The Vengeance in A Tale of Two Cities

Who is The Vengeance?

The Vengeance is a relentless revolutionary operative in the Saint Antoine quarter who works closely with Madame Defarge to inflame and direct the popular fury. She appears as a visible, loud lieutenant in the wine-shop and on the streets, whipping up crowds of women and celebrating the capture and parading of enemies. She accompanies the Defarges on visits that cast a threatening shadow over Lucie and her small circle, listens eagerly when defamatory documents are read in tribunal, and helps plan who will be denounced at the Section. She is present in meetings where the Defarges plot to pursue the Evrémonde family and in the tumultuous public spectacles that follow arrests; in the tumbril procession she frets for Madame Defarge’s presence but remains part of the ritualized violence. Throughout the scenes in which she appears she desires vengeance against the aristocracy, channels private grievance into collective rage, and acts to ensure the mob’s momentum toward execution and annihilation of designated enemies.

In the book: The Vengeance is a fervent revolutionary of Saint Antoine and the most zealous lieutenant to Madame Defarge, tirelessly whipping up the women of the quarter and celebrating each turn of the bloody tide. Through her unrelenting bloodlust and mob leadership, she embodies the novel’s portrait of how personal grievance and collective fury can harden into ruthless fanaticism.

Personality

fanatical

She celebrates eagerly when Foulon is captured and is described as a zealous lieutenant whipping up the women of the quarter.

militant

She attends meetings in the wood-sawyer’s shed with Madame Defarge and Jacques Three to arrange arrests and denunciations.

vociferous

She loudly joins the district’s eruptions, helping to mobilize women and men to pour toward the Hall of Examination.

unsparing

She shows eager approval when Dr. Manette’s memorial is read and the assembly votes condemnation to die within twenty-four hours.

loyal (to cause)

She stands as Madame Defarge’s most zealous lieutenant, acting on and amplifying Madame Defarge’s hatred of the Evrémonde line.

Character arc

From her first appearances the Vengeance is steady and uncompromising: she is introduced as a fervent revolutionary who helps convert communal hunger and misery into a thirst for retribution, and she remains in that role to the end of her scenes. Early on she is a visible presence in the wine-shop, accompanying the Defarges on visits that carry menace; she then helps to galvanize the quarter when news of Foulon’s capture spreads, turning popular impulse into organized violence. She joins clandestine planning with Madame Defarge, Jacques Three, and the wood-sawyer, and shows eager approval when incriminating documents are read at the tribunal. Her temperament does not soften or repent; instead, she sustains and channels collective fury, participates in the public rituals that consign enemies to the tumbril, and even in the final procession is occupied with Madame Defarge’s fate rather than any doubt about the justice of their acts. The Vengeance’s arc is essentially static: she begins as an instigator and remains a committed instrument of ruthless vengeance, embodying the consolidation of private grievance into revolutionary fanaticism.

Relationships

• Madame Defarge Her leader and inspiration; the Vengeance is Madame Defarge’s most zealous lieutenant and acts to carry out her will.
• Ernest Defarge A fellow revolutionary and co-worker in the wine-shop whom she accompanies in public and planning.
• Jacques Three An associate in the wood-sawyer’s meeting and a conspiratorial companion in arranging denunciations and arrests.
• Jarvis Lorry A witness to a threatening visit: she accompanies the Defarges when they present news to Lorry and Lucie, casting a shadow over Lucie’s household.
• Lucie Manette An object of menace: the Vengeance helps identify and celebrate the targeting of Lucie’s family as part of the Evrémonde vengeance.
• Dr. Manette A focus of her animus toward the Evrémonde line—she approves when documents linked to the Doctor inflame the tribunal against aristocrats.

Quotes by The Vengeance

“We have seen nothing else,”

Chapter 3The Vengeance confirms the Defarges’ long experience of suffering and hints at their hardened resentment toward the social order.

“I call it my Little Guillotine. La, la, la; La, la, la! And off his head comes!”

Chapter 5Shows how revolutionary violence is joked about and normalized by ordinary people who mock execution while performing menial work.

“My husband, my father, and my brother!”

Chapter 10The woman's repeated refrain of trauma and the obsessive words that Manette records verbatim; they become a powerful, haunting element of the testimony.

Why The Vengeance matters

The Vengeance personifies the novel’s warning about how collective fury and gendered popular energy can harden into merciless fanaticism. As a vocal, action-oriented lieutenant to Madame Defarge she shows how private wrongs are translated into public instruments of terror, and how ordinary citizens—especially women in the quarter—become organized executors of revolutionary retribution. Her steady, unrepentant zeal underscores themes of justice versus vengeance, the contagiousness of hatred, and the moral cost of political rage.

Chapters with The Vengeance

• Chapter 5
• Chapter 22
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 12
• Chapter 14
• Chapter 15

More A Tale of Two Cities characters

• Dr. ManetteMajor character
• Lucie ManetteMajor character
• Jarvis LorryMajor character
• Charles DarnayProtagonist
• Ernest DefargeMajor character
• Madame DefargeAntagonist
• Miss ProssMajor character
• Sydney CartonProtagonist