The Differences of Lucie Manette and Madam Defarge

The two main women in A Tale of Two Cities could not be more different. As critic J.F. Hamilton discusses in his article “Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities,” Lucie Manette and Madame Defarge represent two completely opposite sides of femininity.

On one hand, Hamilton concludes that Lucie Manette is the weaver of the novel. She uses her “golden thread” to bring light and joy to all of the people around her. She is nurturing and angelic, Hamilton writes. He goes on to say that Lucie nurses her father back to health, allows Sidney Carton to be reborn, and creates a new family for Charles Darnay, making her the ideal of womanhood.

On the other hand is Madam Defarge, the knitter of the novel. Hamilton suggests that unlike Lucie’s weaving, Madam Defarge’s knitting tears things apart rather than brings them together. She is the complete opposite of Lucie. Madam Defarge, Hamilton concludes, is full of destruction and darkness. She serves as the “finger of Fate,” and the outcome of that fate is usually one of death.

J.F. Hamilton’s argument is a sound one. Lucie Manette and Madam Defarge do serve as two very opposite characters in A Tale of Two Cities. His article is well written and compelling, and his use of the weaving versus the knitting is a strong visual of the differences between the two women.

My only criticism of the article is that Hamilton does not dig any deeper into what the possible repercussions of having two very opposite characters has on the novel. If he would have explored this I think his article would be even more substantial. Hamilton proves that the women are different, but he does not make a case for why those differences are necessary or essential to the novel.

I personally think that these two female characters play a large role in the novel, and they have greater purposes beyond their differences.