The Knitting

Atwood has a theory about Madame Defarge that most readings flinch from: Dickens is half in love with her. The wine-shop keeper with the moving needles is knitting a death list, and the book knows it, and still writes her with growing admiration, right down to the ankles. Atwood traces the figure back through the Fates, explains why her childlessness is the whole trick, and names her, flatly, the female center of the novel, Carton's true counterpart. Which leaves one question: who could possibly stand against her? The answer is nobody's idea of a heroine.