The Red Stain

In Chapter 21 Book 2, I had confusion as to what was going on with Defarge and finding out about One Hundred and Five North Tower. Him and Jacques Three stormed into the cell and were searching all over for something. What were they looking for? Why is it so important that they find something? I thought that Defarge was through with talking to the Manette’s and didn’t seem to care about Mr. Manette, only the fact that Lucy had married Darnay. That was the one confusion I had with chapter 21. All the ideas previously mentioned ideas or symbolisms seem to really fall into place during this chapter.

Switching to Saint Antoine where we see Defarge and his revolutionists, it read, “Headlong, mad, and dangerous footsteps to force their way into anybody’s life, footsteps not easily made clean again if once stained red, and footsteps raging in Saint Antoine afar off, as the little circle sat in the dark London window.” (222).

At very end of the chapter after all the chaos it refers back to the “red stain”, “Now, Heaven defeat the fancy of Lucie Darnay, and keep these feet far out of her life! For, they are headlong, mad, and dangerous; and in the years so long after the breaking of the cask at Defarge’s wine-shop door, they are not easily purified once stained red.” (230).

There is a lot going on in these two paragraphs, and they are both very insightful and similar. The second paragraph means that Lucy will be attacked, and Dickens clearly sees that as a bad thing because he says, “keep these feet far out of her life!” Dickens also repeated “headlong, mad, and dangerous” in both of the quotes. I think that Defarge and his men will find a reason to come after Doctor Manette as well as revenge on Darnay because of his family. I looked up the definition of cask: A large barrel like container, used for storing liquids, typically alcoholic drinks. The red stain is now being brought back from the first book, how the wine was spilled; I now I think it is more of a reference to blood. Now that Defarge and everyone who was with him have left the red stain, and it cannot be removed. The damage is done. And the same thing is going to happen to Lucy.

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