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Madame Defarge character analysis
7
Madame Defarge Archetype
By: Hannah Griffin
Purpose
In Charles Dickens novel, "A Tale of Two cities", he uses Madame Defarge as the "Shadow" to highlight that slow burning vengeance will lead to the destruction of both sides.
Archetypes
What and Why
What: The Shadow Archetype
Why: Madame Defarge as she embodies the persists to destroy the Evermonde family blood line.
PICTURES
Images
Example
Example:
Madame Defarge's main goal throughout the novel is to bring down the Evermonde faimly as she was tormented by them. For context, her own statement summarizes it up pretty well, "Defarge, I was brought up among the fisherman of the seashore, and that peasant family so injured by the two Evermonde brothers, as the Bastille paper describes, is my family. Those dead are my dead." (ch.12 pg. 419) As Charles Darney is a Evermonde, Madame Defarge keeps her promise to serve her family justice by "shadowing".
How?
How is Madame Defarge the "Shadow" Archetype?
Example 1#
Example 1#
Madame Defarge throughout the book has been apathetic to the carnage inflicted upon the people of France. So when her friend from the very beginning is trialed to the guillotine, she initiates it. As the book states, " It was nothing to her, that an innocent man was to die for the sins of his forefathers; she saw not him but them." (ch.14 pg. 445) This mindset of vengeance is what leads her against the protagonist's and does everything she can to be rid of them.
Example 2#
Example 2#
In the beginning of the book, Madame Defarge tells her husband that a revolution will take time, just as an earthquake takes time to build up and destroy everything in an instinct. She is described as this character always in the background, overseeing everything as she knits a way the names of the dead. "So much was closing in about the woman [Madame Defarge] who sat knitting, knitting that they, their very selves, were closing in around yet unbuilt, where they were to sit knitting, knitting, counting dropping heads."
Example 3#
Example 3#
By the end of the novel, Madame Defarge has been persistant in her goal of vengence as she has, "-been in the streets from the first, nothing has stopped me." (ch. 14. pg. 453)
Madame Defarges Character
Static
Madame Defarge is a static character; her morale values, intentions, actions, and end goal never change throughout the entirety of the novel. Her callous, cold, and passionate nature are consitent, if not intinsified as the story continous. Even as her desired revolution comes to fruition, she is still not statified. "To appeal to her, was made hopeless by her having now no sense of pity, even for herself." (ch.14, pg.445) This burning vengence, and blood thirsty ambitoin, were always within Madamn Defarge, it's only now that these aspects are revealed. These characteristics are unwavering as they are tested against those she cares about, and those who she keeps closest. Thus her static character portrayal, as the "shadow", is fitting for her.
Theme
The underlining theme for Charles Dickens, can be summarized as " Love conquers over all.", so fittingly enough as Madamn Defarge's character is the "shadow" of the novel, her demise is inevitable. Everything that Madamn Defarge stands for, will turn to rumble as it opposes, "love", the force that "conquers all". Through her death, the story is made complete as her ever burning vengence is exstiguished.
Connection
Connection
Madame Defarge as she molds her revolution, is ruthless, calous, and extremest in her beliefs. In a way, the revolt Madame Defarge lead, is similar in nature to the extremists ANTIFA. The revolution Madame Defarge leads refer to their members as "citizens/citizineses", just as ANTIFA refers to their members as "commrades". Even more so, as the quote, "-throng of people came pouring round the corner by the prison wall, in the midst of whom was the wood-sawyer hand in hand with Vengence. They could not be fewer than five hundred people, and yet they were dancing like five thousand demons." *(ch.5. pg. 343), states, the protesters were wild and violent as they marched the streets. Which can also be corrilated back to ANTIFA, as they scream, crowd, and attack those who don't agree with them.
Work Cited
Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. Dover Publications, 1999. print