Dickens is highly critical of the French Revolution. But he does at least show the intelligence and the sympathy to acknowledge the fact that revolution is largely a reaction to poverty, ignorance, and exploitation. There was certainly plenty of all three in late 18th century England. The country was a potential tinder box of revolution, just waiting for a spark to set it off and bring the whole structure of government and society burning to the ground.
That this didn't happen is no thanks to England's stagnant social and political elite, as represented by Tellson's Bank. The upper classes, like the employees of this ancient financial institution, are completely indifferent to events in the outside world. Steeped in tradition, they instinctively see change, no matter how small or necessary, as a serious threat to the established order.
Yet this stubborn reluctance to move with the times actually makes it more...
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likely, not less, that change will come about and that when it comes, it will be violent and sudden. In the "very small, very dark, very ugly, very incommodious" confines of Tellson's Bank, Dickens provides ametaphor for the ignorant, uncaring, complacent social elite of England in the late 18th century. The message he seems to be delivering here is that change is coming whether the upper-classes like it or not. The only question is whether they will manage it or be destroyed by it.
Tellson’s Bank epitomizes English complacency because it is old, crusty, dusty, inefficient and stuck in time, yet the people there seem to like it that way.
Tellson’s is an old monster, sitting in the middle of its web of connections and making little effort anymore. This is similar to how Dickens thought of England, resting on its laurels, not making any effort to advance or improve, or even realize the world was changing.
Lorry comments that Tellson’s bank might be “a hundred and fifty” years old, and had been flourishing for a long time (Book 1, ch 4). It had changed little
It was very small, very dark, very ugly, very incommodious. It was an old-fashioned place, moreover, in the moral attribute that the partners in the House were proud of its smallness, proud of its darkness, proud of its ugliness, proud of its incommodiousness. (Book 2, ch 1)
Dickens describes Tellsons’s as “triumphant perfection of inconvenience” because it was so difficult for anyone to get anything done there. Yet the employees perpetuate this inefficiency, and do nothing to make things any easier for their customers. They do not respect their customers. Even employees who go into the bank as young men seem to be hidden away until they are old men. Nothing changes, and they see no need to change.
Dickens warns in the opening paragraph that his tale of the French Revolution is a cautionary one. Tellson’s is a perfect example of how some people get fat off of others’ hardsgips, ignoring the suffering of the masses. This is dangerous.