<P> During the fight with Miss Pross, Madame Defarge clings to her with "more than the hold of a drowning woman". Commentators on the novel have noted the irony that Madame Defarge is killed by her own gun, and perhaps Dickens means by the above quote to suggest that such vicious vengefulness as Madame Defarge's will eventually destroy even its perpetrators . </P> <P> So many read the novel in a Freudian light, as exalting the (British) superego over the (French) id . Yet in Carton's last walk, he watches an eddy that "turned and turned purposeless, until the stream absorbed it, and carried it onto the sea"--his fulfilment, while masochistic and superego - driven, is nonetheless an ecstatic union with the subconscious . </P> <P> As is frequent in European literature, good and evil are symbolized by light and darkness . Lucie Manette is the light, as represented literally by her name; and Madame Defarge is darkness . Darkness represents uncertainty, fear, and peril . It is dark when Mr. Lorry rides to Dover; it is dark in the prisons; dark shadows follow Madame Defarge; dark, gloomy doldrums disturb Dr. Manette; his capture and captivity are shrouded in darkness; the Marquis's estate is burned in the dark of night; Jerry Cruncher raids graves in the darkness; Charles's second arrest also occurs at night . Both Lucie and Mr. Lorry feel the dark threat that is Madame Defarge . "That dreadful woman seems to throw a shadow on me," remarks Lucie . Although Mr. Lorry tries to comfort her, "the shadow of the manner of these Defarges was dark upon himself". Madame Defarge is "like a shadow over the white road", the snow symbolising purity and Madame Defarge's darkness corruption . Dickens also compares the dark colour of blood to the pure white snow: the blood takes on the shade of the crimes of its shedders . </P> <P> Charles Dickens was a champion of the poor in his life and in his writings . His childhood included some of the pains of poverty in England, as he had to work in a factory as a child to help his family . His father, John Dickens, continually lived beyond his means and eventually went to debtors' prison . Charles was forced to leave school and began working ten - hour days at Warren's Blacking Warehouse, earning six shillings a week . </P>

What is the best summary of this reading passage a tale of two cities