A Tale of Two Cities · Chapter
The Wine-Shop explained
In the impoverished Saint Antoine district of Paris, a cask of wine is spilled in the street, and the starving residents scramble to drink it, staining themselves and the ground red.
What happens
In the impoverished Saint Antoine district of Paris, a cask of wine is spilled in the street, and the starving residents scramble to drink it, staining themselves and the ground red. The scene shifts to the wine-shop of Monsieur Defarge, where Mr. Jarvis Lorry and Lucie Manette arrive. Defarge leads them up through a foul tenement to a locked garret, where Dr. Manette has been imprisoned for eighteen years. Defarge explains that the door must be kept locked to prevent the doctor from going mad. Three men named Jacques, who had been spying through the door, are dismissed by Defarge before Lorry and Lucie enter.
Themes in this chapter
Social Injustice and Revolution
The grinding poverty, hunger, and oppression of the people in Saint Antoine are vividly portrayed, with the spilled wine and the 'blood' scrawled on the wall foreshadowing revolutionary violence.
Resurrection and Renewal
Dr. Manette's 'recall to life' from his long imprisonment is the central event of the chapter, as Lorry and Lucie come to free him from his garret.
Characters to notice
- Mr. Jarvis Lorry
Accompanies Lucie Manette to the wine-shop and up to Dr. Manette's garret, showing concern for her agitation and speaking words of reassurance.
- Lucie Manette
Deeply anxious and trembling as she ascends to her father's garret, her dread and terror evident to Mr. Lorry.
- Monsieur Defarge
The keeper of the wine-shop, who leads Lorry and Lucie to the garret, reveals that Dr. Manette is locked in, and explains his reasoning to Lorry in a whisper.
- Doctor Manette
The unseen occupant of the locked garret, who has been imprisoned for so long that opening the door would cause him to rave or harm himself.
- Gaspard
A tall joker who scrawls 'blood' on the wall with wine-lees after the cask breaks, and is addressed by Defarge across the street.
- Jacques
Three men named Jacques who were spying through chinks in the door of Dr. Manette's room; they are dismissed by Defarge as 'good boys'.
Key passages
“The wine was red wine, and had stained the ground of the narrow street in the suburb of Saint Antoine, in Paris, where it was spilled. It had stained many hands, too, and many faces, and many naked feet, and many wooden shoes.”
The red wine spilled in Saint Antoine soaked the street and left marks on the hands, faces, and feet of the people who tried to drink it.
This image of staining foreshadows the blood that will later be spilled in the same streets during the Revolution.
“The time was to come, when that wine too would be spilled on the street-stones, and when the stain of it would be red upon many there.”
A future time would come when blood, not wine, would be spilled on these same stones, staining many people.
The narrator directly links the spilled wine to the coming bloodshed of the Revolution.
“I think it necessary to turn the key. Because he has lived so long, locked up, that he would be frightened—rave—tear himself to pieces—die—come to I know not what harm—if his door was left open.”
Defarge insists on keeping the door locked because Dr. Manette, after years of solitary confinement, would become terrified and possibly harm himself if it were left open.
This reveals the psychological damage of Dr. Manette's imprisonment and the care needed in his 'resurrection.'