It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that someof its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
And of late, with an evil king upon the throne of Washington, I am feeling more and more like Madame Defarge and wanting to take up knitting again...
Viva La Revolution!!
Madame Defarge: A cruel, vengeance-seeking agent of the revolution, Madame Defarge spends her days knitting a 'register' of names of people she has marked for death. Married to Ernest Defarge, owner of a wine shop in Saint Antoine, Madame Defarge is utterly devoid of human sympathy and is single-minded in her zeal to have Charles Darnay executed, despite his proven innocence of any crimes and despite her husband's loyalty to and compassion for Dr. Manette.
ReplyDeleteHer desire for vengeance stems from the murders of her brother and brother-in-law and the torture of her family at the hands of the Marquis St. Evré¯nde and his brother--Charles Darnay's uncle and father. She is so filled with hatred toward them that she wants to wipe out Darnay's entire family, including the Manettes. She is the book's clearest example of how the oppressed peasants became the oppressors during the Revolution
Yes, isn't it sad that Bush, Rove, Rumsefeld and Cheney are generating that same kind of oppression and hatred during THIS era?
ReplyDeleteApproval of Torture - Bush is WELL on his way to being another Marquis.
Thank you for illustrating the point SO well!!
Nice copy & paste job, by the way. How long did it take you to figure out the literary reference? Or did you just google Defarge? Interestingly enough, I've actuall READ the book, Snookiedimples.