Essay on A Tale of Two Cities: Madame Defarge

6. How does Defarge's part in getting Mr. Lorry and the Manettes out of Paris indicate his knowledge of the workings of the acienne regime?

The triumph of love, the death of Madame Defarege, and the triumph of Charles Darnay in trial shows how good triumphed over evil. The theme of

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

France during the 18th century, was a country of great progress of society and established Paris as an urban powerhouse. When talking about the causes of the French revolution, many will point to a variety of factors that they believe to have been the root cause of the ordeal. Some might focus on the growing number of the farm employees who were contracted to keep order in areas of business, some might focus on the blurring of class lines that occurred in France as new venues of income transformed every portion of society, and some might point to implementation of these unfair taxes that were placed on the people to repay debts that had been occurred in previous administrations. The ideas previously mentioned played a key role in the development of revolutionary Paris and many other topics that weren’t mentioned also played a critical role in the changing of France, but arguably the most significant of these causes was that of the desacralization of the French monarchy and how aspects such as literature and secularization would lead to the eventual downfall of the once great colonial power.

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.

In " Tale of Two Cities" revenge is a one of the main themes of the novel. It is shown that the French revolutionaries are always seeking revenge averse to aristocracy. The symptoms of revenge appear clearly in Theresa Defarge, who

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.

A glint of good news came to the now-impoverished family when the merchant heard that a ship containing his merchandise had just arrived in port. The merchant was overjoyed and went to claim his wealth, only to find that there had been a legal ordeal and he had, indeed, lost it all. Here, the author tries to illustrate the French government’s inadequacy in meeting the needs of the people. In the 1850s, great minds, including the Swiss/French political philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, were writing that the authority to rule came from the people themselves. Furthermore, philosophers argued that the government’s duty was not to serve their own decadence but rather to serve the people. The French government, being an absolute monarchy, was ruled by only the word of Louis XV, and the royal Bourbon family had a history of ruling to meet their own selfish desires. The French monarchy did not uphold the intrinsic promise and duty of any government to protect, feed, and serve its people. De Beaumont symbolizes this by failing to deliver the goods to the impoverished former merchant. In other words, just like the merchant’s undelivered goods, the

Revenge can be analyzed, as it becomes the exhibited behavior of the Widow resulting from a number of causes. First cause is the harm done to her family; second cause is the Widow’s perception of violence during that time; and the third cause is her aggression toward the killer of her son. The first cause of her revenge is the most obvious reason why she avenged the death of her son, and this is because the killer caused pain to her family. Any mother would be committing the act especially that her son was the only company she has. The second cause pertains to the Widow’s perception of revenge during that time, and because at the time, wars and feuds were still evident in the French society, bloodshed for the Widow is not something to be scared of, given any means. This story was only successful in showing to its readers how the society thinks of death during those times, which can be achieved through any means, by which losing one’s life was not something to be thought of carefully. This just proves that during that time, morality was not given high regard as it is now. Death by any means can be accomplished by anybody, regardless of age, gender, and status in society. The third cause of the Widow’s behavior is her aggression toward the killer of her son, which was not literally shown or described in the story, but was evident based on

Madame Defarge, a very bold but cruel revolutionary, is very sadistic towards nobles, especially the Evrémondes, because of how the family had treated her family in the past. The woman who had been stolen away by the younger twin was Madame Defarge’s sister, so the Evrémondes tore her family apart. She had been waiting to get her revenge on the family her whole life, and once the revolution starts, she seizes her chance. The very kind and generous son of the older brother, Charles Darnay, travels back to France from England to try and save his employee, and she immediately takes the opportunity to put him into jail. After multiple trials he is found guilty and condemned to death via La Guillotine. Although Charles Darnay has never actually wronged her, “it was nothing to her, that an innocent man has to die for the sins of his forefathers; she saw not him, but them” (281). Madame Defarge is not satisfied by Darnay’s death, however, and wants to kill his wife, Lucie Manette, and their daughter. It was this inhumanity that leads to her death. Madame Defarge goes to the Manette’s home to try and find Lucie in the act of a Guillotine-worthy crime, mourning a Guillotine victim. Instead of finding Lucie, however, she finds her housemaid, Miss Pross. Miss Pross and Madame Defarge begin to fight because Madame Defarge wants to find Lucie, and eventually she draws a gun, but “Miss

Saint Antoine calls on it’s revolutionaries and in swift action they sweep the Bastille within the week. Dickens personifies Saint Antoine and makes the neighborhood bordering the Bastille the main antagonist inciting revolution. In fact, Madam Defarge doesn’t fight for vengeance, but for Saint Antoine. Expression materializing appearance of weakness exude from this passage. Haggard, starved, distress, miserable, squalid, and a score more assist in defining the state, “the great brotherhood of Spies had become”, and what their death march beats the drum to. People reside in the village of despair, and have become merely puppets of its liberation from societal pariah. Characters swiftly swept into undercurrents of preeminent plot.

The violence in France will not stop until equality is reached. The revolutionaries picture a time when all the people of France live equal. This reasoning is the core factor of why they are fighting against the system. When we learned the motive for Madame Defarge’s reasoning for hating the Marquis and anyone associated with him, she replies that everyone against the revolution should “...tell the Wind and Fire where to stop; not me!” (326). We learn here that she has not intent to stop until she gets even with the Evrémonde family. Madame Defarge’s idea of equality is the death of Charles Darnay and everyone associated with him. When Madame Defarge and Defarge were discussing the end of the revolution Defarge asked the question, “but one must stop somewhere. After all, the question is still where?” (324). Defarge questions Madame Defarge’s intent to stop somewhere but Madame Defarge replies with “At extermination” (324). This strengthens the fact that Madame Defarge believes the revolution will be complete with the death

While young, Defarge witnessed an aristocrat named Evrémonde invade her house, raping her older sister and stabbing her brother. Since then, she has sought revenge against the Evrémonde family and will stop at nothing to exterminate them from the earth. The Madame is even in high favor of killing the innocent Lucie Manette and her daughter because they were married into the Evrémonde family. Though this happened long ago, she responds with ruthlessness and bitter anger consistently. Lucie Manette alike has suffered through many trials such as being the caretaker of her father in her twenties which she felt was degrading - for she was to be courting for marriage at this time, not acting as a housewife to an enfeebled old man. Additionally, her husband was convicted and almost sentenced to death for returning to his home country of France. She responded with prayer and being in a certain area for her husband to see her. When he was finally released, Lucie and her family “reverently bowed their heads and hearts” (292). This exhibits Lucie response to misfortune in a elegant manner and separates her from Madame Defarge.

Before Marie Antoinette married Dauphin Louis XVI in 1770, the situation in France was already beginning to become disordered. The peasants, which made up about 90% of the population at the time, were treated unfairly and began to feel frustrated and upset with the Monarchy. At the time, Marie Antoinette was distrusted because of her foreign birth and many of the peasants saw her as the source of their problems and disliked her. She was often seen in the past as a bad Queen due to her careless spending and seemingly frivolous lifestyle, now with more evidence and sources, opinions have shifted. Many see Marie Antoinette as a victim of her own circumstances, as it can be seen by the state of affairs in France before her arrival, her upbringing and public opinion before her death during the French Revolution. This essay will illustrate that Marie Antoinette was indeed a victim of her circumstances.

In the novel The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, King Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu are in authority in France, each struggling to gain absolute power. As a result conflicts emerge that will lead to the progress of France. France was constantly in external conflicts with England and in internal conflicts with the Huguenots that provoked war against the Catholics and even the King, but never against the Cardinal (Dumas, 1). Queen Anne’s romance to the Duke of Buckingham, who at the time was an enemy of France, was not unknown to the Cardinal, like nothing else that escaped him from knowing it. The story’s protagonist, D’Artagnan faces the most dangerous spy of the Cardinal, Lady de Winter. This lady is the one entrusted with the