The Inhumanity In A Tale Of Two Cities

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

reaction of wanting revenge. You can argue that madame defarge’s big part in the french

Mr. Ernest Defarge was a man who loved his wife, Madame Defarge, but also loved and had much respect for the Manette family and would sacrifice almost anything for them. Mr. Defarge said to Madame Defarge, “Extermination is a good doctrine, my wife, in general, I say nothing against it. But this doctor has suffered much…” (263). In this passage, Mr. Defarge was sacrificing his marriage by arguing that Dr. Manette has suffered much pain and does not deserve to be exterminated. This shows Mr. Defarge is trying to reason with Madame Defarge and he cares enough for Doctor to not hurt him any worse. Dr. Manette has had many struggles in his life which include him being imprisoned for 18 years, losing his wife, losing his job as a doctor, and having to be kept in secret most of his lifetime. Madame Defarge wants to exterminate their entire family, not only Darnay, because

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 literature that came out of the French Revolution often shares common themes of death, rebirth, and destruction. Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is much the same way. Throughout the novel, Dickens clearly supports the revolution but also depicts the brutality of the revolutionaries. Dickens uses powerful metaphors of a sea to symbolize the revolutionaries destroying old France and the belittling name of “Jacques” to depict the narcissistic views of the French aristocracy to show his support for the revolution.

The character Madame Defarge plays a role as one of the leading villains in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, whose actions turn out to be one of the major causes of the French Revolution in the book. The main influence of Madame Defarge's hatred is fueled by a self-centered issue that was germinated by another family who happens to be aristocratic. In Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, Madame Defarge is justified in her hatred against the St. Evremonde family because her sister was raped and her brother was killed by the two patriarchs.

Through the use of strong imagery of the descriptions of the seven prisoners and guards, Dickens emphasizes the shift in power among the French aristocracy and the commoners. As Madame Defarge leads the mob to seize the guards in Bastille and free the prisoners, the ironic contrast formed within the actions truly depict the power altering between the two distinctive social classes. The seven dead guards were portrayed as, “seven gory heads on pikes” and “impassive faces, yet with a suspended—not an abolished—expression on them”(170). The powerful imagery thoroughly proves their defeat against the mob, since after the seven prisoners were released, the power became of the commoners. Thus, this is a substantial event to the start of the revolution,

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)”.

To demonstrate, The London Times newspaper reveals the horrible, inhumane side of the Revolution as they describe the process of the guillotine executions in her report on the burial of Jean-Paul Marat and the execution of his killer, Charlotte Corday. The newspaper describes the executioner as an “inhumane monster” which strongly conveys a tone of resentment and shock towards what the Revolution is as a whole, therefore opposing the policies of the Revolution (Doc. 1). It is understandable that there would be a horrific description of the executions since the report on the burial and execution occurred during the year 1793, the year where widespread executions began to take place. It is also important to note that during 1793-1795, the number of executions began to rapidly increase as time went by. The Law of 22 Prairial, a law introduced in 1794 that permitted the revolutionary tribunal to convict suspects without having substantial evidence, was also a major factor in increasing the amount of executions which in turn created a growing animosity towards the new policies of the Revolution (The End of Terror, p.619). In addition to The London Times newspaper’s description of the Revolution, Louis-Marie Fréron describes the Revolution with terrifying imagery and reveals that no one is safe from the Revolution,

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

It’s important that we understand the dichotomy of Lucie Manette and Madame Defarge. Both are separate, complex (and in some cases, simple) creatures. The most obviously identifiable similarity between the two is that they are women. Lucie, feminine, sensitive, and kind is in complete antithesis to the dark, masculine Madame Defarge. Lucie recalls men to life and Madame Defarge sentences them to death at “La Guillotine”.

She witnesses firsthand all of the hardships the French commoners are enduring and it fuels her rage and anger toward the nobility. Madame Defarge channels all of this anger into exacting her revenge, but we cannot help pitying her for her wretched childhood. We comprehend the reasons behind the madness, but that does not justify her actions.

     One might believe that because capital punishment plays such a large role in Charles Dickens’ A Tale Of Two Cities, that Dickens himself is a supporter of it. This just simply is not true. Dickens uses capitol punishment as a tool to define the evil embodied in both the French ruling class, and the opposing lower class during the French Revolution; as well as comment on the sheep-like nature of humankind.

In the sociopolitical novel, A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens analyzes the events of one of the bloodiest revolutions in history, the French Revolution, characterized by its violence after no less than 40,000 people were sentenced to death. The violence of the revolution put irreversible change into motion, helping to bring greater equality between French citizens as a result of the upheaval, and causing political changes that affected millions. Through his changing tone, Dickens conveys that rebellion is necessary to amend the ever-growing divide between the social classes, but the mindless nature of the violence, as a result of mob mentality, is excessive, and blood is unnecessarily spilled.

The French Revolution mainly took place in the city of Paris during the late 1700’s. The Revolution did not only affect the people of France, but also the citizens of England as well. The French Revolution is known as one of the most brutal and inhumane periods of history. If one studied the beliefs and views of the people involved at the time, one would see a reoccurring theme of “ being recalled to life”. Born from the world of literature, Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities takes a deeper look at the culture of the late 1700’s, in both England and France. Dickens uses the character of Lucie Manette to further examine one of the major themes presented in the novel, consisting of the belief of one being