Madame Defarge, one of literature's most horrifying characters, knits as the heads roll in Dickens' tale of the French Revolution. She is the symbol of the Revolution's malevolence. Dickens masterfully contrasts the cruelties of the Old Regime with the savagery of the formerly oppressed peasants visiting their suffering upon the heads of the nobility and all those accused of counterrevolutionary activity. At the same time, the alternative to both the old guard and the modern guillotine is the possibility of redemption. It is a vision laid out by one of the most unlikely characters in this novel, Sidney Carton, who gives his own life in order that the protagonist, Charles Darnay, might live. This hope rises above the crimes of nobility and peasants alike, outliving Madame Defarge herself.
《双城记》是英国作家查尔斯·狄更斯所著的一部以法国大革命为背景所写成的长篇历史小说，首次出版于1859年。
故事中将巴黎、伦敦两个大城市连结起来，围绕着马内特医生一家和以德发日夫妇为首的圣安东尼区展开故事。小说里描写了贵族如何败坏、如何残害百姓，人民心中积压对贵族的刻骨仇恨，导致了不可避免的法国大革命。书名中的“双城”指的是巴黎与伦敦。
