The "Light" in the "Darkness"
The Flyer Comparing Jerry Cruncher and Tellson's Bank
By: Amanda Stiffler
Welcome to Tellson's Bank! We like to think that we're more than just bankers!
Come inside to our fully equipt offices - ready to help you through every step in your banking career!
We hope you find security in our safe! It holds more than you could ever know!
Good day, I go by the name of Jerry Cruncher, but feel free to call me Cruncher. While you're at it, would you hand me that mud-covered boot over there?
Everyday, I spend time with my young boy, Jerry - and we work up at Tellson's. On the occasion, I get the grand opportunity to go out on buisness trips (without the sinful wife of mine) and transport messages to and fro.
Jerry Cruncher: a man whom wouldn't be best described as noble or high class happens to work at one of the more known banks of this time: Tellson's. The two are complete opposites even in their physical manner, but they're also polar opposites in their spiritual manner. Dickens places Jerry Cruncher and Tellson's Bank not only in the same chapter, but he actually has him work inside the bank for a reason - he doesn't just do it unintentionally. Jerry Cruncher was purposly chosen to be a messenger in Tellson's Bank to help foreshadow for the rest of the novel. He was chosen to be the odd man out, or the 'Light' in times of 'Darkness' to help show how throughout the Reign of Terror there can be humor or there can be happiness. This isn't only though to show how there can be a sense of humanity in the most dehumanized time, it is also to show how there is hope for everyone. If someone like Jerry Cruncher, an uneducated, not put together, and overbearing man can get a job at such a prestigious bank like Tellson's, then there is opportunity for all others to achieve something like Cruncher. Not only is Cruncher a piece of hope, he is also a metaphor for how the novel will play out with the mood's between Paris and England. By Dickens choosing to have Cruncher be a piece of controversial happiness, than it helps to show how later on in the novel he may tend to throw in pieces about how the two cities will have their own contoversies. Not only will they have their own disputes or fights, but they will also have the outstanding character that has been chosen to be the symbol of a revolution. Tellson's and Cruncher may have obvious differences, but they have a common sense of secrecy and mystery that makes them more alike than A Tale of Two Cities blatantly states.