The Role Of Madame Defarge In A Tale Of Two Cities

The bloodshed and rallying cries of a revolution transcend beyond all barriers of time, often striking a chord with the most underrepresented and disadvantaged citizens of a nation. With enough backing, fringe ideas wield the ability to force their way into the minds of the populace, providing strength to the once-languished. Using A Tale of Two Cities, influential author of numerous classic works, Charles Dickens, illustrates the gaping holes in rhetoric and action widely disregarded during the class-based French Revolution of the late 1700s as well as criticizing his own country, England, for its administrative flaws. However, his blunt assessment applies to countless eras throughout history, including today’s political environment in the
As one who never experienced the need yielded by absolute poverty due to her husband’s stable career as a wine-shop owner, the twisted schemer’s yearning for a revolution originates in the atrocities performed upon her loved ones by a particular bloodline. Playing on their insecurities and outrage, Defarge mobilized the vulnerable people of France behind a vengeful plan to wipe out those that wronged her ages ago. This abuse of power finds its modern counterpart in the role played by Donald Trump during the 2016 election. Railing against an inept government for abandoning ordinary Americans who struggled in a shifting economy, Trump disguised his aim to provide big businesses with a crutch under the mask of granting fiscal independence to the poor. His promises to cut taxes by wide margins and slash the budgets of government programs appealed to the struggling masses who craved relief from the financial burdens put in place by prior administrations. Yet, when implemented in the past, trickle-down policies favor corporate interests held by executives, such as the Republican Presidential Candidate himself, rather than fulfilling the assurances floated around during the campaign. Fueled by conflicting goals and undying passion, the key figures of a revolution reinforce the crumbling systems they labor so tirelessly to tear
Assessing the damage caused by the destructive class warfare of the Revolution, Dickens vilifies the French radicals for molding their recreated government after one that many forfeited their lives to eradicate, “Crush humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into the same twisted forms. Sow the same seed of rapacious license and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind” (359). Once the people’s rigorous attempt to assume sovereignty over their domain succeeds, they initiate the unjust process of persecuting innocent citizens. Channeling the widely-despised Evrémondes, who silenced all opponents that threatened to dissolve the aristocracy, the French commoners unconsciously feed into the mass hysteria that only outspoken proponents of their movement possess the right to live. The corrupt public acts as the prosecutor, jury, and judge when deciding which victim to decapitate under the guillotine, for the greedy extremists bask in their immense wealth once blood replaces cash as the national currency. This fragment of history repeats itself under the Trump administration, which fails to implement policy proposals that formed the foundation of the