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Madame Defarge is a mystery in a Tale of Two Cities, and her hobby of knitting adds to the inscrutability of her character. Throughout Book 2 Chapters 13-16, we see her knitting at key moments in the book, as a way to “capture the moments in yarn.” Knitting is the needlework created by interlacing yarn in a series of connected loops, and in a Tall of Two Cities Madame Defarge is the string that connects all the characters. She not only knits important events occurring around her, but also keeps a continuing list of people she encounters. When Barsard enters into her memory and begins to spit out his physically details, she states, “I shall knit Barsard” before you go (188). These incidents show her necessity for memorizing the details of everyone who crosses her path. Also in Chapter 15, titled “Knitting”, Madame Defarge sits quietly in the corner of the wine shop, knitting, and watching as the three Jacques entered the shop. “Knitted in her own stitches and her own symbols, it will always be as plain to her as a sun” (179). Her memory extends beyond knowing the person, for she knows every event that has ever occurred in their life. She “who had taken up her knitting and was at work” was observing, however saying nothing (173). This image of Madame Defarge quietly observing is an example of foreshadowing. The peasants in the French society sat back and watched but eventually overthrew the government to take control. They took note of the unreasonable conditions they were living in and eventually took action. So far, Madame Defarge hasn’t overthrown or conquered her “knitted” victims, but I feel that it is soon to come. “ So much was closing in about the women who sat knitting, knitting, that they their very selves were closing in around a structure yet unbuilt, where they were to sit knitting, knitting, counting dropping heads”(194). This sentence foreshadows the dropping heads cut off during the French Revolution by the guillotine, or “structure yet unbuilt” (194). These women knitting were witnesses to the chaos during the French Revolution.
ReplyDeleteMadame Defarge’s knitting can also be compared to the fates from Greek Mythology. “ It would be easier for the weakest poltroon that lives, to erase himself from existence, than to erase one letter of his name or crimes from the knitted register of Madame Defarge” (179). In mythology, Clotho, spends the thread of life; Lachesis, spreads the yarn out; and Atropos, cuts the last part. Madame is a combination of all three, although we have yet to see her “cut” the yarn. These three fates could alter the destiny, both through good and evil, by a jolt in their yarn pattern. With one cut, they could end the life of a person, and this is where I believe Madame Defarge is different. Although she still lays out the “plan” of each person’s life, I don’t believe her knitting controls the death of that person. The fate of many characters lies in the webbing of Mrs. Defarge’s knitting.
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ReplyDeleteBlood has poisoned Saint Antoine's fountain of youth. A source of life and conversation for the peasants of France, the fountain has already set the stage for several of the novel's murders and, I believe, will continue to be a familiar backdrop during France's upcoming revolution.
ReplyDeleteThe first time Dickens references the fountain, it is in context to Marquis murdering of the peasant child. The child is propped on the ledge of the fountain and is most likely spilling blood into the water. This poisoned water is the same water that the peasants of Saint Antoine drink from to live. By the peasant's drinking of the tainting the water, Dickens is foreshadowing the outcome of the French Revolution. That is, that the upper-class will hurt from the revolution but the peasants will be the ones who have to die for it.
The next time that a fountain is mentioned is at Marquis's chateau where "the water of the chateau fountain seemed to turn to blood" (9, 132) on the night of Monsieur Marquis's, the village's "Monsigneur's," murder. Although it is not the village fountain, the chateau's bloody fountain, to even be mentioned, is a significant background detail from that fateful night that foreshadowed the elitist, French noble's long overdue murder.
At this epicenter, yet another death is expected to take place when “they (begin to) whisper. They whisper that because he (Gaspard) has slain Monsigneur-- he will be executed as a parricide." Not only will he be executed, but he will be executed "by the fountain" where "there is a raised gallows forty feet high." This time, it is of Gaspard, the supposed murderer of Marquis. The gallows and Gaspard's blood, as Dickens states, will "(poison) the water,"(15, 177) just as did the child's blood, just as the blood of many more victims of the revolution will.
Lucie Manette brings out the good in everyone and is a light to all. But when that light is taken away, Mr. Manette nearly relapses into his shoemaking days. Darnay tells Mr. Manette that he is in love with Lucie and wants to marry her. This news does not surprise Mr. Manette, but as soon as he knows where the conversation with Darnay is going he “…[put] out his hand to stop him” (pg. 137). It scares him to think that only just when he is reunited with his daughter, his refuge, she is going to be taken from him. This is what he has dreaded since the trial, all the men that hang around his house are there for her. He almost has a panic attack when Darnay keeps insisting that he loves her. After Darnays speech Mr. Manette’s cry “was so like a cry of actual pain” because he believes that he won’t see his daughter if she gets married (pg 137). At the end of the conversation after Darnay has left, Lucie comes home to find her dad tinkering at his bench, obviously distressed that Lucie won’t be in his life as much.
ReplyDeleteWhen we first meet Mr. Carton, he is an ambitionless drunk. He hates Darnay because he reminds Carton of what he could have been, his better half. Carton, we find out also has a crush on Lucie and that’s why he hangs out at the Manette’s house. She encourages him to lead out the rest of life as a good man. She tells him that she “is sure that [he] might be much, much, worthier of yourself” (pg 156). She tries to convince him to pull himself together and redo all the years he wasted. She is genuinely torn apart by his proclamation that he doesn’t think he can change himself. He tells her that she can never have loved a “self-flung away, wasted, drunken, poor creature of misuse” and is even glad at the thought they could never be together (pg 157). Carton feels deep regret for the way he spent his life because it has kept him from Lucie. She was the only person that he had given the thought to change his life and for that he was incredibly grateful.
Madame Defarge has a sick, violent mind. She may look like a sweet little woman in the eyes of a random passer by, but she is portrayed several times in chapters 14-16 as rather dark and menacing. For instance, on page 185 she ties some money up in a handkerchief for safe-keeping and as she tied the knots, twisting the fibers of the cloth to form a strong connection betweek ends, "she tied a knot withflashing eyes, as if it throttled a foe." Creepy much?
ReplyDeleteMadame Defarge is shown throughout the book to represent the Fates in Greek mythology. She thus has the power to create life, to weave lives together, creating bonds and knots between people, and to end life. As the interwoven threads of the handkerchief are twisted together, the picture that comes to mind is of her wringing the necks of her enemies. Later on in page 185,Madame Defarge fusses at her husband while tying another knot, as if there were another enemy strangled." She is symbolically murdering her enemies by tying her knots. That's pretty dark and creepy.