Lavender In A Tale Of Two Cities

Waves of purple flutter exquisitely in the soft breeze blowing over the garden, and the air fills with the sweet scent of lavender. The lavender seems to belong in this garden, brightening the garden with its beauty and lending its medicinal properties to the garden’s owner. Lavender is an ideal plant with qualities of domesticity, beauty, and redemption that reflect those of the ideal woman. Many people throughout history have seen the comparisons between women and flowers and aptly compared them. In Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, Lucie Manette possesses qualities similar to those of lavender, an ideal flowering plant, by virtue of her faultless womanhood that perfectly conforms to societal standards for women. Throughout his

Just as lavender is a domestic plant, Lucie Manette is a flawless domestic woman who primarily belongs in the home. Lavender is planted in order to enhance a garden; similarly, Lucie Manette is a superb homemaker who improves her home. Lucie’s skills as a housewife are highlighted when Dickens remarks that, “the disposition of everything in the rooms…[was] at once so pleasant in [itself]” (110; bk. 2, ch. 6). Similar to lavender’s ability to better any garden it is planted in by virtue of its presence, Lucie Manette enhances her home with economical goods and impeccable taste that highlight her premiere role as a excellent housewife. The Manette family is not rich; Lucie’s power to create the perfect home no matter her means resembles lavender’s ability to improve any garden simply by its presence, illustrating the similarities between the two. Lavender and Lucie also resemble each other in their domestic natures. Just as lavender continues to grow in normal, domestic cycles even when growing in the wild, Lucie continues her domestic habits even when her husband is not present.

Lavender’s medicinal properties allow it to nurse people back to health; when Dr. Manette, Lucie’s father, exits prison a broken empty shell of the man he once was, Lucie employs her restorative abilities, that mirror those of lavender, to nurse him back to health and help him maintain his well-being, allowing him to reenter normal life. When Dr. Manette suffers brief relapses, Lucie “hurries to him and they go on together, walking up and down, walking up and down, until he is composed” (115, bk. 2, ch. 6). Just as lavender pacifies and heals the mental sufferings of anxious people, Lucie Manette calms Dr. Manette’s mental state when he begins to revert back to his old state of pain and suffering. Lucie’s actions bring Dr. Manette back to the present, illustrating the similarities between her healing abilities and those of lavender. In addition to its medicinal properties, lavender can inspire and restore people; similarly, Lucie exudes a healing quality that shines like a ray of light into the desolate lives of those around her, inspiring and redeeming them. Lucie’s restorative qualities are emphasized when Dickens describes Lucie’s effect on Carton, saying, “since [Carton] knew [Lucie], [he has had] unformed ideas of striving afresh, beginning anew, shaking off sloth, and