The Revolution in Tanner’s Lane · Chapter
XIX: “The Kingdom of Heaven Is Like Unto Leaven” explained
This chapter introduces the Allen household in Cowfold, focusing on Mr.
What happens
This chapter introduces the Allen household in Cowfold, focusing on Mr. Isaac Allen, an ardent Whig and Radical, and his wife, who find solace in literature, particularly Sir Walter Scott and Byron, despite their Dissenting chapel membership. Zachariah Coleman, though estranged during his first marriage, becomes a close friend and supplies the Allens with revolutionary books. Mrs. Allen suffers from periodic need for isolation, and the Allens are viewed with suspicion by Reverend John Broad. The chapter also describes Pauline, Zachariah's daughter, who has grown into a vivacious, intelligent young woman, inheriting her mother's temperament and French vivacity, and who is deeply loved by her father.
Themes in this chapter
Tradition vs. Change
The Allens' literary interests and radical politics create a quiet rebellion against the narrow orthodoxy of Tanner's Lane chapel.
Religion and Hypocrisy
Reverend John Broad's concealed hatred of the Allens, despite their outward piety, highlights hypocrisy within the Dissenting community.
The Role of Women
Mrs. Allen's need for periodic isolation and her intellectual life contrast with the expected domestic role, while Pauline's vivacity and education challenge conventional femininity.
Characters to notice
- Mr. Isaac Allen
Fanny's father, an ardent Whig and Radical, friend of Zachariah Coleman, supplies Cowfold with revolutionary books.
- Mrs. Allen
Isaac's wife, a reader of Scott and Byron, suffers from periodic need for isolation, attends Tanner's Lane chapel.
- Zachariah Coleman
Friend of Isaac Allen, supplies books to the Allens, refuses to visit Cowfold or let Pauline go.
- Pauline
Zachariah's daughter, now nearly grown, inherits her mother's vivacity and French temperament, speaks French fluently.
- Reverend John Broad
Dissenting minister at Tanner's Lane, secretly hates the Allens despite their outward conformity.
- Thomas Broad
Junior, enters Dissenting College in London, warned by parents not to visit Zachariah.
Key passages
“He had been to her, and to her husband too, what he can only be to people leading a dull life far from the world. He had broken up its monotony and created a new universe!”
Scott's novels provided the Allens with an escape from the monotony of Cowfold, opening up a world of imagination and higher motives.
Illustrates the transformative power of literature in provincial life.
“They were gathered into the fold on Sunday, and had the genuine J. B. on their wool, but there was a cross in them.”
The Allens outwardly conformed to the chapel, but their inner lives and reading marked them as different.
Highlights the tension between external religious conformity and internal intellectual independence.
“She was only half English, or rather altogether French, and when he came home in the evening he often felt as if some heavy obstruction in his brain and about his heart were suddenly dissolved.”
Pauline's French vivacity and expressiveness brought relief to her father's melancholic English temperament.
Shows Pauline's role as a source of emotional and psychological comfort for Zachariah.
