Hiba Mansoor Ali Published Jun 17, 2019 Knitting has been used with symbolic reference to Madam Dafarge and the French Revolution spirit, in “a tale of two cities”, representing condemnation to death and wide scale bloodshed. Knitting has mythological reference to its maker’s personality, and its demise is set off by Madame Defarge’s own pride and insatiable thirst for revenge. She is presented as not only the controller of fates but also, as Miss Pross put it, the “wife of Lucifer”. In Mythology, knitting has
symbolic significance to the three sisters called Fates, who solely and individually controlled the thread of human life. Madam Defarge seems to have taken up the role of Fates, with her knitting; she condemns individuals to death by knitting out their name. This condemnation to death by Madame Defarge is a way for her to control the fates of men, as she effectively has everyone on the list executed during the revolution. Her list consisted of a lot of men who had done the Defarges or their
friend’s wrong before the revolution, but abiding their time, the Defarges were ready when the time came to exact revenge. Her vengeful thirst sits at nothing as she ventures hot waters to achieve her aims, like setting out to kill both Lucie and her young daughter, their innocence deemed irrelevant in her head. The narrator exemplifies Madame Defarge’s personality by calling her a “ruthless woman” with a “strong and fearless character, of shrewd sense and readiness, of great determination…”
Condemning her victims to death had been easy for her once the revolutions started, she believes the task to be as easy as knitting, as she remarked to herself while marching towards Lucie’s house, considering her reserved seat and knitting awaiting her later. This creates the impression that Madame Defarge believes this to be a quick task of killing Lucie and her child, a minor inconvenience to remove so she can continue her day. Hiba Mansoor Ali
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The Knitting’s position as controller of men’s fates meets its end while on a mission to murder two individuals who has not previously been on the list of death. On coming head to head with Miss Pross, the narrator establishes the opposing forces as “Devoted Friend” for the former and “Malevolent Enemy” for Madame Defarge. Despite the strained tension in the scene, Dickens has aimed to make the whole affair a little comical, where both the opposing forces talk to each other in languages foreign to the other, thus making it incomprehensible for either to understand. However, this does not stop both of them from throwing insults and inquiries at each other, even though they know they will not be understood.
Defarge’s attitude towards Miss Pross can be regarded as one brimming with spite and arrogance, full confidence of her triumph, and blind to her prevailing death. In comparison, the narrator presents Miss Pross “with the vigorous tenacity of love, always so much stronger than hate”, where Miss Pross the loyal friend of Lucie and her family, who out of love does everything in her power to protect her mistress against Madame Defarge. A striking contrast can be drawn in the way Madame Defarge storms into the resident swelled up with confidence and arrogance, a bloodthirsty appetite for revenge; and with the way her own gun backfires on her, so that the raging atrocious monster now lay lifeless and reduced to a bundle on the ground. The quarrel that precedes her death is surprisingly quick with its results. Madame, the great fiery lion is unable to set herself free from Miss Pross, which is ironic because Miss Pross had never “struck a blow in her life” and yet she succeeds in preventing Madame Defarge from looking behind the closed doors where she presumes Lucie and her child are hiding. Dickens had pursued to create the impression of good triumphing against evil, since the narrator describes Miss Pross’s actions in quarrel, “with the vigorous tenacity of love, always so much stronger than hate”, whose strength, Madame Defarge is unable to fight against. Her sudden and accidental suicide also reflects how the revolutionaries sow the seeds of their own destruction, while the “awful stillness” that the narrator describes after the gun smoke clears, symbolizes how peace has been restored to a land where bloodshed was the common activity of the day because of a woman who continuously pursued violence without consideration. The narrator draws feelings of pity while describing her as the “soul of the furious woman whose body lay lifeless on the ground” and who died not with a roar but a whimper. Madame Defarge had in a way knitted her own name into the list of people condemned to die, because she had let her spite and desire for revenge take over her life and purpose so that in the end, her own desires led her to her end. Her death itself can be regarded as a vengeance for all the bloodshed and gruesome terrifying deaths she caused, especially to innocents. The title of the chapter where this incidence takes place, reflects the end of knitting, not in the way that the French revolution and it’s bloodshed has come to an end, but in a way to suggest that the knitting’s maker is finally coming to an end of her journey.
Conclusively, Knitting’s symbolic significance is realized, where it pursued to cause mass atrocious deaths and blood, while, when it dies, a stillness ensues which signals the end of a terrifying and ruthless monster who no longer controls the fates of the French people and the revolution. The chapter title signals and foreshadows the death of Madame Defarge, though; it explains her and her knitting’s significance for the French revolution and the entire novel’s plot.