*Tale of Two Cities--Week Six.Day1.

Book Three is when the violence begins to strike and affect France in terms of the Revolution that has begun. The imagery used by Dickens aids in insight that the reader gains of what happened during the time period of the Revolution and the brutality that took place. Many people throughout the world can relate to the importance of the cross and the symbolism and effect that the cross instills on people. However, back in the Revolutionary time period, a new symbol began to take over. The Guillotine soon became a “sign of regeneration” for the “human race” as the Guillotine took the place of the once sacred cross. Society viewed the Guillotine as a light hearted joke, “jesting” that it was the “best cure for a headache” as it was the “National Razor which shaved close” and prevented “hair from turning grey.” Dickens personifies the guillotine, as if it has taken place of the King and overruled the country. Constantly catering to “slave her devouring thirst,” the Guillotine As the cross was refurbished into a new symbol of torture and violence, the country began in a transformation of sadism.

The once, pure white snow that softly covered the ground was soon reddened with “the prevailing Republican colour” as the revolutionaries marched the ground in their “red-caps” and brought the prisoners to the guillotine. The stain of the red clothing garments soon turned to a “deeper dye” with blood from the victims of the treacherous guillotine.

As if Madame Defarge needed any more of an eerie tone to her, Dickens uses Madame Defarge as a threat to Lucie and her child. When first meeting Lucie, Madame Defarge pointed her “knitting-needle at little lucie” as if it were the “finger of Fate.” Personifying “Fate,” Dickens conveys that Madame Defarge holds the fate of the country within herself-she controls who lives and who dies. With one stitch of a needle, Madame Defarge has the power to control the Fate of all the people around her. The “shadow” that Madame Defarge’s silhouette casts down upon Little Lucie that falls “threatening and dark” foreshadows the atrocity Madame Defarge has upon Lucie and her family. Even though Charles Evremond (Darnay) has been “acquitted,” Madame Defarge’s “shadow” proves that an event may occur later on, and that Charles and his family are not free from Madame Defarge.