We have changed our privacy policy. In addition, we use cookies on our website for various purposes. By continuing on our website, you consent to our use of cookies. You can learn about our practices by reading our privacy policy.

A Tale of Two Cities Volume I, Chapter Five – The Wine-Shop Summary

  • We flash to Paris: in front of a wine-shop, a great big ol’ barrel of wine has fallen and broken open.
  • It’s like the entire street won the lottery.
  • Everyone dives into the road, heedless of the dirt or of traffic.
  • They soak up wine with buckets and glasses and their hands and their shirts.
  • Everything quickly becomes bright red.
  • Foreshadowing, anyone? Well, yes. Yes, it is. As our narrator intones, this red will all too soon be replaced by the red of blood flowing in the streets.
  • In Saint Antoine, the district where the store is, everyone’s hands will soon become stained with blood, too.
  • How’s that for a nifty prediction?
  • Once the wine is all sopped up, however, the absolute poverty of the place is recognizable again.
  • People are hungry; shops are barely open; children are thin and undernourished.
  • The owner of the wine-shop, surveying the street, shrugs his shoulders.
  • After all, he didn’t spill the wine. It’s the merchant who’ll have to bear the loss of the casket.
  • Our narrator takes a second to look closely at Defarge.
  • Since he does, we will, too. Defarge is a bull-necked, barrel-chested sort of guy. He’s not exactly the type you’d like to meet in a dark alley.
  • Come to think of it, he’s not the sort of guy that you’d want to oppose at all.
  • Defarge walks into his store, where his wife sits knitting.
  • She’s strong and as steadfast as he seems to be. She sure doesn’t stop knitting, for one thing.
  • She coughs and rolls her eyes.
  • Defarge seems to know what she means. Apparently they have a secret language worked out.
  • He turns and looks at the old man and young woman who have seated themselves in the corner.
  • Any guesses as to who they are?
  • Defarge pretends not to notice them.
  • He starts up a conversation with other customers. Strangely enough, all of their names seem to be Jacques.
  • Either everyone’s mothers got together and decided to make the city identical, or something fishy is going on...
  • After some conversation with the Jacqueses, Defarge tells them that the room they all wanted to see is out back.
  • The three men all troop out to the back of the shop.
  • Turning to the old man (Mr. Lorry, in case you missed it), Defarge offers to lead them up to the doctor’s room.
  • On the way, Mr. Lorry asks if the doctor has changed much.
  • Defarge answers in one word, "Changed!"
  • Apparently he’s not really a man of words. He does hit the walls pretty expressively, though.
  • Mr. Lorry seems to get his meaning. He gets more and more worried as they ascend the staircase in the back of the shop.
  • They go up flights and flights of stairs. It’s dark and dingy and rather awful.
  • Mr. Lorry asks why Defarge has to keep the doctor under lock and key. It seems rather cruel after his imprisonment.
  • Defarge explains that the doctor has become so accustomed to the sound of a key turning in a lock that he can no longer exist without knowing that he’s under lock and key.
  • Convinced that the doctor might harm himself if he’s not kept guarded, Defarge has locked him into his room.
  • As they reach the top of the stairs, they run into Jacques one, two, and three.
  • Apparently the "room" that they were planning to see was also the doctor’s room.
  • Defarge pushes them out of the way as Lucie looks on, astounded.
  • When they enter the room, Mr. Lorry turns to Lucie, his eyes wet.
  • After all, he reminds her, it’s only business.
  • Lucie, scared to meet the man inside, hesitates at the doorframe.
  • Mr. Lorry sees her fear and helps her through the door.
  • In the darkness that blankets the room, they can just barely see the figure of a man: he’s sitting at a very low bench, making shoes.