Character Analysis: Defarge

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In A Tale of Two Cities, Ernest Defarge stands at the crossroads of justice and vengeance, loyalty and revolution. As a former servant of Dr. Manette and a committed revolutionary, Defarge’s character presents a compelling examination of how idealism can become entangled with violence, and how larger political objectives test personal loyalties. Through Defarge, Charles Dickens examines the tensions between humanity and ideology. He provides a nuanced portrait of a man caught between the past he remembers and the future he believes he must help create.

Ernest Defarge plays a pivotal narrative role as a link between the old world and the revolutionary new order. Introduced as a wine shop owner in the Paris suburb of Saint-Antoine, he is both a nurturing figure and a revolutionary leader. His personal history with Dr. Alexandre Manette, whom he once served, adds complexity to his character. When Lucie Manette and Mr. Lorry arrive in Paris to retrieve Dr. Manette, it is Defarge who reveals the doctor’s pitiful condition, locked away in a psychological prison after years of wrongful imprisonment.

Defarge’s dual roles, as protector of Dr. Manette and ringleader of the revolution, place him in a morally ambiguous position. He genuinely respects and cares for Dr. Manette, but he also keeps the doctor’s imprisonment as a symbol to inspire hatred against the aristocracy. This duality sets the stage for many of the novel’s moral tensions: Can one honor personal loyalty while also pursuing political justice? Where is the line between revolution and revenge?

Later in the novel, Defarge plays a key role in the arrest of Charles Darnay in Paris. Though he hesitates and seems uncomfortable when Lucie pleads for her husband's life, he ultimately does not act to stop the Revolutionary Tribunal. His inaction, influenced by both ideological loyalty and his wife's influence, shows that his commitment to the revolutionary cause outweighs his sympathies.

Symbolically, Ernest Defarge represents the revolutionary everyman, someone who is both a product of oppression and a vehicle of justice. Dickens does not portray Defarge as a monster; instead, he is intelligent, charismatic, and initially restrained in his revolutionary zeal. He is a man driven by the suffering he has seen and experienced, not by cruelty. His wine shop serves as a center of revolutionary planning, but also as a metaphor for how ideas, like the wine spilled in Saint Antoine, can spread and intoxicate the masses.

Defarge is also a symbol of the revolution’s moral ambivalence. He is neither wholly good nor wholly evil, which sets him apart from more extreme figures like Madame Defarge or the Marquis St. Evrémonde. Instead, he personifies the internal conflict between justice and compassion, between memory and ideology. He is a revolutionary who retains some of his humanity, yet struggles to assert it in a movement that increasingly demands total devotion and cruelty.

Furthermore, his surname, Defarge, suggests the idea of unraveling. In many ways, he unravels the tightly knit social order of France, helping dismantle aristocratic privilege. Yet there is also the suggestion of personal unraveling: his identity as a man of principle becomes threatened as he is swept up in the violent tide of collective vengeance, particularly under the influence of Madame Defarge.

One of the most revealing aspects of Ernest Defarge’s character is his relationship with his wife, Madame Defarge. She is far more radical, cold, and unyielding in her revolutionary fervor, driven by personal vendettas, especially against the Evrémonde family, who destroyed her family. In contrast, Ernest appears more moderate and reflective. He does not actively oppose his wife’s decisions, but he is clearly uncomfortable with the intensity of her hatred.

This relationship dynamic serves as a dramatic tension in the novel. While Madame Defarge represents the revolution’s insatiable thirst for retribution, Ernest Defarge reflects the more ideological, justice-seeking side of the uprising. His failure to stand up to his wife or stop the violence signals Dickens’s critique of how revolutions, even those begun with noble intentions, can be hijacked by the most extreme voices.

Dickens subtly suggests that Ernest Defarge may have lost control over the movement he helped foster. His silence becomes complicit; his failure to act against unjust executions, even when he knows better, highlights the moral compromises revolutionaries must make when the movement becomes more important than individuals.

Ernest Defarge is neither a villain nor a hero. He is one of Dickens’s most realistically drawn characters, embodying the gray moral area that most individuals occupy during times of historical upheaval. He is courageous and principled, but also passive and indecisive at critical moments.

Yet Dickens affords him some measure of dignity. Unlike Madame Defarge, whose fate is violent and emblematic of her unrelenting cruelty, Ernest Defarge survives. He fades into the background of the story, perhaps to live with the consequences of his decisions. His survival might suggest that while the revolution devours the most vengeful, it spares those who, even if imperfect, retain some semblance of humanity.

Ernest Defarge serves as a vehicle for several of A Tale of Two Cities’ most important themes. Defarge embodies the initial righteousness of revolutionary anger, but also illustrates how even just causes can lead to morally troubling outcomes. His conflict between personal loyalty to Dr. Manette and allegiance to the Jacobin cause highlights the novel’s meditation on how individuals are often overlooked in the name of larger movements. Through Defarge, Dickens critiques those who allow evil to flourish by failing to act. Defarge is not bloodthirsty, but his passivity enables bloodshed.

Ernest Defarge is a profoundly human character caught in the unforgiving machinery of history. As a former servant turned revolutionary leader, he represents both the justified rage of the oppressed and the moral ambiguity of revolutionary justice. His loyalty to Dr. Manette contrasts sharply with his revolutionary ideals, and this inner conflict defines much of his character arc.

Through Defarge, Dickens does not condemn revolution outright but instead warns of its dangers when justice becomes indistinguishable from vengeance. Defarge is not evil; he is what happens when good men stand by as history rushes forward. In this respect, Ernest Defarge serves as both a tragic and a cautionary figure, reminding us that the line between justice and cruelty is all too easily crossed when principle becomes ideology, and humanity is sacrificed for the cause.