Study Questions
1. What is happening at the beginning of this chapter?

2. What does the man write on the wall? What does this foreshadow?

3. What kind of town is Saint Antoine?

4. Who are the proprietors of the wine-shop?

5. What is the significance of the name “Jacques”?

6. What is the impression of Madame Defarge from this chapter?

7. Why does Defarge show Dr. Manette to the “Jacques”?

8. Where is Dr. Manette being held?

9. What is Lucie’s reaction upon seeing him?

10. What is Dr. Manette doing when they enter his room?

Answers
1. A cask of wine has broken open on the street of a Paris suburb. All of the townspeople are engaged in drinking the wine and staining themselves with its red color.

2. He writes “BLOOD.” This anticipates the real blood that will be spilled in the name of revolution.

3. Saint Antoine is described as a place full of “cold, dark, sickness, ignorance, and want.”

4. The proprietors of the wine-shop are Ernest and Therese Defarge.

5. The peasants adopted this name from what the nobility called them. They turned a derogatory name into one that helped give them a sense of common purpose.

6. She is “stout” and ominous; she can be seen as the polar opposite of the diffident Lucie Manette.

7. He feels that Dr. Manette is a symbol of the cruelty of the ruling class.

8. He is being held in a tiny, dark room in an apartment above the wine-shop.

9. She is scared and reaches to Mr. Lorry for comfort.

10. He is bent over a bench, making shoes.