Summary

The second chapter begins in Père Colombe’s Assommoir, where Coupeau has asked Gervaise to accompany him for a brandied plum. Coupeau first with her endlessly, inquiring as to her history with Lantier and the children, all the while insinuating that he and Gervaise should be together. She resists his advances, making up small excuses as to why their marriage would be a poor idea; the assommoir begins to fill, with workmen immediately traveling from their place of employment directly to the liquor shop.

A few of these men know Coupeau, and Mes-Bottes, the ringleader of the group, joking refers to Coupeau as “Cadet-Cassis,” in reference to the zinc roofer’s distaste for hard alcohol. Coupe shrugs them off, and tells Gervaise of his distaste for the heavy drinkers in the room, and ironic foreshadowing of his own alcoholism later in the novel...