Alysse Dowdy 5/15/10 3rd Period

A Tale of Two Cities Formal Essay

Tone and characterization are very evident in this passage, and in the entire novel of A Tale of Two Cities due to characters like Madame Defarge and contrasting emotions such as sympathy and antipathy. The diction used here depicts not only their surroundings and environment but also how the characters feel. The darkness and oppression you perceive when reading about the emotions just adds to the tone Charles Dickens used to write this passage in Book Two, chapter sixteen, Still Knitting. Madame Defarge is what I would consider an extremist of the Revolution. She believes that the Revolution is the right way to go and whether it actually happens in her lifetime she does not care, she just wants to get as many people to believe what she does. Madame Defarge with her work in her hand was accustomed to pass from place to place and from group to group I believe Madame Defarge is a very influential lady on the women in the city. She is inspiring them to fight for what she believes in. A great woman, said he, a strong woman, a grand woman, a frightfully grand woman! Madame Defarges power, independence, and superior attitude are so attractive to the women that they are persuaded into everything she is putting upon them. To all the Revolutionaries, Madame Defarge looks like a god. Though everyone on the outside looking in wouldnt agree; they would see someone more like an Angel of Darkness.

Charles Dickens chooses to portray Madame Defarge in different ways; it all just depends on how you perceive it. There were many like her---such as the world will do well never to breed again. Pretty much they are saying that the world is only big enough for one Madame Defarge. Her presence is just so big and mighty, having someone else like her would create a problem. Madame Defarge with her work in her hand was accustomed to pass from place to place and from group to group: a Missionary Yes, she is spreading her beliefs on the Revolution but she could also be manipulating the women into believing what she knows is right and not letting them think on their own. Charles Dickens uses many different things to get his point across like contrasting matters. We see that Madame Defarge is used as a foil for Lucie, and I believe he uses sympathy and antipathy to put in our minds the picture of exactly what the people are living with. The hands moved for the jaws and the digestive apparatus; if the bony fingers had been still, the stomachs would have been more famine-pinched. The way bony fingers and faminepinched are used in such a negative way, gives me the idea that he has pity for them in their time of need. Though there is the idea that the people in the city are not functioning on their own thoughts, but by the ideas being presented by Revolutionaries and Madame Defarge. They knitted worthless things; but, the mechanical work was a mechanical substitute for eating and drinking The Revolutionaries are in control now; no longer are they at the bottom of the totem pole. All have become so powerful and violent that I think Dickens wants to show them in a different light. Before they were desperate and helpless, but the tone has changed. They are now bloodthirsty and ready to give anything for the cause of the Revolution. As the women sat knitting, knitting. Darkness encompassed them. These women are knitting to no end. They needed a way to keep their minds off the hunger and poverty their city

is suffering from so this is what they do. Though we know of one that does it for other purposes. The Darkness. There is little the citizens can do to stop all the darkness from caving in on them. Darkness closed around, and then came the ringing of church bells and the distant beating of the military drums of the Royal Guard... Another darkness is being shown even more now, violence. France should be melted into thundering cannon; when the military drums should be beating to drown a wretched voice. Extreme, crude acts of violence are being shown. So watch out Lucie, the footsteps are getting closer The Revolution is coming, The Revolution is coming! All in all, everything ties back to the tone of the novel. Charles Dickens writes what he thinks of the Revolution and events leading up to it, therefore portraying it to us how he thinks it should be done. Despite all the contradictions it all really shows that the way something is written and the diction used is a very important element in the novel. With the words Dickens wrote we could feel the determination and perseverance of Madame Defarge, feel the hunger and desperateness of the knitting women, and hear the wretched voices of citizens waiting for their life to be ended ever so crudely.