Anna of the Five Towns · Chapter
IV: A Visit explained
Anna attends a Special Teachers' Meeting to plan a Revival, where she is publicly called upon to visit the homes of her Sunday-school scholars.
What happens
Anna attends a Special Teachers' Meeting to plan a Revival, where she is publicly called upon to visit the homes of her Sunday-school scholars. After the meeting, Henry Mynors walks her home, expressing his genuine concern for her spiritual welfare. At home, Mynors joins the family for supper, and Anna grapples with her feelings of inadequacy and her growing admiration for him.
Themes in this chapter
Religious Hypocrisy and Methodism
Anna feels she exists only on the fringe of Methodist society, unconverted and pretending, while the Revival's organizational machinery is revealed as a blend of spiritual fervor and worldly diplomacy.
Female Agency and Constraint
Anna is publicly called upon to participate in the Revival visits, yet she feels powerless in her financial and spiritual life, unable to keep her own money or openly profess her faith.
Money and Moral Corruption
Ephraim Tellwright immediately takes the money Anna collected from Price, reinforcing her lack of financial autonomy and the corrupting influence of patriarchal control over wealth.
Characters to notice
- Anna Tellwright
Attends the teachers' meeting, feels self-conscious and spiritually inadequate, and is deeply influenced by Mynors' presence and prayer.
- Henry Mynors
Leads the meeting with authority and grace, prays for the unconverted, and later walks Anna home, expressing concern for her spiritual state.
- Willie Price
Greets Anna at the meeting; had previously informed her about the meeting.
- Ephraim Tellwright
Interrogates Anna about the money from Price, takes her bank books, and receives Mynors at home for supper.
- Agnes Tellwright
Excitedly prepares supper, is kissed by Mynors, and shows affection toward him.
Key passages
“The gradual centring of public interest, however—that mysterious movement which, defying analysis, gathers force as it proceeds, and ends by coercing the most indifferent—had already modified her attitude towards this forthcoming event.”
The growing public excitement about the Revival, an inexplicable force that builds momentum and eventually compels even the uninterested, had begun to change Anna's feelings about it.
Describes the social pressure and collective enthusiasm that draws Anna into the Revival.
“She had not been converted; technically she was a lost creature: the converted knew it, and in some subtle way their bearing towards her, and others in her case, always showed that they knew it.”
Anna was not a convert and was considered spiritually lost; the converted members of the congregation subtly indicated their awareness of this status in their interactions with her.
Highlights Anna's sense of spiritual alienation and the social divide between the converted and unconverted.
“Like most of us, she lacked the high courage to grasp happiness boldly and without apprehension; she had not learnt that nothing is too good to be true.”
Anna, like many people, was too timid to seize happiness confidently and without fear, not yet understanding that wonderful things can indeed happen.
Reflects Anna's hesitation and self-doubt in accepting Mynors' apparent interest in her.