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Duality In A Tale Of Two Cities Analysis

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Duality is an instance of opposition or contrast between two concepts or two aspects of something. The author, Charles Dickens, uses duality throughout the fictional novel, A Tale of Two Cities, to bring characters who would be thought of as polar opposites together. Dickens begins the novel by says, "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times"(3). The author begins the book with the quote to show the duality straight away because best and worst are opposite of eachother. Such as when the discovery of the main characters in England and France are all somehow tied together. In the novel Charles Dickens uses the repetitions of the motifs light and darkness to show the duality of the two characters Lucie Manette Darnay and Madame Defarge. …show more content…

Dickens first introduces the character Madame Defarge by giving a description of her features with the motif of dark, “ This, in combination with the lifting of her darkly defined eyebrows…” (31). In the quote, Dickens is using darkness to describe how Madame Defarge looks, which one can lead to describe Madame Defarge as an antagonist. Dickens again ties Madame Defarge and the motif of darkness by describing the rat holes that she creates in France when planning the revolution. The narrator describes, “... the rats were sleeping close together in their dark holes again…” (108). Dickens describes the poor people in France as rats, the reason being that the poor were looked upon as dirty. Dickens also in the quote talks about a dark hole, which is describing Madame Defarge because she was the one who creates the dark hole, being the leader of the revolution. Lastly, Dickens leads to the conclusion that Madame Defarge is dark by describing her as a darkness which encompasses women, “ as the women sat knitting, knitting. Darkness encompassed them. Another darkness was closing in as surely...”(178). Dickens again is describing darkness, indirectly describing Madame Defarge for the second time, that is encompassing people in France. All in all, Dickens uses the motif of darkness with the character Madame Defarge to show that she is the antagonist in the

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