A Tale of Two Cities takes place in 1775 at the start of the French Revolution in Paris, France. The book follows both the lives of people who are at the height of the aristocracy as well as people who are starving French peasants. Against the backdrop of this time period, Dickens explores many different themes, one of which is revenge. The following passage about a woman named Madam Defarge, a French Revolutionary, illustrates how revenge is an evil that can completely consume an individual's whole life and mindset.
"There were many women at the time, upon whom the time laid a dreadfully disfiguring hand; but, there was not one among them more to be dreaded than this ruthless woman, now taking her way along the streets. Of a strong and fearless character, of shrewd sense and readiness, of great determination, of that kind of beauty which not only seems to impart to its possessor firmness and animosity, but to strike into others an instinctive recognition of those qualities; the troubled time would have heaved her up, under any circumstances. But, imbued from her childhood with a brooding sense of wrong, and an inveterate hatred of a class, opportunity had developed her into a tigress. She was absolutely without pity. If she had ever had the virtue in her, it had quite gone out of her.
It was nothing to her that an innocent man was to die for the sins of his forefather; 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. If she had been laid low in the streets, in any of the many encounters in which she had been engaged, she would not have pitied herself; nor if she had been ordered to the axe to-morrow, would she have gone to it with any softer feeling that a fierce desire to change places with the man who sent her there." (Book the Third, Pages 365-366)
As shown in the passage above, Madame Defarge is a woman who has absolutely no pity for anyone or anything. As a child, her sister was raped and her brother killed by the Marquis St. Evremonde. In this part of the novel, she is walking down the streets of Paris on her way to denounce Lucie Mannette Darnay, wife of Charles Darnay, the nephew of the Marquis St. Evremonde. Lucie's husband, Charles, has been accused of being an enemy of the Republic, arrested, and sentenced to the guillotine that day. Madame Defarge suspects that Lucie will be at home grieving for her husband, and it will therefore be the opportune time to arrest her. She plans to use the excuse that Lucie is grieving for an enemy of the republic and is therefore guilty of treason and should be sent to the guillotine. Madame Defarge is determined to exterminate as many Evremonde family members as possible. She has completely lost her mind, and all she cares for now is revenge against the Evremondes. She will do anything in her power to get back at the family that made her life miserable as a child.
The imagery in this passage is so clear that the reader can picture her "great determination" as Madame Defarge moves down the streets of Paris. Dickens describes her as a "tigress" stalking her "natural enemies and her prey," the aristocratic Evremondes. She is depicted as being "ruthless," having a "shrewd sense and readiness," and an "inveterate hatred." These powerful adjectives demonstrate to the reader her evil character. She is a heartless woman whose virtue "ha[s] quite gone out of her."
This lack of virtue is also portrayed in the dark tone that Dickens uses in this passage. His harshly descriptive words and phrases convey an overall sense of cruelty and viciousness. Through Dickens' tone, the reader feels the brutal nature of Madame Defarge's desire for vengeance.
Though these two paragraphs are but a small part of A Tale of Two Cities, they represent the theme of revenge. Dickens seems to suggest that not forgiving another can tear a person apart. Failing to forget past mistakes can become more than just wanting revenge. In the case of Madame Defarge, this lack of forgiveness becomes the purpose of her life. Her character conveys to the reader the all-consuming nature of spite. As demonstrated in this passage, Dickens' novel seems to warn the reader against getting caught up in the need for revenge.
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