What is the importance of "Madame Defarge" in the novel, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves?

Rose first encounters Madame Defarge early in the book when she is given the wrong suitcase by the airport. For Rose, Madame Defarge represents the relationship that she used to have with Fern. On a deeper level, she represents freedom. Everyone outside of the study always thought that Fern was just an animal or, at best, like a family pet. To Rose though, she was a sister and a person.

Rose makes the same assumption about Madame Defarge. While anyone else might have just seen an inanimate object, Rose imagines that the owner has a similar relationship to the doll that she had to Fern. Rose always refers to the doll by name and treats it like a person. Everyone else acts like it’s just a doll. This becomes one of the major vehicles for two themes, the sanctity of life and personal responsibility. Additionally, Madame Defarge (the dummy's name) represents a figure from A Tale of Two Cities, where the character was the vehicle of change.