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¶ … Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens [...] how "Vengeance is self-perpetuating" applies to the novel. Vengeance is important in this novel because it illustrates how seeking vengeance can only lead to hurt and pain, and can only continue the cycle of vengeance and hatred, it never ends, and there is never enough payback to end the vengeance.
Vengeance is a central theme in "A Tale of Two Cities," and Dickens illustrates it throughout the book. As Madame Defarge quietly knits, she is vengefully listing all the people who should die when the new republic is created. Her vengeance and hatred of the oppressors of the working class knows no bounds, and it ultimately consumes her and leads to her death. She acknowledges she wants vengeance for all the wrongs done to her and her family, and shows that it has been eating at her for a long time "Vengeance and retribution require a long time; it is the rule'" (Dickens 174). This vengeance against others who harmed her family turns her into the same kind of person, who hurts others in the name of "good."
The character "The Vengeance" represents this too. She represents all of the peasants in France who rose up against the aristocracy, but then turned into oppressors themselves. They took great pride in killing their victims and watching the executions, and this simply continued the vengeance, it was never ending. Vengeance is like a cancer, it grows and grows, and the more vengeance you get, the more you want. The executions show this, the peasants cannot get enough of them.
Vengeance is the backbone of the revolution, and it is apparent in the crowds with their "faces hardened in the furnaces of suffering until the touch of pity could make no mark on them" (Dickens 216). They are so bent on vengeance that they become consumed with hatred, and the violence and killing go on and on, long after they make sense. Vengeance can never get enough, and so it continues, self-perpetuating itself in hatred, grief, and the continued need for retribution.
References
Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities: In Three Books. New York: Books, Inc., 1868.
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