"...The women were a sight to chill the boldest. From such household occupations as their bare poverty yielded, from their children, from their aged and their sick crouching on the bare ground famished and naked, they ran out with streaming hair, urging one another, and themselves, to madness with the wildest cries and actions" (232).
This passage shows the opinions and wants that the women of the town always had, but that were muted in society up until now. All this time, they had the devastatingly difficult role as housewives to see their babies die, and to see the many people of their town become greatly weakened by hunger. They also saw Foulon (an example of the aristocrats) cruelly, and inappropriately suggest them to eat grass if they were hungry. (as if he had any idea what they were going through!) This excerpt is showing these housewives after they hear of Foulons existence. They are overjoyed, because now justice can be served. Even more then the men, it is their chance to become more than housewives; they can be the commanders of justice, and they can finally stuff grass into the wealthy snobs' faces, and not be killed in return. It is their chance to do what is right!
This passage reminded me of a passage in Monsieur the Marquis in town:
"So cowed was their condition, and so long and so hard their experience of what such a man could do to them, within the law and beyond it, that not a voice, or a hand, or even an eye, was raised. Among the men, not one. But the woman who stood knitting looked up steadily, and looked the Marquis in the face. It was not for his dignity to notice it; his contemptuous eyes passed over her, and over all the other rats..." (117).
This passage shows the foreshadow that Madame Defarge made of the women's fearlessness, and true defeat over the aristocrats. In this passage, you see Marquis as an intimidating aristocrat with all the power over the poorer "rats". Because of this, no man will speak up, or even look at the man. But, in this case, a women looks him straight in the eye. He might not know it yet, but the woman knows that soon she will have the power to serve justice, and kill and torture the aristocrats who, for so many years, practiced so much injustice to her, and the other poor people of the town.
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3 comments:
I journaled on the passage you mentioned that started with "So cowed was their condition...". I definitely agree with you when you say that he is intimidating because he has power over the peasants. However, I also think it makes the reader realize what little influence the peasants have in society as a whole. They are so scared of what the Marquis could do to them that they don't even meet his eyes, as you said. The fact that they can't even look it him, shows what little power they have. They cannot do anything about their situation other than start a full-scale revolution as they will soon do.
The passage also hints at the twinkle of hope they still have. Dickens puts this hope in Madame Defarge. She is the one who is knitting and looking him in the eye. She isn't scared of him, and she knows that soon she and the rest of the peasants will get their revenge. Thus, she knits and looks at him defiantly, which gives hope to the peasants cause. Their revenge will come and they will get their reward.
I agree with everything that you are saying here however, it would seem that by resurrecting the "spirit" of Saint Antoine, a darker and more vicious being was released at the same time. While i have no qualms about the people wanting revenge on FOULon (haha i just noticed that), their extremely cruel and terrifying way of doing so made them the monster. Not only are they killing those who oppresed them, they have no boundaries whatsoever and kill even those that showed them mercy. As we can see from Madame Defarge, they trace the bloodlines as well. Is this really a ressurection of France? How is this justice when the opressors are replaced by bloodthirsty masses?
I agree that this is a twisted form of revolution, but the reasonings for the revolution are to be expected. For their entire lives, and the generations before them, the poor people have been stomped on by the rich aristocrats, and have no say whatsoever about their mistreatment. Sometimes, their loved ones are killed, and in the end they are the ones punished! (Gaspard, a horrible example of the outcome of an innocent peasant). Now is there time to get recognition, and stand up for themselves, and I think that they should! Yes, it is very gruesome, but the aristocrats are very gruesome, awful people themselves. (Payback stinks, doesn't it?)
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