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.