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| “ | Tell Wind and Fire where to stop... but don't tell me. | „ |
| ~ Madame Defarge to her husband refusing to stop killing Charles' family. |
| “ | ...imbued in her childhood with a brooding sense of wrong, and an inveterate hatred of a class, opportunity had developed her into a tigress. She was absolutely without pity. | „ |
| ~ Charles Dickens describing Teresay. |
Madame Thérèse Defarge is the main antagonist of Charles Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities. A bloodthirsty tricoteuse during the Reign of Terror, she is obsessed with killing the French nobility and in particular getting revenge against the Evrémondes.
She played by Blanche Yurka in the 1935 film, Rosalie Crutchley in the 1958 film, Billie Whitelaw in the 1980 TV movie, and Natalie Toro in the 2008 Broadway musical adaptation. In the 1981 Mel Brooks parody History of the World, Part I, she was played by Cloris Leachman.
Biography[]
Madame Defarge's tragic backstory and reason for her rise as a bloodthirsty revolutionary began when she was a child. Her sister was kidnapped and raped by the Marquis St. Evrémonde, the uncle of Charles Darnay. Her father later died of grief, and her brother died at sword point while trying to avenge his sister, who died about a week later. These injustices committed by the Evrémonde causes her to see all aristocrats, and especially all Evrémondes, as evil and deserving of extermination.
The remainder of her childhood and early adulthood is largely unknown, though she marries Ernest Defarge, the owner of a wine shop in the slum of Saint Antoine in Paris. Both husband and wife are passionate advocates for revolution and regularly dispense and gather information from inside the wine shop.
A Tale of Two Cities[]
After Charles's arrogant and snobbish uncle becomes the Marquis St. Evrémonde, the marquis's arrogance causes the death of an innocent child, which makes him hated and helps legitimize Defarge's rage. A year after the murder of the Marquis St. Evrémonde, Defarge and her husband witnessed the hanging of Gaspard, the father of the boy the Marquis killed as well as his murderer.
Shortly after Gaspard's hanging, a spy, John Barsad, visits the wine shop and reveals to the Defarges that Charles Darnay is indeed the Evrémonde nephew and will marry Lucie, Dr. Manette’s daughter, soon. Enraged that the Evrémonde lives on (the Marquis was believed to be the last surviving member), Defarge adds both Charles Darnay and Barsad’s names to her woolen hit list.
Years later In Paris in July 1789, the Defarges help lead the storming of the Bastille, a symbol of royal tyranny. After the capture of the Bastille governor, Defarge thoroughly searches the cell of Dr. Manette and finds a letter he wrote after his capture. Later, she applauds the torture of an aristocrat named Foulon, and tries to strangle him with ropes. Throughout the countryside, local officials and other representatives of the aristocracy are slaughtered, and the St. Evrémonde chateau is burned to the ground, much to Defarge's delight.
After Darnay returns to Paris to save his servant, Gabelle, he is denounced as an illegal emigrant aristocrat and jailed in La Force Prison. Hoping to be able to save him, Dr Manette, Lucie, Jerry, and Miss Pross all move to Paris and take up lodgings near those of Lorry. Defarge ruthlessly pursues Charles Darnay, Lucie, and their child, for crimes the Evrémonde family had committed.
After Darnay is acquitted by the revolutionary jury due to testimony from Dr. Manette and Lucie, the Defarges provide new testimony and get Darnay arrested and retried. At the retrial, Madame Defarge reads out a letter from Dr. Manette detailing the events leading to his imprisonment by the Evrémondes, where Dr. Manette was called to try to treat Madame Defarge's older sister and brother. After trying to report the brothers' crimes to the authorities, he was imprisoned in the Bastille, leading him to curse the Evrémondes and their descendants to the last of their race. This riles up the jury, leading them to sentence Darnay (a descendant of the Evrémondes) to the guillotine.
On the day of the execution, Defarge reveals to her friends that she was the younger sister who survived, as detailed in Dr. Manette's letter. She then plots to go to Lucie Manette's home in order to catch her crying over Darnay's execution, allowing Defarge to accuse her of sympathy for an aristocrat and therefore get her and her daughter executed, too (as Lucie was married to Darnay, that would make her an Evrémonde by marriage, and their child an Evrémonde too). Monsieur Defarge attempts to talk her down, not wanting to hurt Dr. Manette by killing his remaining family, but she refuses and then goes to Lucie's home before planning to head to the execution after. At Lucie's home, Defarge encounters Miss Pross, who blocks Lucie's bedroom door. Although the two women do not understand the other's language, they understand each other's intentions and fight. Madame Defarge's pistol accidentally fires and kills her, while also permanently deafening Miss Pross. Her body is left in the home as the Manettes and Pross flee back to England. Later, at the execution of Darnay, Defarge's friend "the Vengeance" laments her missing it, unaware that she is dead and that Darnay has swapped places with Sydney Carton, causing her plan to kill the Evrémondes to fail.
History of the World, Part I[]
In the 1981 Mel Brooks parody History of the World, Part I, Madame Defarge is the chief conspirator in the plot to overthrow King Louis XVI. She has become so poor she has run out of wool and simply rubs her knitting needles frantically together. She owns an inn at "Rue de Merde" where she "served the scum of Paris for over 300 years". Here, Defarge is a middle-aged, cantankerous woman who call everyone "scum", even her friends and allies.
Gallery[]
,_by_Fred_Barnard.jpg "T2C, Mme Defarge confronts Miss Pross (III,14), by Fred Barnard.jpg (118 KB)")
