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Revenge in a Tale of Two Cities

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Revenge in a Tale of Two Cities
Revenge in a Tale of Two Cities

How far would one go to avenge a murdered loved one? They do everything in their power to make the wrongdoer suffer for what they did. They would get revenge. Charles Dickens writes of revenge in his novel, he writes it as an ongoing theme. In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens uses Madame Defarge as a symbol of revenge to show his recurring theme of revenge throughout the novel to prove that revenge is justified in some situations. As Madame Defarge converses with people in the wine shop, they speak of her need to get revenge on the descendants of the Evermondes. She then explains why she wants revenge so badly: “Defarge, I was brought up among the fishermen of the sea-shore and that peasant family so injured by the two evemonde brothers, as the bastille paper describes, is my family” (350) The Evermondes injured and killed her family. She desperately wants to seek vengeance on them for what they did. She thinks revenge is the only way to avenge her family.

When the Marquis kills the child with his carriage, Madame Defarge stands there, knitting; looking him in the face when no one else dared to raise an eye. “…that not a voice, or a hand, or even an eye was raised. But the woman who stood knitting looked up steadily, and looked the Marquis in the face.” Madame Defarge looks the Marquis in the face because he is an Evermonde, or one of the brothers that hurt her family.

Madame Defarges determination for vengeance is becoming out of control. Her husband tries to stop it. Monsieur Defarge tries to tell Madame Defarge to stop her want for revenge: “’Then tell wind and fire where to stop,’ returned madame; ‘but don’t tell me.” (350) Madame Defarge will stop at nothing to get what she wants. She basically says that nothing anyone says will be able to stop her. She is so full of hatred that she is planning on wiping out the whole Evermonde family and their descendants.

Madame Defarges’ desire to kill those

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