Although the news from Doctor Manette is hopeful, the menacing presence of Madame Defarge offsets it. Defarge's discomfort with the interview is apparent in his reserved manner and especially when Madame Defarge catches him worriedly biting his fingernail. Madame Defarge, on the other hand, is as cold and pitiless as ever, and the reader gets the feeling that the names and descriptions of Lucie and her daughter will shortly appear knitted into the register.
Madame Defarge's cold confidence causes her to make an error in judgment, however. She underestimates Lucie. Throughout the book, Dickens has shown Lucie and Madame Defarge to be opposites: Lucie represents love and compassion, while Madame Defarge represents revenge and retribution. For Dickens, Lucie encompasses all that is ideal in a woman — her morality, her kind heart, her domesticity, and her success as a wife and mother. On the other hand, Madame Defarge exemplifies the ultimate "unnatural"woman, foregoing all of the ideal qualities Lucie exhibits in order to devote her life to hatred and vengeance. What Madame Defarge cannot predict or understand is the degree of loyalty and power that Lucie commands through her loving and generous heart.
