The Grindstone

"As these ruffians turned and turned, their matted locks now flung forward over their eyes, now flung backwards over their necks, some women held wine to their mouths that they might drink; and what with dripping blood, and what with dropping wine, and what with the stream of sparks struck out of the stone, all their wicked atmosphere seemed gore and fire. The eye could not detect one creature in the group free from the smear of blood" (267).

In this passage, both wine and blood have a negative connotation. The peasants are murdering the prisoners (the nobility). Dickens paints this as a very gory, gruesome scene. You can almost envision the red of the blood and anger which the peasants are feeling. The wine is a part of the mob mentality. Individually, I am sure these peasants would not be comfortable murdering lots of prisoners just because they were nobles. However, once they are drinking and in a mob like setting, their behavior changes completely. Every single peasant had blood smeared on them, and I took this to mean that they were all individually guilty for what they were doing to these prisoners. We are taught to like Darnay, but we sympathize for the peasants too, therefore the passage is confusing and passionate.
In this passage, the drunkeness is meant to resemble the crowds and how out of control and inhumane the public has become in its rage.

The Sea Still Rises

“As if a train of powder laid from the outermost bound of the Saint Antoine Quarter to the wine-shop door, had been suddenly fired a fast-spreading murmur came rushing along. ‘It is Defarge,’ said madame. ‘Silence, patriots!’ Defarge came in breathless, pulled off a red cap he wore.” (231)

In Chapter 22, the French Revolution is clearly beginning in a dramatic fashion. This quote is using the metaphor of an explosion to show the progress of the revolutionaries and their mission. After the rebels stormed and captured the Bastille, and basically took control of Paris, men like Monsieur Defarge feel more confident displaying their status as a Jacques. Before the rebellion started and in its early stages, the revolutionaries only showed their beliefs by calling each other Jacques. Now, with the whole city secured and under control, the Jacques can more publicly display their status, like with these red caps. Also, the foreshadowing of the aristocratic bloodshed has changed symbols. For most of the novel up to this point, the wine in the wine shop has symbolized blood. Now, along with the wine, the red cap also symbolizes the bloodshed to come in the later stages of the revolution.

Echoing Footsteps

"Saint Antoine's blood was up, and the blood of the tyranny and domination by the iron hand was down -- down on the steps of the Hotel de Ville where the governor's body lay -- down on the sole of the shoe of Madame Defarge where she had trodden on the body to steady it for mutilation" (229).
In this passage, the overall ideas that have occurred are summarized. I interpret this as blood being wine, so if Saint Antoine's blood is up, they have more wine. "The blood of the tyranny and domination by the iron hand" being down means the aristocracy has run out of their wine and their delusion. The people of Saint Antoine are having this bacchanalian revolt and intoxicating themselves with blood. Other people's lives mean nothing to them anymore, as we see with Madame Defarge beheading the governor without any hesitation or regret. Everyone only lives for the next bottle of blood. The "party" is getting out of control and everyone is getting obscenely blood-drunk. The aristocracy has had their time and perhaps regret past actions as they come down from their drunkenness, for they have had their share of peasant blood.

One Night

I know this is from an older chapter, but this passage was very interesting.
"His collected and calm manner could not prevent her blood from running cold, as he thus tried to anatomis his old condition. 'I that more peaceful state, I have imagined her, in the moonlight, coming to me and taking me out to show me that the home of her married life was full of her loving remembrance of her lost father'" (p. 197)

In this passage, the image of 'blood running cold' corresponds to the motif of blood and wine of life. On the eve of her marriage to Charles, Lucie sits with her father outside under the tree, and for the first time, Lucie gets to hear about her father's struggles and life during his imprisonment. I found it very interesting to read about what his thoughts were like, in such a dark place. Dr. Manette describes to Lucie the questions that haunted him - whether or not his baby was alive, whether it was a son who'd seek revenge, or a daughter who'd care for him. Lucie, being sensible and emotional, receives chills just from hearing the calm and composed way in which her father recounts his memories. For Lucie, her father (after she has revived him) has become human again, relateable. But hearing these grim lingering memories, under circumstances so unimaginable to Lucie, chills her blood. It is human nature to lose your warmth and secure feeling when something frightening is recounted to you, and her father's imprisonment was so inhumane and dreadful. In trying to relate with her father during that time, Lucie's blood runs cold, symbolizing loss of life, just as the imprisonment for Doctor Manette was indeed loss of his life.

Echoing Footsteps

“Headlong, mad, and dangerous footsteps to force their way into anybody’s life, footsteps not easily made clean again if once stained red, and footsteps raging in Saint Antoine afar off, as the little circle sat in the dark London window (222).”
In Chapter 21 we begin to read about an event that is greatly anticipated throughout the novel, The French Revolution. In the small French town of Saint Antoine, bloodshed begins to occur as the townspeople begin their revolt against the aristocracy. The revolt is led by the Defarges, the owners of the local wine shop. Over in London, Lucie listens for footsteps of people who may enter her life, and she now hears those of the revolutionaries. This passage connects with the Blood and Wine motif, for the owners of the wine shop, the Defarges, are helping to lead a gruesome attack that is destroying France. This sheds light on the fact that the revolution is nearly impossible to escape, and it permanently affects the lives of everyone in both England and France.

Echoing Footsteps

“Now, Heaven defeat the fancy of Lucie Darnay, and keep these feet far out of her life! For they are headlong, mad, and dangerous; and in the years so long after the breaking of the cask at Defarge’s wine-shop door, they are not easily purified once stained red.”(pg 230 Echoing Footsteps)
This passage shows the picture of Lucie Darnay and her family. Dickens clearly clues in that her family will be in danger if they travel to France or if the revolution carries over to England. For now she is safe because the “footsteps” or the travel of the Jacquerie are far away from her but it is clear that she will be in danger soon. It is made clear to the reader when Dickens talks about the footsteps being stained red and that they are not easily purified. He is saying that the revolutionists are bloodthirsty and once they have started killing, which they have, they will want even more revenge and “justification” and that it will not be easy for them to stop once they have started. I think that this is a great passage because it leaves the reader hanging. Dickens makes the reader like Lucie and her family so now that he has foreshadowed danger in her life it leaves them worried and wondering what will happen to her.

Knitting

"This had been the third morning in succession, on which there had been early drinking at the wine-shop of Monsieur Defarge (171)."
In the beginning of Chapter 15, Madame Defarge patiently awaits the return of her husband while her shop becomes exceptionably crowded at the early hour of 6 a.m. The men lazily spend their days in the shop as they empty out their pockets with the last of their change. Although it may seem as though these men are trying to escape their miserable lives, their hunger for change and political freedom is becoming deeper as their lives are getting rougher. The Wine of Life gradually vanishing in preparation for those whose lives will be lost. While the men seem to carelessly drink away their problems for hours, they are really just bloodthirsty for a revolution.

Knitting

“‘As they descend the hill like madmen running a race, he falls. They laugh and pick him up again. His face is bleeding and covered with dust, but he cannot touch it; thereupon, they laugh again.’” (175)

This quote comes from Chapter 15 when the mender of roads is telling the three men called Jacques about Gaspard’s unfortunate fate. Up to this point in the novel, nearly all of Dickens’s references to blood and/or wine had been to symbolize and foreshadow the spilt blood of the French aristocrats. In this passage, and the mender of roads’ whole story, Dickens shows us the other side of the story, the reason that the peasants want to revolt. As the soldiers take Gaspard through the town and to his gallows, they seem to make a point of ridiculing him and showing him to the people, as if to make an example out of him. They seem to be saying to the people to stay in line of they will end up like poor Gaspard. After reading through this passage a second time, it reminded me of the crucifixion of Jesus, the way the Roman soldiers spat on, crowned, stripped, and then laughed at Jesus, and then led him through the crowds of people in Jerusalem.

Still Knitting...

"'Marvelous cognac this, madame.' It was the first time it had ever been so complimented, and Madame Defarge knew enough of its antecedents to know better. She said, however, that the cognac was flattered, and took up her knitting" (p 187).
In this passage, John Barsad, the man with a "sinister expression," ordered cognac, which is a brandy distilled from a French white wine. Barsad is a spy sent to infiltrate the Defarges' group of Jacques and disrupt their plans for revolution. Madame Defarge immediately knows not to trust him. I think this could be for a variety of reasons. Going by the idea that wine is a metaphor for blood, Barsad did not really choose the correct drink, since, first, he chose brandy and, second, he chose a brandy derived from white wine. Perhaps if he had chosen a red wine, he would have been a sneakier spy since red wine corresponds more with blood than white wine. When he lies about the quality of his brandy, "Madame Defarge knew enough of its antecedents to know better," saw right through his act, and knew this man could not be trusted.
Sorry this is sort of off topic but just to put this out there, Barsad was one of the people testifying against Darnay and so was Roger Cly, the man who was convicted of being a traitor in "The Honest Tradesman".

The Fellow of Delicacy

"The necessity of being angry in a suppressed tone had put Mr. Stryver's blood vessels into a dangerous state when it was his turn to be angry; Mr. Lorry's veins, methodical as their courses could usually be, were in no better state now it was is turn" (P. 151). I think this is a very interesting passage, contrasting both the characters of Stryver and Mr. Lorry, while also adding to the image of bloodshed /flowing blood in the novel. Here, the image of pumping blood is seen as a result of emotion. Mr. Stryver is angry that Mr. Lorry does not agree that he is not the most suitable man for Lucie to marry, even though he his extremely qualified. Mr. Lorry is angry because of the disrespectful tone Mr. Stryver took toward Lucie. Similar to Mr. Stryver's personality, big, loud, boastful, and narcistic, makes it hard for him to control his anger in such a quiet and reserved place like Tellsons, causing his blood vessels to work over time to pump blood. On the other hand, Mr. Lorry, being merely a 'man of business,' who works systematically and precisely, usually careful not to express emotion, was so angry that his blood vessels were pumping as hard as Mr. Stryvers. The high emotions between Mr. Stryver and Mr. Lorry at this pint are the causes of strain upon their blood vessels and this is not the first time that emotions have been in a cause and effect relationship with the image of blood - recall the peasants when the wine was spilled in the streets of St. Antoine - at first excited and frolicking in the wine (symbolizing blood), the poor oppressed peasants became overly excited due to the free wine. Clearly, the image of flowing blood is seen in both of these chapters, and it may foreshadow the flowing blood of the nobles when the peasants, full of anger towards their oppressors, lash out, unable to suppress their emotions any longer.

The Gorgon's Head: Monsieur the Marquis

“It grew lighter and lighter, until at last the sun touched the tops of the still trees, and poured radiance over the hill. In glow, the water of the chateau fountain seemed to turn to blood, and the stone faces crimsoned.” (pg 132 The Gorgon’s Head)
I think that this is a very strong and descriptive passage. It first mentions the radiance of the sun coming over the land and it makes it sound like a beautiful scene. It then seems to take a darker turn saying that the fountain of water now looks a fountain of blood. I think that this symbolizes the death of Gaspard’s child and the revenge that he is planning for Monsieur the Marquis. It also says that the stone faces on the chateau turned crimson making them sound and look sinister. I think that this passage was important because it foreshadows some sort of bloody war or revolution to come.

Monsieur the Marquis in Town

“‘You are a philosopher, you there,’ said the Marquis, smiling. ‘How do they call you?’ ‘They call me Defarge.’ ‘Of what trade?’ ‘Monsieur the Marquis, vendor of wine.’” (115)

At the time of this passage, Monsieur the Marquis has just hit the child in St. Antoine. Just before this quote, Defarge tries to comfort Gaspard by saying, “It has died in a moment without pain. Could it have lived an hour as happily?” (115). This is when Defarge and Monsieur the Marquis begin their short conversation. Monsieur Defarge seems to tell his occupation in an ominous tone. If this wine is a metaphor for blood as Dickens has used it before, Defarge would be saying, very matter-of-fact like and to a nobleman no less, that he will be a part of the killing and the bloodshed in the French Revolution.

FIRST POST (from Congratulatory)

“‘I think you have been drinking Mr Carton.’ ‘Think? You know I have been drinking. … I am a disappointed drudge, sir. I care for no man on earth, and no man on earth cares for me.’ … He resorted to his pint of wine for consolation, drank it all in a few minutes, and fell asleep on his arms, with his hair straggling over the table, and a long winding-sheet in the candle dripping down upon him.” (88-89)

At the end of chapter 4, Mr. Darnay and Mr. Carton go off to a tavern to have a drink and some food. At the end of their conversation, Mr. Carton asks Mr. Darnay if he thinks he (Carton) is drunk. Darnay says that he has been drinking, and then Carton says that he is cared for by no one and in turn cares for no one. At the very end, Carton falls asleep on the table. This passage shows the negative effects of wine. Despite their extremely similar physical appearance, the two men are completely different; Darnay is everything Carton could and should have been. Carton, who once had a promising future, resorted to alcohol to solve his problems. Now while Darnay is a successful businessman, Carton is asleep on the table.