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A Tale of Two Cities

by Charles Dickens

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Student Question

In A Tale of Two Cities, what are three positive and three negative qualities of Madame Defarge?

Quick answer:

Madame Defarge, in A Tale of Two Cities, exhibits negative qualities such as intense hatred, vengefulness, and viciousness, allowing her desire for revenge against the aristocracy to dominate her life. However, she also possesses positive traits like cleverness, demonstrated through her secretive knitting, a strong memory, and perseverance, albeit directed toward harmful goals. Her character is shaped by unresolved personal tragedy, which fuels her destructive actions and mindset.

Expert Answers

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Madame Defarge in Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities is hardly a sympathetic character. She has many negative qualities, but if we look deep enough, she has a few positive ones as well.

As for negative qualities, Madame Defarge's hatred stands out. She longs to get even with the people who have harmed her, and she extends that qualification to an entire class of people, the aristocracy. Madame Defarge is a vengeful woman who turns extremely vicious when given an opportunity. Think of what she does when she enters Lucie's apartment. Madame Defarge has let her hatred take over her entire life.

We might wonder, then, where her positive qualities are, and indeed, they are usually not readily apparent. We can say, though, that there is a cleverness to her—misused of course, but still there. Notice how she stitches the name of the victims into her knitting. Her memory is excellent, too, even though she uses it to add people to the “register” of those she wants killed. And she is certainly persevering, even though she perseveres in the wrong thing.

Madame Defarge is a broken woman, for she has never recovered from the tragedy she once experienced. She has let it overshadow her whole life and her whole character, thus prolonging the tragedy.

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