhood to the Vengeance and her husband at the tavern.“Defarge, that sister of the mortally wounded boy upon the ground was my sister, that husband was my sister’s husband, that unborn child was their child, that father was my father, those dead are my dead, and that summons to answer for those things descends to me (346)”.

Revenge resembles taking action and justice for what is right. Shakespeare is familiar with this concept that is presented in his play, Hamlet. The characters Hamlet, Fortinbras, and Laertes show the willingness to seek revenge on others through the five assumptions of revenge play.

Charles Dickens focuses on the revenge that put the bloody French Revolution in motion in his suspenseful story A Tale of Two Cities. The French Revolution was a revolt instigated by the peasants, who attacked the nobles with vengeful hearts starting in the year 1789, and going on until the year 1799. The settings of the book took place in both London and England, two parallels in novel, two cities where the plotting of the Revolution went into affect. Although the reasons behind the different examples of revenge are exposed, the actions taken with revenge in mind are inexcusable and not justifiable. Dickens portrays the theme of revenge successfully through the joker Gaspard, the brave younger brother who sacrificed himself to protect his

In A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, revenge plays a crucial role in the motivations of some of the characters, such as Madame Defarge and Gaspard. In fact, Madame Defarge’s entire motivation for her participation in the French Revolution is out of want for revenge for her family (Dickens 445), not true justice. This is known because had justice been her true goal, Madame Defarge would not have attempted to kill everyone in the Evremonde family by marriage or blood, just Darnay - a direct descendant to Monseigneur the Marquis. Had Madame Defarge’s family not been killed by the Evremondes, she would not have been vengeful and would not be calling for the death of all of the aristocrats; Madame Defarge would be satisfied with the death

While the Victorian people called for romantic intrigue and petty drama in the literature of their time, Dickens’ added complexity to his novels not to satisfy the frivolous needs of Victorians but to further the theme of irony in his novel. In A Tale of Two Cities, irony is an ever-present theme and is woven into the plot seamlessly by author Charles Dickens. Coincidence is a complementary theme to irony in this novel. Dickens’ constant implementation of situations of coincidence and chance leads to a greater sense of irony throughout this book. Dickens adds complexity to the plot and further enforces the theme of irony in the novel through circumstances of coincidence, including the indictments of Charles Darnay, the life and associates of Dr. Manette, and Madame Defarge’s need for and path to revenge.

Madame Defarge appears to be a minor character in the beginning, but turns spiteful and deceiving in the end. Always knitting, Madame Defarge seemed to be a watchful woman: “Madame Defarge, his wife, sat in the shop behind the counter as he came in. Madame Defarge was a stout woman of about his own age, with a watchful eye that seldom seemed to look at anything, a large hand heavily ringed, a steady face, strong features, and great composure of manner” (Dickens 21). Of this description, one would not assume anything of the character. In the end, it is realized that the two that were killed by Charles’ uncle and father were her siblings, leaving her the remaining sibling to carry the rage and hurt left by the wrong-doings of Marquis Evremonde and his brother. She is a strong advocate for the French Revolution, as she has been knitting the names of those whom the rebels, under the name “Jacques”, planned to kill. Once it became apparent Charles was the descendant left to take the repercussions for his family, Madame Defarge plans to attack Lucie and her child due to the fact that they were associated with Charles and his family. Her plan of murder ultimately fails, and in turn, she ends up dying herself at the hand of her own bullet.