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A Tale of Two Cities

by Charles Dickens

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What is the hidden function of Madame Defarge's knitting and its impact on Charles Darnay?

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The hidden function of Madame Defarge's knitting in A Tale of Two Cities is to record the names of those targeted for execution during the French Revolution. This impacts Charles Darnay because his association with the Evremonde family, who wronged Madame Defarge's family, places him and his loved ones on her list of intended victims, reflecting her deep-seated desire for vengeance.

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While knitting in a wine shop at the beginning of A Tale of Two Cities, Madame Defarge, the anti-hero of the novel, is quietly recording the names of people who will later be the victims of revolutionary zeal during the French Revolution. She is the perfect spy, as she says nothing but sees everything, and she keeps her boiling resentments hidden until it is the right moment to attack her victims.

Her hatred of aristocrats, which she carefully notes in the wool she uses to knit, stems from her family's history with the Evremonde family, which was Charles Darnay's title before he relinquished it. Her sister was kidnapped by Charles's uncle, also an Evremonde, and her father died of sadness as a result. Charles's family, including his wife Lucie and daughter Lucie, have long been on Madame Defarge's list of intended victims. Madame Defarge is symbolic of the French working class's desire for vengeance after their long years of suffering at the hands of aristocrats. 

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