A Tale of Two Cities: Book 1, Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

Outside a wine shop in the poor Parisian suburb of Saint Antoine, a cask of wine accidentally falls and breaks in the street. Everyone in the area scrambles to drink the runoff: cupping their hands, slurping it out of gutters, licking it off the fragments of the broken cask. It turns into a game with dancing and singing in the streets. The wine has stained the ground, stained people's skin and clothes. Someone jokingly uses the spilled wine to scrawl the word "Blood" on a wall.

The jubilation fades and the street returns to its sad, dirty, impoverished condition. The people are sick and aged, beaten down by hunger.

Monsieur Defarge, the owner of the wine shop, enters his store. From her position behind the counter, his wife, Madame Defarge, silently alerts him to the presence of Mr. Lorry and Lucie. Defarge ignores them, instead lamenting the condition of the people with three men, all of whom go by the name "Jacques" (a code name used by revolutionaries in France).

Once the "Jacques" have left, Mr. Lorry speaks with Monsieur Defarge. Defarge leads Mr. Lorry and Lucie up to his attic. The room is dark and kept locked for the sake of the inhabitant, Monsieur Defarge explains. Lucie leans on Mr. Lorry for support. Defarge opens the door and they see a white-haired man in the corner stooped over a bench and making shoes.