Examples Of Inhumanity In A Tale Of Two Cities

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

The French Revolution was a movement from 1789 to 1799 that brought an end to the monarchy, including many lives. Although A Tale of Two Cities was published in 1859, it was set before and during the French Revolution and had over 200 million copies sold. The author, Charles Dickens, is known for being an excellent writer and displays several themes in his writings. Sacrifice is an offering of an animal or human life or material possession to another person. Dickens develops the theme of sacrifice throughout the story by the events that occurred involving Dr. Manette, Mr. Defarge, and Sydney Carton.

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.

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.

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

Both Defarges play important roles in this novel, and become the key people of the revolutionary. Especially, Dickinson describes a stout woman with a watchful eye and steady face, Madame Defarge who never stops “knitting” since the beginning of the story. Even in the massive crowd, she knits. “It was additionally disconcerting to have Madame knitting all the way there, in a public conveyance; it was additionally disconcerting yet, to have Madame in the crowd in the afternoon, still with her knitting in her hands as the crowd waited to see the carriage of the King and Queen” (Dickinson 174). Along with the wine, Dickenson shows Madame Defarge knitting throughout the novel to represent the revolution. Madame knits when she adds the names of the aristocrats who will be killed by them. “If Madame my wife undertook to keep the register in her memory alone, she would not lose a word of it—not a syllable of it. Knitted, in her own stitches and her own symbols” (Dickinson 172). When John Barsad comes over to the wine-shop, not knowing that the revolutionary hearts exist inside the shop, Madame continues to knit after bringing Barsad a glass of cognac, and she hums. “The spy, well used to this business, did not change his unconscious attitude, but drained his little glass of cognac; took a sip of fresh water, and asked for another glass of cognac. Madame Defarge poured it out for him, took to her knitting again, and hummed a little song over it” (Dickinson

Ernst Defarge is first introduced as the wine-shop owner from Saint Antoine. He is introduced when Mr. Lorry and Ms. Manette come to find Doctor Manette. He was said to be one of Doctor Manette's servants back when Manette was an active doctor. He is also willing to help Lorry and Miss Manette with the Doctor. He is also shown as the leader of the Jacques and the revolution in that area. He was described as a sort of angry man with a "bull-neck" and "good-humoured looking on the whole, but implacable-looking, too; evidently a man of a strong resolution and a set purpose” (Dickens, 65). This description as one with resolution and purpose really describes his character

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

Throughout A Tale of Two Cites, Dickens continually refers to Madame Defarge knitting. Madame Defarge knitting serves as a symbol of the vengefulness that is awaiting it’s time to act, and it also represents a record of all the people who have wronged the people of St

In Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities, the readers meet a wide variety of characters who all teach a lesson to the readers. Madame Defarge is one of these, and readers can view her choices through maliciously placed detail and carefully planned coincidences that add up just right to see her story of how justice can start one way and slowly consume the person until it becomes revenge. Throughout the novel, the details surrounding Madame Defarge change dramatically, evolving from describing a quiet, small woman to describing a vicious, cruel woman. She changes from “a stout woman… with a watchful eye that seldom seemed to look at anything” into a woman fueled by her anger and by her need for revenge (Dickens 39).

When terrible things happen to good people there are two paths that can be traveled: forgiveness can be offered, or vengeance can be pursued. Madame Defarge from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, takes the latter of these two options and religiously lives by it, seeking revenge on the cruel heartless aristocracy plaguing France with famine, poverty, and oppression; however, the reasons behind her malice force the reader to understand why she performs such hateful acts during the French Revolution. Madame Defarge, though intelligent, is consumed by her hatred and has transformed into something just as bad, if not worse, than the members of the aristocracy.

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.

Charles Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities in order to enlighten the average Briton about the events of the French Revolution. The novel compares and contrasts cities of London and Paris, which represent French and British society, through the eyes of Dickens’ human characters. The two cities play such a large part in the novel that they become characters themselves, and the contrasting societies of the two cities become a conflict. In Charles Dickens’ classic, A Tale of Two Cities, the individualistic society of London champions the first feudalistic and later socialistic society of Paris.

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.