Madame Defarge Symbolism

Throughout Charles Dickens' book, A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens uses several over-arching themes to aid in developing his story, one important theme being "forces of history affect peoples' behavior and determine their destiny". With the usage of motifs such as knitting and weaving, men as animals and recalled to life, Dickens is able to support this theme firmly.
A prominent motif that can be found through A Tale of Two Cities is knitting and weaving, which is a constant with Madame Defarge. Madame Defarge is the icy, iron-willed wife to revolutionary Monsieur Defarge, and she can nearly always be found knitting her "registry". Madame is an overall mysterious character and on very few occasions is the true meaning behind her actions revealed.

In reply, Madame says, "many things... for instance... shrouds" (166). Regardless of whether Madame was being serious in this context or not, she is indeed knitting something that is hand-in-hand with death. Her registry is later found out to be a collection of names of people she plans to have killed, for they have either crossed her or her husband's revolutionary ideals. This instance connects back with the motif of knitting and weaving, and consequently the theme of the forces of history. Near the end of the book, it is revealed that Madame as a young girl was a victim of a violent and tragic crime committed by nobility, leaving her life in shambles. This distress Madame was faced with created her hatred for the nobles, which motivates her to take leadership in the revolution, for it allows her to obtain retribution from those who wronged her. In another scene in which Madame can be found knitting, Lucie Manette, the wife to Charles Darnay, and her daughter, Lucie, meet with the French woman. At their arrival, Madame Defarge takes an instant interest in Darnay's kin, "stopping her work for the first time,

Revolutions began to arise due to the unfair social hierarchy and living conditions of those in the French Third Estate. Due to this social hierarchy, the First and Second Estates were often detached from the rest of France, turning a blind eye to those struggling through tragically great poverty. Regardless of royalty and the impoverished finding their selves as dramatic opposites of life in France, both throughout the book connect to the motif of men as animals. During this era, found in the tiny Second Estate of the Estate System were the nobles, who could afford to live comfortably by the means of affluence. When introducing some of the primary noble characters in his story, Dickens describes these nobilities as "the exquisite gentlemen of the finest breeding" (103). Through this short phrase, Dickens is able to show that regardless of high status, the nobles are still to be animals at heart; the connotation of "breeding" tying with domesticated animals such as dogs being able to demonstrate this. History during this time period may have given the wealthy an advantage over those less fortunate, though in the end, all men at their most primal level are to be considered animals. During a particular scene in which the noble Monsieur the Marquis is travelling by carriage while going through a town, his carriage carelessly strikes down a young boy, killing him in an instant. To