A Tale of Two Cities

A crowd of people gathers on a street in Saint Antoine to drink the wine that has spilled from a broken cask. As the wine mixes with dirt from the road, one man dips his finger in the mud and writes the word “blood” on a wall.

Saint Antoine itself is a Parisian slum where “cold, dirt, sickness, ignorance, and want, [are] the lords in waiting” (32). Its residents are starving and prematurely aged, and virtually the only things still in good condition are “tools and weapons”—“the cutler’s knives and axes [are] sharp and bright, the smith’s hammers [are] heavy, and the gunmaker’s stock [is] murderous” (33). As people scramble for the last of the wine, a man—Monsieur Defarge—looks on from his wine-shop. He wipes the word “blood” off the wall and scolds the man who put it there—Gaspard—for writing the word so openly.

Defarge then returns to his shop, where his wife—a “stout woman […] with a watchful eye that seldom seemed to look at anything” (35)—is knitting behind the counter. Ignoring the presence of an old man and a young woman, Defarge begins to talk with a couple of customers: the men all call one another “Jacques” and lament the fact that the crowd outside is so desperate for food and drink. At a signal from his wife, Defarge directs these men to a room on the fifth floor.

After a brief conversation, Defarge takes the old man and the girl (who turn out to be Mr. Lorry and Lucie) into a “little black courtyard” (37) and up a filthy flight of stairs. As they walk, Defarge angrily explains that Doctor Manette, whom he had once worked for as a servant, is now so “changed” (38) that he must be kept alone in a locked room for his own safety.

The men Defarge had spoken to earlier are peering into the garret when Defarge, Lorry, and Lucie arrive, but Defarge sends them away. Lorry questions whether it’s right to “make a show of Monsieur Manette” (40), but Defarge insists he has good reasons for doing so. He then unlocks the door and waves the others in, Miss Manette so frightened that Lorry has to support her. Defarge locks the door behind them as they notice “a white-haired man [sitting] on a low bench, stooping forward and very busy, making shoes” (41).

Defarge greets Doctor Manette, who explains that he is “working” (42). He does not notice his daughter or Mr. Lorry, but when Defarge lets more light into the room, the pair see just how emaciated and worn-out Manette truly is.

Although Manette often seems unaware that anyone is speaking, Defarge eventually persuades him to show Lorry the shoe he is making. He explains that he learned to make shoes “here”—i.e. in prison—but doesn’t seem to remember what he did before, or even who he is; when asked, he gives his name as “One Hundred and Five, North Tower” (44). As he looks at Lorry, however, “some long-obliterated marks of an actively intent intelligence […] gradually [force] themselves through the black mist that had fallen on him” (45).

Meanwhile, Lucie has been drawing closer to her father, who finally notice her. Although confused and somewhat disturbed, Manette gradually allows her to sit next to him. He then takes out a lock of hair from a pouch around his neck and compares it with his daughter’s (the hair belonged to his wife and was found on his sleeve the night he was arrested). When he muses aloud that Lucie can’t be his wife, she drops to her knees and begs him to bless her, promising to reveal who she is later: “If, when I hint to you of a Home there is before us, where I will be true to you with all my duty and with all my faithful service, I bring back the remembrance of a Home long desolate […] weep for it” (48). In response, Doctor Manette sinks into his daughter’s embrace and begins crying.

Once her father is calmer, Lucie asks Defarge and Lorry to arrange for their return to England. They do so and then return to fetch Manette and Lucie that evening. The doctor is largely unaware of what is happening, but clings to his daughter’s hand and takes comfort in her voice. As they prepare to board a coach, he asks for his shoemaking tools, and Madame Defarge fetches them. Lorry, Lucie, and Doctor Manette pass out of the city, with Lorry wondering all the while whether the doctor is happy to have been “dug out” (53).