Chapter Summary:
Chapter 5 moves our story to a suburb of Paris called Saint Antoine. As the chapter begins, a wine cask has been broken in the steets and all the nearby people have rushed to the scene with any vessel they can find to scoop up as much wine as they can. Monsieur Defarge, the wine shop owner, comes out into the street to see what is going on. When he gets out there he sees a man writing the word BLOOD on a wall. (Because they are in Paris now he would have actually written SANG which is the French word for blood.) Defarge enters the wine shop and sees an older gentleman (Mr. Lorry) and a young lady (Lucie). Defarge goes over to the counter, trying to ignore the pair, and begins a discussion with three gentleman all oddly names Jacques. (This subject will be discussed in the historical context section below). After a bit, Mr. Lorry approaches Defarge, they have a brief conversation, and then Defarge, Mr. Lorry and Miss Manette all go up some stairs (actually quite a lot of stairs) to a room where Dr. Manette is. When they get to the top of the staircase, they see the three Jacques all looking in a peep hole. Apparently Monsieur Defarge has been charging people with revolutionary minds entrance to see Dr. Manette in a hope that it will fuel the impending fire of revolution. The Jacques are dismissed and then Defarge, Lucie and Mr. Lorry all enter the dimly lit room where Dr. Manette is sitting hunched over a shoe makers bench making shoes.
Historical Context:
Saint Antoine: Saint Antoine became a suburb of Paris in 1702. It is a very poor area that is mostly made up of manufacturing jobs where the working class would live. The area was named after a church built in honor of a saint named Anthony. Saint Antoine (the city) is best known for its revolunitionary fervor, havingplayed a huge part in the revolutionary uprising in 1789 among others. Saint Antoine is the home of the infamous Bastille. Dickens will often personify Saint Antoine, as he does on page 34, and refer to the city as "he". Look for that throughout the book.
Hunger: Hunger is also personified in chapter 5. Dickens does this to strengthen our sence of the crushing poverty on Saint Antoine. Page 34, the big, long paragraph, described hunger. In one sentence Dickens talks about the baker's loaves. The emphasis on bread is partly a figure of speech for food of all kinds, yet is also partly literal: Bread provided about half the calories of an adult diet in the 18th century.
Page 34 also mentions chips of potato. This seems to be a precurser to the modern french fry. Fried fish were sold on English street corners, but at this point in time, chips (french fries) were still a uniquely French thing.
Jacques: The book talks about a triumverate of Jacques. Triumverate means three but suggests some political connection as does seem to be the case here. The use of the name Jacques here is reminiscent the term Jacquerie which was used to describe the French peasantry who were involved in a 14-century Northern French revolution. That revolution occured in the town of Beauvais, the town Dr. Manette happens to come from. The term Jacques seems to be being used by Monsieur Defarge to spur the revolutionary feelings of the time.
Sanitation: Paris sanitation was more or less non-existant until the 14th century when the king at the time, Phillipe Agustus, had the roads paved with paving stones to help minimize the smell that had been created in the roads because all garbage and waste was simply thrown out the windows into the streets below. In the 16th century, in response to plague, it was mandated that every dwelling have cesspools built underneath. A cesspool seems to be some sort of sewer system. As far as I can tell, that is where they would dispose of waste. Garbage, however, was still thrown into the streets. Kennels, surface drains or gutters, were built down the middle of the streets to flush all the garbage away.
Vocabulary:
staves (pg. 33): narrow shaped pieces of wood that when fitted together make the sides to a cask
squalid (pg. 33): Extremely dirty and unpleasant, esp. as a result of poverty or neglect
farthing-porirnger (pg. 34): Extremely dirty and unpleasant, esp. as a result of poverty or neglect
engendered (pg. 40): Cause or give rise to (a feeling, situation, or condition).
doleful (pg. 41): Expressing sorrow; mournful
languishing (pg. 41): Lose or lack vitality; grow weak
Stacy's Thoughts:
The whole opening scene of this chapter with the wine on the street conveys several messages to me. First is the picture of poverty that is created. All those people are scooping up wine from muddy, filthy, unsanitary streets. They must be in dire straights to do that. The second message I get from this scene is the foreshadowing of the revolution we know is to come. Especially when Gaspard, a character we will meet again, is writing the word BLOOD on the wall. The streets that are now stained with wine will soon be stained with blood from Madam Guillotine.
I think Dickens did a fabulous job in personifying Hunger of portraying life at the time. The people were certainly in "tough economic times". When you are hungry something's gotta give. I am not sure if Monsieur Defarge can be trusted or not.
I don't think Madam Defarge can be trusted but I am still on the fence about Monsieur Defarge.
Points to Ponder:
What is the power that has ground these people down? What does this tell us about the conditions in France?
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