# On the Bank explained — Anna of the Five Towns > Chapter companion for Anna of the Five Towns by Arnold Bennett. ## What happens Anna begins to receive her July interest and dividends, a process that bewilders her and feels unreal. Despite her new fortune, she cannot spend any of it due to her father's control and the partnership agreement with Mynors. She visits Mynors' pottery works, where he shows her the manufacturing process, and she is awed by his knowledge and the scale of the operation. Later, her father returns and rebukes her for being out while he was away, demanding to know if Titus Price has sent rent. ## Themes in this chapter ### Money and Moral Corruption Anna's receipt of unearned income from investments bewilders her and feels unreal, highlighting the moral ambiguity of wealth without labor. ### Industrial Landscape and Provincial Life The detailed description of Mynors' pottery works, including the machinery and processes, illustrates the industrial landscape of Bursley. ### Patriarchal Oppression and Domestic Tyranny Ephraim Tellwright's control over Anna's finances and his rebuke for her visiting Mynors' works exemplify patriarchal oppression. ## Character check-ins ### Anna Tellwright Anna receives her July interest and dividends, feels bewildered by the process, and visits Mynors' pottery works. She is rebuked by her father for being out. ### Henry Mynors Mynors shows Anna around his pottery works, explaining the manufacturing process and expressing enthusiasm for his business. ### Ephraim Tellwright Ephraim supervises Anna's financial affairs, draws up the partnership deed, and returns from Axe in a bad temper, rebuking Anna for being out. ### Agnes Tellwright Agnes is mentioned as having gone to bed before Ephraim returns. ### Titus Price Titus Price is expected to send rent money to Anna, but has not done so, causing Ephraim's anger. ### Eli Machin Eli Machin, the engineman, demonstrates the machines at Mynors' works. ## Key lines > This mysterious begetting of money by money—a strange process continually going forward for her benefit, in various parts of the world, far and near, by means of activities of which she was completely ignorant and would always be completely ignorant—bewildered her and gave her a feeling of its unreality. Anna is bewildered by the way money generates more money through investments she doesn't understand, making it feel unreal. _Highlights Anna's confusion and the abstract nature of her wealth._ > He would as soon have inquired into it as Agnes would have inquired into the ticking of the grandfather’s clock. Ephraim accepts the productivity of capital as naturally as Agnes accepts the clock ticking, without question. _Contrasts Ephraim's unquestioning acceptance with Anna's imaginative curiosity._ > She wanted to test the actuality of this apparent dream by handling coin and causing it to vanish over counters and into the palms of the necessitous. Anna wishes she could spend real money to prove her wealth is real and to help those in need. _Shows Anna's desire for tangible proof of her fortune and her charitable impulses._ > He had no sympathy with specialities, artistic or otherwise. He found his satisfaction in honestly meeting the public taste. He was born to be a manufacturer of cheap goods on a colossal scale. Mynors prefers mass-producing affordable goods for the general public rather than focusing on artistic specialties. _Reveals Mynors' business philosophy and ambition._ > It was the result that appealed to the imagination, authenticating the adage that fools and children should never see anything till it is done. The finished products in the warehouse seemed miraculous, confirming that the process is best appreciated only when complete. _Reflects Anna's awe at the transformation from raw clay to finished ware._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/anna_of_the_five_towns_se/chapters/viii-on-the-bank - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/anna_of_the_five_towns_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/anna_of_the_five_towns_se/chapters