A Tale of two women : Lucie Darnay and Madame Defarge.

A Tale of two women : Lucie Darnay and Madame Defarge.

              In his novel ,“ A tale of two cities”, Charles Dickens presents two opposites personalities in the characters of Lucie Darnay, representing good; and Madame Defarge, representing evil. Although both women have French descendant, they are nothing alike.They are very different from each other, not only physically but also in terms of family, social position, temperament and even in fate .Dickens shows through Lucie Darnay the ideal middle upper class woman ideal . While in the character of Madame Defarge he shows the opposite of feminine ideals, the type of woman “such as the world would do well never to breed again” as Charles Dickens wrote.

             Madame Defarge embodies the chaos of the French Revolution. Through her stitches, she secretly  condemned to death any person she considered to be a threat to the French revolution or to herself. When the Revolution broke into full force she revealed herself as the woman whose hate for the aristocracy  and  seek for vengeance because of what  the Marquis Evremonde had had with her sister.  She let herself  die  Miss Pross’  hands, Lucie’s loyal servant and friend. Who in her attempt to kill Lucie and her  baby, received the bullet that killed her. Madame Defarge was so obsessed with Lucie and her baby daughter  because Lucie Manette married with an Evremonde and the baby girl carried Evremonde’s blood.

           On the other hand, Lucie Darnay, embodies goodness, compassion, love and virtue. Protected and raised  by her loyal servant Miss Pross and her father´s friend, Lucie grew up in a big bubble where everything was fine. She was kind and naib. By defining Lucie as “the Golden Thread” Dickens alludes to the one who holds her family together. It is shown in the novel when Mrs Darnay wait at the street corner for two hours each day, on the chance she sees Mr. Darnay through the prison window. As flat as this character seemed to be in the novel, she brings light to the darkness that the people of France was living.

           Both women have an important “mission” in the novel, that is to show lightness, hope, love and mercy through Lucie ; and darkness, hate, vengeance through Madame Defarge. Whom behaviour and hate was a result from the oppression and personal tragedy that she suffered at the hands of the Aristocracy. Dickens, also showed through these women social position, degree of education and female role.     

Britain under rule of a mentally diseased King

Britain under rule of a mentally diseased King

   George III reigned Britain for almost sixty years. He is remembered for getting mad. It is almost impossible to believe that one of the most powerful kingdoms in the whole world was about to lose its great power because of its King illness. At that time,  the best doctors determined that the King was going mad.  Everybody seemed to be on alert  because of his mental disease but not for good reasons; they were  trying to take advantage of it. Needles is to say that this is the reason why he was known as the “mad” King.

 King George was the ruler of Great Britain and Ireland from 1760 until his death in 1820. He was remembered for losing thirteen colonies and he was the third Hanoverian monarch and the first one to be born in England and to use English as his first language. He was a loving husband and father but very strict; he wanted his children to be disciplined. Despite this, his eldest son disgusted the king; he went to parties, drank in excess and gambling. In fact, they disliked each other. The king referred to his son as the fat, and he ridiculed his father.

  King George´s disease was, later known, called Porphyria. This disease causes a lot of pain, aches, blue urine and mental disorders. At the beginning of his disease and without finding a logical explanation for his behaviour doctors isolated him, treating him as an insane man. He was forced to wear a straitjacket and to obey the doctor's orders. Despite his illness, George III was a dedicated and diligent king and won the respect of his politicians. In fact, when his illness drove him off the political scene, people realised how much they needed him. Although he was ill, he continued to reign Great Britain and Ireland. His behaviour was very criticized by his eldest son, who was a traitor as well as some members of the Parliament. King George's eldest son pushed him into a public breakdown so that he could become Regent.

Time went by and he could recover successfully. His illness was stabled and, this allowed him to rule England for many more years. He became very popular and loved by people of Great Britain. He ruled as long as his illness allowed him to do. All in all, he also became famous and well known as The Mad King.

Lung, Yanel.

García, Julieta