Madame Defarge In A Tale Of Two Cities

One of the most hated characters in A Tale of Two Cities is Madame Defarge. At first, the reader is unaware of the role she will play, but over the course of the book, she becomes the lead antagonist. One of the hobbies she is the most known for is knitting. She is extremely bitter and vengeful.
In the first few chapters of A Tale of Two Cities, Madame Defarge is just chilling in the background doing her knitting but she seems kind of suspicious. The first time the reader “meets” Madame Defarge Dickens describes her like so, “Madame Defarge, his wife, sat in the shop behind the counter as he came in. Madame Defarge was a stout woman of about his own age, with a watchful eye that seldom seemed to look at anything, a large hand heavily ringed, a steady face, strong features, and great composure of manner.” When Dickens says this he means that she saw everything but was sneaky about the way she did it.
Madame Defarge is a very sly woman. She does many things in secret. An example of this includes when a spy enters the wine-shop she signals the others but putting a rose in her hair. “The moment Madame Defarge took up the rose, the customers ceased talking, and began gradually to drop out of the wine-shop” (181). This is just one …show more content…
The knitting makes her look occupied, but looks can be deceiving. When her husband introduces her to some Jacques she barely acknowledges them Dickens says, “The three customers pulled off their hats to Madame Defarge, with three flourishes. She acknowledged their homage by bending her head, and giving them a quick look. Then she glanced in a casual manner round the wine-shop, took up her knitting with great apparent calmness and repose of spirit, and became absorbed in it” (42). While she is knitting she is absorbing the conversations and people around her even though Dickens says, “Madame Defarge knitted with nimble fingers and steady eyebrows, and saw nothing ”

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