Insights into Book the Second, Chapter 15 “Knitting”

Be sure that you understand the allusion in the chapter title for Chapter 15—and make sure you observe that Chapter 16 is a companion chapter to this one.

Note the allusion at the top of page 166 to the first paragraph of the book.

At the top of page 166, be sure that you understand the allusion when the narrator says that the Defarge wine had “[n]o Bacchanalian flame” in it. (This allusion to Bacchus should bring remembrance of our study of Antigone.)

The first full paragraph on page 166 (“This had been the third morning”) is important foreshadowing. The narrator lets us know that the revolution’s birth pains are getting stronger.

On page 167 (at the top of the page), we see Defarge and the mender of roads, who has something important to share with those in the wine-shop. Be sure you can retell his narrative.

Throughout his narrative, notice how well the mender of roads pays attention to details. This attention to detail will be important later on in the book.

In the discussion of Defarge and the others in the wine-shop (p. 174), we learn the significance of Madame Defarge’s knitting. YOU MUST BE ABLE TO EXPLAIN WHY HER KNITTING IS SO IMPORTANT.

On the last two pages of chapter 16, the metaphors of “dolls” and “birds” become extremely important. Make sure you can explain who the “dolls” and “birds” are—and how that imagery relates to Madame Defarge taking the mender of roads to see King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. (Remember: We saw the “birds” foreshadowed on page 31.)