Essay On Lucie Manette And Madame Defarge

Many people in the world execute certain actions that can affect their choices in life. These actions that people take can also interpret how an individual can change from one type person to another. The novel, A Tale Of Two Cities written by Charles Dickens demonstrated how an individual can change because of their choices. Charles Dickens establishes Lucie Manette and Madame Defarge as the catalysts of the plot through the use of characterization to interpret how an individual can change from a loving or ruthless person because of how their actions influence their choices in life. Lucie Manette is one of the catalysts of the plot because of how Dickens portrays Lucie as an angel with charm. After Charles Darnay 's first trial, Dr. Manette

Before Madame Defarge arrives to kill Lucie Manette, brutal thoughts travel through her mind. She desires to get revenge for what Darnay’s family had done to hers. As the narrator speaks, “It was nothing to her, that an innocent man was to die for the sins of his forefathers; she saw, not him, but them. It was nothing to her, that his wife, was to be made a widow and his daughter an orphan; that was insufficient punishment, because they were her natural enemies and her prey, and as such had no right to live. To appeal to her, was made hopeless by her having no sense of pity, even for herself” (Dickens 367). Madame Defarge has no true heart, and is full of revolutionary violence. She is a narcissist because she envisions herself and the revolution as the two most significant things in her life. Soon enough, Madame Defarge is prone to suffer from her own actions due to the revolution which had caused her to change into a fearless woman. Throughout the French Revolution many women had children. They were able to receive the title of “Mother”, and also receive affection from their children. Unlike many women, Madame Defarge did not, which is why author Lisa Robson concludes that this could be the cause of her ruthlessness. Robson claims, “Madame Defarge has no children, an absence which ironically connects her with the aristocratic women whom

When in the wine shop, Sydney Carton had overheard what the Defarges were planning. He quickly confessed to Lorry saying that Lucie’s family is in danger. Carton desperately states, “They are in great danger. They are in danger of denunciation by Madame Defarge. I know it from her own lips. I have overheard words of that woman’s, to-night, which have presented their danger to me in strong colours. I have lost no time, and since then, I have seen the spy” (Dickens 349). Madame Defarge’s knitting creates an atmosphere where the people who are put on her registry are set in danger. As Carton states in the quote, “Denunciation by Madame Defarge”, the reader knows that Madame Defarge is out to kill the people that she knit into her registry. As the novel progresses, the reader can conclude that Madame Defarge is able to communicate to others through her knitting. It also allows her to secretly plan revenge against others. Tom Lloyd explains that the novel, A Tale Of Two Cities blinds most characters by false words to try and obtain vengeance on others. He establishes that Sydney Carton, Dr. Manette, and Mr. Lorry are in need of establishing an identity, unlike Madame Defarge who tries to destroy identities. Lloyd states, “Indeed, even M Defarge clings to language and meaning in the presence of his