Adam Bede Notes (Cliffs Notes)

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ADAM BEDE Notes including • • • • • • • •

Life and Background of the Author A Brief Synopsis List of Characters Critical Commentaries Character Analyses Critical Essays Essay Topics and Review Questions Selected Bibliography

by David M. Byers

LINCOLN, NEBRASKA 68501

1-800-228-4078 www.CLIFFS.com ISBN 0-8220-7250-5 © Copyright 1970 by Cliffs Notes, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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LIFE AND BACKGROUND OF THE AUTHOR Mary Ann (or Marian) Evans was born in Warwickshire in 1819, the youngest child of Robert and Christina Evans. She was deeply religious during her childhood and adolescence, a trait she developed partially from her family background and partially under the influence of Miss Lewis, the "principal governess" of a boarding school which Mary Ann attended from 1828 to 1832. After her mother died and her sister married, Mary Ann ran her father's household. But in 1841, her brother Isaac married and took possession of the house, and Mary Ann and her father moved to Coventry. In the city the young woman's intellectual horizons widened and her early faith diminished; under the influence of Charles Bray and Charles Hennell, she became interested in the "new criticism" of the Bible and anonymously published her first work, a translation of D. F. Strauss' Leben Jesu (Life of Jesus), in 1846. She also published a few articles and reviews in a periodical edited by Bray during this period. Mary Ann cared for her invalid father, who strenuously objected to her changed religious views, until he died in 1849. After traveling in Europe for a time, she returned to England, where she became involved with a group of rationalists, best known of whom was John Chapman. In 1851, she became assistant editor of Chapman's Westminster Review. While in London, she met many prominent people, among them the philosopher Herbert Spencer. Through Spencer she came in contact with George Henry Lewes, a drama critic and author who was separated from his wife, and the pair fell in love. Lewes could not obtain a divorce, and he and Mary Ann decided to ignore the prohibitions of society and live together as man and wife. The union was a marriage in every aspect but the legal one and lasted until Lewes' death in 1878. Two years later, Mary Ann married J. W. Cross, and she herself died on December 22, 1880. Mary Ann Evans did not begin writing fiction until relatively late in life. Her first pieces were three short stories, "Amos Barton," "Mr. Gilfil's Love-Story," and "Janet's Repentance," which were published in Blackwood's Magazine in 1857 and reissued collectively as Scenes of Clerical Life in 1858. They appeared under the pseudonym George Eliot, a penname which Evans used throughout the rest of her career. In 1859, Adam Bede, Eliot's first full-length novel, came out, and her reputation was established. The Mill on the Floss, an autobiographical novel, and Silas Marner both appeared in 1860. Romola, a historical novel set in Renaissance Florence, was published three years later and Felix Holt, the Radical in 1866. Middlemarch, widely considered to be Eliot's masterpiece, came out in 1871-72, and Daniel Deronda in 1876. Eliot's work represents a definite break with the work of her immediate predecessors in several ways. In Adam Bede, she issued her declaration from convention and announced her intention to write realistically. "So I am content to tell my simple story, without trying to make things seem better than they were; dreading nothing, indeed, but falsity." We, looking back towards Eliot, may be inclined to dispute her claim; her work may not seem realistic when compared with more modern efforts. But we must not lose sight of the fact that a number of the most admirable qualities in modern fiction derive, either directly or indirectly, from Eliot; her work was revolutionary in its own day and opened new directions for the development of the novel as an art form. Eliot's writings are more realistic than those of her famous contemporaries in that she habitually presents characters which are not simplistic caricatures of human beings but complex, ambiguous, ultimately indefinable figures like those we meet on the street every day. They are analyzed at great length in the novels, and this psychological approach, in which the subtleties of motivation are laid bare, enables Eliot to present human situations as they really occur; both the mental and physical aspects of action are reproduced. She also attempted, perhaps with imperfect success, to break the stranglehold which popular morality had on the novel by showing that the good or bad fortune which comes to her characters is not

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www.cliffs.com the work of some unseen divine hand whose laws have been either followed or violated, but is the result of human will-choices. And finally she made the novel a more serious art form than it had hitherto been by using it as a vehicle for the discussion of significant moral and philosophical issues. All of these qualities are observable in Adam Bede; indeed, as Eliot's first novel, it is her first experiment in the new fiction. Its revolutionary aspect is generally recognized; many scholars point to 1859, the year in which Adam Bede, Meredith's The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, Darwin's On the Origin of Species, and Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities were published, as one of the major turning points in the breakdown of mid-Victorian certainties. Adam Bede is a test case for a new view of the function of prose fiction; Eliot clearly feels that the novel need not be merely a form of entertainment for those seeking diversion from the problems of real life, but that it could, like poetry, be a vehicle for the expression and teaching of fine and serious ideas about the quality of the human condition. Samuel Chew, in A Literary History of England, noted that Eliot's work concentrates on the elucidation of moral issues and concluded: "If these issues are no longer felt to be vital, . . . the raison d'etre of the stories . . . is enfeebled, if, indeed, it does not vanish altogether." It is difficult to see how the issue of man's responsibility towards himself and his fellows can cease to be vital, and the resurgence of interest in Eliot in our own day indicates how improbable it is that the relevance of her ideas and the value of the books in which she expressed them will "vanish altogether" in the foreseeable future.

A BRIEF SYNOPSIS Adam Bede is a young workman of twenty-six in the town of Hayslope in Loamshire. He is the foreman of a carpentry shop where his brother, Seth, also works. The novel opens in the workshop with an argument among the men about religion. We learn that Dinah Morris, a Methodist preacher with whom Seth is in love, will speak in the village that evening. Seth goes to the prayer meeting and afterwards proposes to Dinah, who refuses him. Meanwhile, Adam has gone home and found out from his mother, Lisbeth, that his father, Thias, has gone off drinking instead of finishing a coffin he had contracted for. Working all night, Adam finishes the coffin, and he and Seth deliver it in the morning. On their way home, they find the drowned body of their father in a brook. Joshua Rann, the parish clerk, informs Mr. Irwine, the local Anglican clergyman, that the Methodists are stirring up dissension in Hayslope. Mr. Irwine and Arthur Donnithorne, grandson and heir of the local landowner, ride over to see Dinah at the Hall Farm, a place tenanted by the Poysers, Dinah's uncle and aunt. Mr. Irwine speaks to Dinah and is impressed by her religious sincerity. Meanwhile, Arthur flirts with another of the Poysers' nieces, Hetty Sorrel, and she is greatly flattered by his attentions. Mr. Irwine informs Dinah of Thias Bede's death, and she goes to the Bedes' cottage and comforts Lisbeth. Arthur learns on the same occasion that Hetty will be at the Chase, his manor, in two days' time, and he places himself so as to meet her in a grove on the grounds. After talking with her, he is ashamed of himself for being attracted to a mere farm girl, but he cannot break the spell and later that day intercepts her again in the same grove and kisses her. Ashamed of his behavior once more, he decides to tell his troubles to Mr. Irwine, hoping that confession will cure his passion. But when he speaks to the clergyman at Broxton parsonage the following morning, he loses his nerve and says nothing about Hetty. Meanwhile, Dinah has encouraged Hetty to come to her if she ever needs help, but Hetty, a thoughtless little thing who feels that no trouble will ever come to her, repulses the offer. Dinah leaves for her home in Snowfield, Stonyshire, the next day.

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Thias Bede is buried, and Adam reflects that now he can begin to look forward to marriage; he is in love with Hetty. He goes to the Hall Farm and finds that Hetty seems more friendly towards him than in the past; he doesn't realize that her thoughts are all of Arthur, and his hopes rise. While visiting Bartle Massey, the local schoolmaster, that evening, he learns that the keeper of the Chase woods has had a stroke and that the job may be offered to him. Adam's marriage prospects look bright indeed, both from a financial and an emotional viewpoint. Arthur's twenty-first birthday arrives, and all the tenants of the estate gather for a grand celebration. There is a round of toasts at dinnertime and everyone wishes the popular Arthur well. Adam is offered the job as keeper of the woods and he accepts it. There are games in which the townspeople compete in the afternoon and a dance in the evening. At the dance, Adam discovers by accident that Hetty is wearing a locket which looks like a lover's token, but he dismisses the thought that she is interested in another man. The locket, of course, is a gift from Arthur; he and Hetty are carrying on a secret affair. About three weeks later, Adam happens to be passing through the grove on the Chase grounds when he finds Arthur and Hetty in an embrace. He is furious, starts a fight with Arthur, and knocks him out. When Arthur revives, Adam forces him to promise to write a note to Hetty breaking off the relationship. After much soul-searching, Arthur composes the note and gives it to Adam to deliver. He then leaves to join his regiment in the south of England. Adam delivers the note, trying to soften the blow to Hetty as much as possible. Before she reads the letter, Hetty refuses to believe that Arthur wants to break off the relationship; she is convinced that Arthur will marry her. After she reads it, she is in despair. She wants to leave home and go into service as a maid, but the Poysers won't let her. Finally she begins to feel that marrying Adam wouldn't be such a bad idea after all. Meanwhile, Dinah has written a friendly letter to Seth from Snowfield, and Mrs. Poyser has verbally routed Squire Donnithorne, Arthur's grandfather, who was bent on making a sharp deal with respect to the Poyser's farm. When Adam notices that Hetty's friendly attitude toward him does not change, he concludes that there had really been nothing serious between Arthur and her. He proposes to her, she accepts, and the wedding is set for the following spring. Adam is deliriously happy and spends the next three months making preparations. Hetty, meanwhile, has fits of depression and contemplates suicide; she is pregnant by Arthur. She decides to run away and go to Arthur; telling the Poysers that she is going to visit Dinah in Snowfield for a week or two, she sets out. After traveling for seven days, Hetty arrives sick, exhausted, and penniless, at Windsor. Here she is befriended by an innkeeper and his wife who inform her that Arthur's regiment has left for Ireland. Hetty faints in despair, but the next day her courage revives, she gets some money from the innkeeper in exchange for the jewelry Arthur had given her, and she heads back north, intending to go to Dinah in Snowfield. After five days of traveling, though, her spirits give out, and she leaves her coach and wanders out into the open fields. She spends part of a night by a pond but can't summon the courage to kill herself and so resumes her journey on foot towards Stonyshire. When Hetty does not return in the expected time, Adam decides to go to Snowfield and bring her back. He discovers, of course, that she has never been there, and he tries to trace her but to no avail. Realizing that she has probably gone to Arthur, he resolves to go to Ireland. He stops at the parsonage to tell Mr. Irwine his plans and is shocked to learn that Hetty is in prison in Stoniton for the murder of her baby. He and Mr. Irwine go to Stoniton; Mr. Irwine returns the next day to break the bad news to the Poysers, while Adam rents a room and stays. Meanwhile, Arthur's grandfather has died and Arthur has set out for home from Ireland. As the trial begins, Adam sits in his room in despair. Mr. Irwine and Bartle Massey (who has come to stay

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www.cliffs.com with Adam) bring news of how the trial is progressing; Hetty's guilt seems certain, though Adam refuses to believe it. Finally he goes to the courtroom himself. Two witnesses give evidence against Hetty, the jury returns the verdict of guilty, and the judge pronounces the death sentence. Meanwhile, Arthur has returned home, found a note from Mr. Irwine explaining the situation, and left for Stoniton. On the evening after the trial, Dinah comes to the prison and gains admittance; she has been away and has just returned to the area. She gets Hetty to confess her guilt, which the girl had refused to do before, and induces her to pray. Dinah then goes and asks Adam to come and see Hetty before she dies. He comes the following morning, the day of the execution, and gives Hetty the forgiveness she asks for. Then Hetty is taken away to the place of execution. But at the last instant, Arthur comes riding up with a reprieve; Hetty's sentence has been commuted to "transportation" (exile). The next day, Adam and Arthur meet by chance in the grove where they had fought. Arthur is repentant and plans on going off to the wars. He asks Adam's forgiveness, and Adam, after a short struggle with his pride, agrees to shake hands. Eighteen months later, Adam visits the Hall Farm to ask Dinah, who is visiting her relatives again, to come and comfort his ailing mother. Dinah goes back to the cottage with him and stays overnight to help Lisbeth. She blushes when Adam speaks to her. After she leaves, Lisbeth tells Adam that Dinah loves him; Adam is taken by surprise, but when he thinks about it he realizes that he loves her too. That afternoon he goes to the Hall Farm and proposes; Dinah wants to say yes, but her sense of duty stops her. She says she will return to her work among the poor and think about it. Adam reluctantly agrees and Dinah leaves. It is harvest time at the farm, and the harvest supper takes place with great gaiety. After a month or so, Adam becomes anxious to know Dinah's decision and goes to Snowfield. He meets her atop a hill and she accepts his proposal. After another month has passed, they are married amid great rejoicing. Some years later, Dinah and Seth are at home with Dinah's two children. Adam comes home; he has been to see Arthur, who has been away all this time and has returned a changed man. We learn that Hetty is dead, and then the novel ends on a note of domestic contentment.

LIST OF CHARACTERS Adam Bede The stalwart, forthright young workman whose rise to maturity provides the focus for the novel.

Dinah Morris A saintly young woman, a Methodist preacher, who helps and comforts all those around her. She serves as one of the examples of good morality in the novel and eventually becomes Adam's wife.

Arthur Donnithorne Grandson and heir of the local landowner. A weak character who triggers the crisis in the novel by seducing Hetty Sorrel.

Hetty Sorrel A vain young farm girl whose desire for social position makes her ignore Adam's love and accept Arthur's less honorable advances.

The Reverend Mr. Irwine The rector of Broxton. A fine, upstanding man who forms the other example of excellent morality. Eliot's

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www.cliffs.com principal mouthpiece for her theory of ethical determinism.

Mrs. Poyser A boisterous farmwife, aunt of Dinah Morris, who provides much of the comedy in the novel.

Mr. Poyser An industrious and responsible tenant who is proprietor of the Hall Farm and uncle of Hetty Sorrel.

Bartle Massey An abrasive old gentleman with an obsessive prejudice against women. The local schoolmaster.

Lisbeth Adam's mother, an insecure old woman who complains ceaselessly.

Seth Adam's brother, a gentle young man who stands by Adam with steadfast loyalty.

Mrs. Irwine Mr. Irwine's mother, an aristocratic old lady.

Miss Kate and Miss Anne Mr. Irwine's maiden sisters. Anne is an invalid.

Squire Donnithorne Arthur's grandfather, owner of the estate. He is a dry, unpleasant, hypocritically polite old man.

Lydia Donnithorne Arthur's aunt, a staid, formal spinster.

Molly A servant girl at the Hall Farm.

Marty and Tommy The Poysers' sons.

Totty The Poysers' three-year-old daughter, her mother's favorite.

Alick Shepherd at the Hall Farm.

Mr. Casson The local innkeeper, former butler at the Chase, the Donnithorne mansion.

Joshua Rann The parish clerk and choir leader.

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Wiry Ben One of Adam's co-workers at the carpentry shop. An impudent, talkative young man.

Chad Cranage The village blacksmith.

Chad's Bess Chad Cranage's daughter. She throws away her earrings under the influence of Dinah's preaching.

Timothy's Bess A cousin of Chad's Bess.

"Feyther" Taft The oldest man in Hayslope.

Mr. Craig Gardener at the Chase.

Luke Britton A neighboring farmer whom Mr. Poyser dislikes.

Old Martin Poyser Mr. Poyser's father.

Colonel Townley A magistrate who watches Dinah preach and later admits her to the jail to see Hetty.

Thias Bede Adam's father. His death plays a part in Adam's development

CRITICAL COMMENTARIES BOOK I Chapter 1 Summary The author promises to recreate a vision of the past for the reader--a picture of Jonathan Burge's carpentry workshop as it existed in the town of Hayslope in Loamshire, England, in 1799. After mentioning the shop itself, she focuses on a tall, sturdy young workman, Adam Bede. Several other men, including Adam's brother Seth, are also introduced. The novel's first bit of dialogue concerns a mistake which Seth, an absent-minded dreamer, has made on a door he is finishing; Adam defends his brother against the others' mockery. Seth is a Methodist, and the talk shifts to a female Methodist preacher who intends to speak on the village green that evening; her name is Dinah Morris, and Seth is in love with her. Some general discussion of religion follows. The hour for quitting work strikes, and all the workers but Adam drop their tools immediately. Adam

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www.cliffs.com berates the others for not being interested in their trade, but they ignore him. The men disperse, Seth going to the prayer meeting to hear Dinah, and Adam heading home. A horseman pauses to admire the stalwart young man as he strides out of town, singing a popular hymn. Commentary The first chapter establishes the locale and to a certain extent the atmosphere for the whole novel. As in most of George Eliot's works, the scene is laid in the English countryside. Hayslope is a quiet town, isolated from contact with or even knowledge of the great events of the day. It is inhabited mostly by merchants, illiterate farmers, and workers who spend their whole lives in the area of the town and who concern themselves with such pragmatic subjects as barns, harvests, the weather, and neighborhood gossip. Hayslope is not idyllic; plenty of rough, crude people live here. Although Eliot tends to sentimentalize rural folk to some extent in her novels, she is careful to remain well within the bounds of probability. She is concerned with writing a realistic novel and builds up her setting as a believable representation of eighteenth-century country life in England. This is evident when we examine the characters introduced in this chapter. None of them resemble very closely the humble and virtuous country lads who often appear as stock characters in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English fiction. Wiry Ben is no saint; neither, for that matter, is Adam Bede himself. They are typical workers in a typical workshop, quite capable of piety on the one hand and of rough joking on the other. In the same way, there is nothing extraordinary about the town itself, except for its name. Both "Hayslope" and "Loamshire" are significant names which suggest good soil, sunny weather, rich harvests; they are contrasted in the novel against "Snowfield" and "Stonyshire," which suggest the opposite qualities. These fictitious place-names--there are no such towns and counties in England--indicate that the physical setting of Adam Bede has a symbolic, as well as a realistic, aspect. It will become obvious later in the novel that the characters presented here fall into distinct groups. While Adam and Seth will be characterized at some length, their fellow workmen, like many others presented in the course of the book, will remain mere sketches. These background characters form part of the novel's atmosphere, its milieu, and help provide a realistic context for the adventures of the principal figures. They are mere props in a sense; they appear in the novel, but their words and actions have no real bearing on the plot. All the characters in the book, with the exception of the wealthy and well-educated, speak in dialect. This device serves two obvious functions. First, it is realistic and thus contributes to the illusion the author strives to create. Second, to Eliot's English audience, dialect was a source of humor, just as strong dialect has been a source of humor in much American writing--Mark Twain's, say. Statements of Wiry Ben's like "y' are a downright good-hearted chap, panels or no panels; an' ye donna set up your bristles at every bit o' fun, like some o' your kin, as is mayhap cliverer" were as effective with a nineteenth-century British audience as Pap Finn's fulminations were for an American one. Note that the strength of the dialect, its divergence from standard English usage, varies from character to character. In this chapter, for example, Adam and Seth speak a less extreme form of dialect than does Wiry Ben; neither of the Bede brothers uses such pronunciations as "aloon" or "agoo" or "lave." Eliot distinguishes her characters according to education with a precision which many writers of dialogue do not observe. The religious attitudes which Seth and Adam display are of interest because they relate to the moral

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www.cliffs.com discussion which plays so great a part in the novel. Adam, an Anglican, is practical and matter-of-fact in religious matters; he holds that if a man "builds a oven for's wife to save her from going to the bakehouse," he is doing something as essentially religious as going to church. His basic attitude is "thisworldly"; he is concerned with serving God in his everyday actions. Seth's attitude, on the other hand, is "other-worldly"; he feels that specifically religious actions--praying, hearing sermons--should form the center of one's life. Eliot sets up this distinction with a view to reconciling it later on in the service of her theme; in the character of Dinah Morris, the practical and purely spiritual aspects of religion merge. Another factor in the novel which relates to this moral dialogue is the religious controversy which forms part of the novel's background. About 1739, John and Charles Wesley founded the Methodist Society, and sometime afterwards the group split with the established Anglican Church. In practice the two denominations came to stand for opposed viewpoints. Anglicanism in the late eighteenth century favored rationality, tolerance, an easy-going and practical approach towards matters of the spirit. As the established church, it held the loyalty of most of the "settled" people of England--the upper and middle classes and the tradition-bound agricultural workers--and tended to support the social and economic status quo. Methodism, on the other hand, was "enthusiastic," to use the eighteenth-century term; it emphasized the emotional side of religion and attempted to make religion the focal point in the lives of men. Because the Methodists concentrated upon aiding and converting the poor, they were often looked upon as agitators by the social establishment. As in the case of Adam and Seth, the author uses this distinction between viewpoints to get across her own moral orientation. The moral standards in Adam Bede are Mr. Irwine and Dinah Morris, one an Anglican, the other a Methodist. Eliot implies that no matter what one's church is, the balance of spiritual and practical is essential to true religious feeling.

Chapter 2 Summary The traveler who had noticed Adam Bede stops at the village inn and speaks with the innkeeper, Mr. Casson, learning that Dinah is to preach. Curious, he goes to the green to observe. The townspeople of Hayslope--only two of whom are Methodists--gather in knots near the Green but stay aloof from the proceedings; they feel, in general, that Methodism is an overly emotional and overly strict form of religion. Dinah appears. She is young and delicately pretty, and is marked by "total absence of self-consciousness." Dinah proves to be a very effective preacher, drawing tears from some of her hearers and influencing one young woman to cast away her cheap earrings. Her sermon emphasizes God's love for and mercy towards sinners, and the rewards awaiting the good in heaven. The sermon ends, the traveler moves on, and the hills echo with the Methodists' singing. Commentary Dinah's style of preaching is typical of what the eighteenth century called the "enthusiastic" approach to religion. The sermon is highly emotional and personal; rather than discussing doctrine in the abstract, Dinah emphasizes her hearers' relationship to Christ. She makes them ashamed of their disloyalty through sin to their crucified Savior and brings them to repentance by concentrating upon the strength of Christ's love for them. Dinah's preaching is effective primarily because it is sincere. When she first begins to speak, the townspeople are skeptical and suspicious, but Dinah is able to touch their hearts. This is a major element in Dinah's characterization; her influence over the other characters is primarily the influence of

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www.cliffs.com personality and good example. Time and time again, Dinah's presence alone is enough to soothe others and set them on the right track; her influence is almost magical. It is difficult at first sight to assign a motive for the sudden appearance of the man on horseback in view of the fact that he appears only once more in the novel and plays an extremely minor role even then. Eliot seems to be striving for perspective; she wants her readers to view the scene on the village green not from the point of view of one of the participants but from that of an uninvolved spectator. This point of view has the effect of placing the reader at a distance from the action; the meeting, the village, the surrounding countryside are spread out like a panorama. Setting and characters here blend into a harmonious whole, and the reader, surveying the scene with the unnamed horseman, is impressed with its solidity and realism. The horseman represents the audience; as he looks on objectively, so do we.

Chapter 3 Summary Seth sees Dinah home after the meeting; she is staying with her uncle and aunt, the Poysers, at the Hall Farm. He asks her to marry him, feeling her to be a beautiful soul, full of goodness. Dinah gently refuses, explaining that she wants to live without a family. Her whole life is dedicated to serving others, and she has no heart for considering her own selfish desires. Seth accepts her decision with regret and resignation; there are no hard feelings. Commentary Seth Bede, though a minor character in the novel, has a considerable impact on his brother, and his general attitude should be noted. He is an absentminded, impractical, "wool-gathering" fellow, but he has a gentle, loving heart like Dinah's. When she refuses his marriage proposal, he says only, "I must seek for strength to bear it." Adam gravitates towards Seth's type of sympathetic humanity in the course of the novel.

Chapter 4 Summary Adam reaches the cottage where he lives with his brother and their elderly parents. His mother tells him that his father, who is apparently an irresponsible alcoholic, has wandered off to a tavern in the next town, Treddleston, instead of making a coffin which he had contracted to finish that day. Adam is very angry and sets about doing the job without even eating supper. Seth comes home saddened by Dinah's refusal of his proposal, and Adam will not allow him to help with the coffin. Seth tries to soothe their mother, and it comes out in the conversation between them that Adam is in love with a girl named Hetty Sorrel, who is a silly thing, pretty but naive and impractical. After praying together, Seth and Lisbeth go to bed. Adam stays up all night to finish the coffin. About midnight, he hears a tapping on the door, but no one is there; he is reminded of a local superstition which holds that this occurrence is a sign of death. It happens again, but he pushes the superstition out of his mind. Soon after dawn, he and Seth deliver the completed coffin, and as they are walking home, they catch sight of a body in the brook near their home. It is their father; he has fallen into the brook in a drunken stupor and drowned. They carry him home, and Adam regrets his past harshness to his father.

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www.cliffs.com Commentary Lisbeth, Adam and Seth's mother, occupies the middle ground between the principal characters like Adam and the background figures like Wiry Ben and his co-workers. Her principal function is to help set the novel's atmosphere with her country ways and thick country dialect; when she is on stage the reader can never forget that he is following the adventures of simple, uneducated rural folk. At the same time, she does not remain completely outside the action, but affects the course of events from time to time through her influence on Adam. This influence is subtly underlined by Eliot when she has Adam drop into the "country" dialect as he speaks with his mother. The rough country folk introduced in these early chapters form the center of the book. Eliot sets out to write a novel about common people, in the social sense of the term, and besides emphasizing the rusticity of her main characters by their manners and mode of speech, she surrounds them with a gallery of farmers, workers, and small tradesmen. Adam resembles his mother, though the resemblance is only physical, and every day he rubs shoulders with such unsophisticated figures as Wiry Ben, Sandy Jim, Chad's Bess. The effect is clear: Adam in his adventures is to be seen not as an atypical young man, some paragon dropped down from nowhere upon a country village, but as a real flesh-and-blood carpenter, closely allied to his people and to the soil. He is exceptional with respect to strength and sensitivity, but still solidly a part of the rural scene. Adam is a complex character, and it is of the utmost importance that the reader understand him as completely as possible. In this chapter, he is defined primarily in relation to his work. Adam is a perfectionist and has a high sense of duty; when his father fails to do the coffin he has contracted for, Adam stays up all night so that the order will be filled on time. He is described as being "roughly hewn" like one of the timbers he works on, which indicates his strength. And he is an uncomplicated soul who approaches all problems the way he approaches mechanical ones--note his high regard for "cal'clating." He feels that honest effort will solve most difficulties. Because he sees life this way, Adam is not a dreamer like Seth is; he is immensely practical. Compare, for example, these two quotations which, according to Lisbeth, sum up the brothers' religious positions: while Seth believes one should "take no thought for the morrow," Adam feels that "God helps them as helps theirsens." While Seth places most of his trust in God, Adam prefers to rely on himself.

The incident involving the tapping at the door also serves to indicate Adam's practicality. He will not allow himself to be influenced by superstition, and he dismisses the strange occurrence and keeps his mind on his work. Note, however, that the tapping is a true portent of death; conceivably, if Adam had been less practical, he could have saved his father. Eliot indicates that Adam's pragmatism creates a blind spot: He is insensitive to and unresponsive towards those forces in life which are beyond his control. As the novel develops, this simplistic and overly confident view of reality takes on greater and greater significance; Adam must abandon it in order to reach maturity. Although Adam's strength and self-control are admirable, he suffers from faults which trouble many aggressive people; as this chapter shows us, he is quick to anger and impatient of others' weaknesses. When his father fails to make the coffin he has contracted for, Adam is furious and contemplates leaving home; his natural urge is to reject people who don't act in a way he thinks proper. He finally decides to stay out of a sense of duty, though, and this reemphasizes Adam's real strength. He may be proud and quick-tempered, but the young man is guided by a determination to do right. He has a good heart at base, too; he regrets having treated his father badly after he finds him dead.

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Chapter 5 Summary The scene shifts to Broxton Parsonage, home of the Reverend Mr. Irwine, the local Church of England clergyman. The rector is playing chess with his mother when Joshua Rann, the Hayslope parish clerk, arrives. He tells Mr. Irwine that the Methodists--especially Dinah--are causing religious dissension in the town. At this point, Arthur Donnithorne, the grandson and heir of the local squire, or landowner, comes in. He is a pleasant, outgoing young man, a captain in the militia. Joshua tells the two men of Thias Bede's death, then goes into the kitchen. There is some talk of Thias' funeral and of Adam, and Arthur suggests that he and Mr. Irwine ride to Hall Farm and then to Bede's. Mrs. Irwine, who is Arthur's godmother, talks about the celebration planned for his twenty-first birthday. Mr. Irwine goes upstairs to visit his two spinster sisters, one of whom is an invalid; then the two men set out for Hall Farm so that Mr. Irwine may speak with Dinah. Commentary Having established that her book is to focus on the common people, Eliot now introduces the gentry. Arthur, the local representative of the aristocracy, serves as the agent for provoking the novel's crisis, while Mr. Irwine, with Dinah, is the focal point for the development of its moral message. The introduction of the gentry creates the need for some background information. The reader should try to understand the relationship which existed between the country aristocracy and the lower classes around 1800. In the first place, Squire Donnithorne, Arthur's grandfather, is literally the local landowner; his estate includes the land on which the town of Hayslope and its surrounding farms are built, and most of the other characters in the novel are tenants holding leases on his property. This economic arrangement, coupled with the traditional reverence of the common people for the aristocracy, accounts for the great respect with which the lower class people in the novel treat Arthur, heir to the estate. This great social distinction will become very important later on. Mr. Irwine is an attractive figure. He does not take his religion as seriously as Dinah takes hers. He is not very hard-working or ambitious, Eliot tells us, and he is not very interested in teaching his parishioners the niceties of dogma. But he has charity, and this for Eliot is the important consideration. Mr. Irwine shares with Dinah a sincere love for humanity. They do not express themselves in the same way, but each applies principles in daily life; what Dinah does out of a love for God the rector does out of a generalized benevolence. This humanitarian attitude is significant in several ways; for the moment it will suffice to note that it is the attitude which Adam will eventually come to. His pride sometimes prevents him from reacting sympathetically toward others. Mr. Irwine, then, is in general an easygoing, sophisticated, comfortable man, one who, more by instinct than by training, strives to behave like a Christian in any given situation. The picture we get of Arthur is much more ambiguous. He is obviously a charming fellow, very casual, very affable, very popular for his good nature among those who know him. But as the novel progresses, we also learn that Arthur is vain and dangerously overconfident; he is not aware of his own faults and thus can take no steps to compensate for them. The negative aspects of Arthur's personality come to the fore only subtly in this chapter, but Eliot does give the young man some dialogue which indicates a certain shallowness. He refers, for example, to his upcoming twenty-first birthday as "the grand epoch of my majority" and complains lazily of being bored in the country. The reader should note that Adam and Arthur were boyhood friends, and that Arthur still has a very high

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www.cliffs.com opinion of the humble carpenter. The fact that these two young men have respect for each other intensifies the drama of the novel's crisis, as we shall see presently. The linking also serves to emphasize the fact that Arthur and Adam share some basic characteristics: Arthur's confidence in his virtue is matched by Adam's confidence in his ability to solve all problems and control the course of his own life. Eliot dilates upon the existence of the two "insignificant" sisters, Kate and Anne Irwine. Her comments here form part of the fabric of the humanitarian gospel Eliot is preaching. To her, no human life is insignificant, for the reason that every human being can be a source of love and comfort for his fellows. Note, in this context, how the rector treats his sisters. However, according to Eliot, insignificant people can also stir up evil tempers, affect the price of bread, and, in the case of the Irwine sisters, cause their brother to remain a bachelor. In Eliot's words, "they play no small part in the tragedy of life." She points out that such people can be as effective in their own innocuous way as the more colorful people she writes about, and should not be underestimated or dismissed. In this chapter, the author employs at great length a literary method which has appeared once before, toward the end of Chapter 3. She breaks off her story line to comment, in her own voice, on issues which her descriptions of the thoughts and actions of her characters have raised. This sort of direct authorial comment, sometimes referred to as the "Dear Reader Technique," is no longer in wide use since it interrupts the plot and destroys the illusion of reality which the novel as a whole should create. But it is one of Eliot's favorite devices, one of the primary ways in which she communicates her meaning to the reader and controls his reactions to her characters and the situations she places them in.

Chapters 6-9 Summary For the most part, Chapter 6 describes daily life at the Hall Farm. The house itself is an old manor converted into a farmhouse in which Mr. and Mrs. Poyser, their three children, Mr. Poyser's niece Hetty Sorrel, and a couple of domestic servants live. It is the best run farm on the estate; Mr. Poyser is a very good farmer and Mrs. Poyser an excellent housewife and dairy manager. The scene is busy as Arthur and the rector ride toward the farm; there is a conference going on in the barn, and Mrs. Poyser is indulging in her favorite occupation, scolding one of the maids. Mrs. Poyser's three-year-old daughter Totty, her mother's adored favorite, is playing, and Dinah, who is Mrs. Poyser's niece, is mending the household linen. Mrs. Poyser indicates that though she loves Dinah, she considers her hopelessly impractical, a religious dreamer. Arthur and Mr. Irwine arrive, and Mr. Irwine talks to Dinah while Mrs. Poyser complains to Arthur about the condition of the farm; Arthur's grandfather, Squire Donnithorne, is a stingy landlord and will not pay for improvements on his tenants' places. Arthur asks to see the dairy and Mrs. Poyser leads him in. Hetty Sorrel, "a distractingly pretty girl of seventeen," is making butter; Arthur had noticed her beauty before and, indeed, had wanted to visit the dairy primarily to get an opportunity to talk with her. He flatters the girl, asking for two dances with her at the ball celebrating his coming of age. Hetty is overwhelmed by the rich gentleman's attentions. Arthur, who is kind to all his tenants and is justifiably popular among them, gives a present to the child Totty and then goes in search of Mr. Irwine. Meanwhile, Mr. Irwine has been discussing Dinah's preaching with her. He asks about her background-Dinah is from a bleak mill town called Snowfield--and about her vocation as a preacher. Dinah describes the first time she felt the "call" to preach, and Mr. Irwine is favorably impressed with her sincerity. She

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www.cliffs.com says that all her life she has been led to help the poor both materially and spiritually. Mr. Irwine then mentions that Adam Bede's father has died, and Dinah, touched with pity for the widow, decides to visit her and try to comfort her. At this point, Arthur emerges from the dairy with Mrs. Poyser, and Mr. Irwine rises to leave. When the two men are gone, Mrs. Poyser questions Dinah about the rector's reaction to her preaching and makes her eat something before setting out for the Bedes' cottage. Hetty comes in and Mrs. Poyser tells her of Thias Bede's death. Unlike Dinah, she is almost indifferent to it. Hetty returns to the dairy and indulges herself in pleasant thoughts about Arthur. Although she does not take Arthur's attention very seriously, she can't help losing herself in romantic dreams about the handsome, rich young squire. She knows that her aunt and uncle would like her to return the affection which Adam Bede has for her, but he strikes her as cutting an inconsequential figure beside the exciting Arthur. After describing Hetty's state of mind, the author resumes her plot line. Arthur and Mr. Irwine ride away from the farm and Arthur indicates that he admires Hetty's beauty. Mr. Irwine warns him not to feed her vanity by paying attention to her. Arthur implies that he has no intention of doing so. Commentary Mrs. Poyser is always pointed out as one of the more successful comic characters in modern English fiction. An extremely vital figure, she dominates most of the scenes in which she appears and constantly delights the reader with her wit and energy. Mrs. Poyser is a larger-than-life figure, more vivid and more colorful than most people or even most literary characters. She stands out, for example, even more clearly than Adam does, though her role in the novel is smaller. This quality derives partially from the fact that she is characterized more simply than Adam is; she possesses the clarity of a figure drawn in bold outlines with the distracting details left out. But her vividness derives equally, if not more, from her dramatic and highly individual style of speaking. Mrs. Poyser rarely discusses anything calmly; she deals in exaggeration and oversimplification as a habit. For example, she informs Arthur that farming is "putting money into your pocket wi' your right hand and fetching it out wi' your left," and she announces Thias Bede's death to Hetty by saying "but Adam Bede and all his kin might be drownded for what you'd care." Her most typical utterances are based upon similes drawn from nature and the domestic scene, and this imagery reinforces her characteristic exaggerations: "As I say to Poyser, [looking at Mr. Irwine] is like looking at a full crop o' wheat, or a pasture with a fine dairy o' cows in it; it makes you think the world's comfortable-like. But as for such creatures as you Methodisses run after, I'd as soon go to look at a lot o' bare-ribbed runts [for example, cattle] on a common. Like Lisbeth, Mrs. Poyser functions to a great extent as a background character; she plays no great part in the development of the plot. But she is nevertheless a very real figure, and the student interested in the creation of character in fiction can learn a great deal by analyzing the mood changes, the sentiments, and especially the speech patterns of the redoubtable Mrs. Poyser. The picture we get of Hetty in these chapters is, paradoxically, not a pretty one. Although she appears shy and sweet and pretty at first, Eliot soon convinces us that Hetty is self-centered and childishly vain. The author accomplishes this by reporting what goes on in Hetty's mind. Chapter 9 consists almost entirely of a description of the girl's past and present thoughts on the subjects of men and her own attractiveness. This device is used with great frequency and sometimes at great length in Adam Bede as a method of characterization. The omniscient point of view is used not only to describe the words and actions of the

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www.cliffs.com characters, but the inner reality of their minds--their thoughts, moods, and emotional attitudes--as well. It appears from Hetty's thoughts in Chapter 9 that Adam will not be able to win her love as he hopes. She likes the idea of keeping Adam in her power but feels no inclination at all to marry him. Hetty tends to think of romance in terms of fine clothes and luxuries; she is definitely out for what she can get. As for Adam, she feels that she could have loved him "well enough to marry him" if he had been rich. The irony of this passage convinces us of Hetty's shallowness and serves to build suspense in the plot as the reader recognizes that Adam has made a disastrous romantic choice. Because Hetty is so interested in material things, she is the perfect dupe for Arthur. He flatters her at this point mostly for the sake of being charming. When Mr. Irwine cautions him not to become too interested in Hetty, he replies that he has no use for such advice; he has no intention of becoming serious about her. But Hetty is already far gone in romantic dreams. She amuses herself by recalling and mulling over any kind gesture Arthur makes towards her. It is a dangerous amusement. The girl is so fascinated by Arthur's wealth and social position--he seems like an "Olympian god" to her--that she cannot help hoping that his interest in her will grow. The flirtation between Arthur and Hetty, then, begins innocently enough. The dashing young gentleman meets the lovely young farm girl and trifles with her. He is confident of his ability to control himself and never imagines that the situation will get out of hand. She, meanwhile, led on by foolish visions of grandeur, convinces herself that his attentions are serious. Both people, their attitudes influenced by vanity, blindly entangle themselves in a relationship which neither is equipped to control. Eliot carefully constructs a plausible situation which, almost by its very nature, must lead to trouble for both parties involved. Chapter 8 deals with Mr. Irwine's conversation with Dinah. The reader should note that in this situation, as in various others throughout the novel, Hetty and Dinah are specifically contrasted. While Hetty is flirting with Arthur, Dinah is carrying on a serious religious discussion with a clergyman. Hetty's manner is flighty, immature, worldly; Dinah's is grave, womanly, spiritual. When Mr. Irwine tells Dinah that Thias Bede is dead, her immediate reaction is one of pity for Lisbeth and she offers without hesitation to go to the cottage and help the old woman. But when Mrs. Poyser gives Hetty the same news, she feigns concern but is "not deeply affected." Dinah's humanity and generosity seem even more laudable when played off so directly against Hetty's selfish indifference. The author emphasizes this contrast even more strongly by giving each of the young women a different sort of beauty. She emphasizes the difference by employing opposed patterns of imagery in describing the girls. Dinah's loveliness is frequently mentioned; her face is said to be like a lily, and Lisbeth in several places compares her to an angel. But her beauty has a pure, spiritual quality about it which makes men not lustful, but respectful. When Mr. Irwine asks Dinah if men bother her when she is preaching, she says that although she has spoken before some "very hard and wild" men, they have always treated her with kindness and civility. Hetty's beauty, on the other hand, is described as being soft and "kittenish"; she appeals to everyone, even other women. There is something very warm and inviting about Hetty's sort of prettiness, something healthy, natural, and earthy. Throughout the novel, George Eliot toys with the contrast between appearance and reality; things very often are not what they seem. The physical comparison of Dinah and Hetty marks the first major manifestation of the theme. Both girls appear beautiful, but only Dinah is so. Hetty's beauty is superficial; it masks a vain, selfish spirit, while Dinah's physical beauty truly reflects the beauty of her soul. The reader should be attentive to these appearance-reality contrasts in the novel, particularly with respect to

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www.cliffs.com Adam and Arthur, and Hetty and Dinah; the contrasts form one of the most significant patterns in Adam Bede.

Chapter 10 Summary The scene shifts to Adam's cottage. Lisbeth has laid out the corpse and done everything possible to make the bedchamber where it lies clean and respectable. Her grief for her husband is so intense that it approaches despair, and when Seth tries to comfort her as she sits in the kitchen rocking and moaning, she angrily repels him. She can draw no spiritual aid from religion, and she feels old, useless, and in the way: "When one end o' th' bridge tumbles down, where's th' use o' the other stannin'?" Lisbeth goes into the workshop looking for Adam and finds him asleep. He awakens and she complains of her grief to him too. The mother and sons then go upstairs to pray over the body; afterwards, Adam goes to bed and Seth and Lisbeth return to the kitchen. As she sits in her rocker with her face covered, Lisbeth suddenly feels the touch of a gentle hand; Dinah has come. By acting towards her as a daughter and by offering to share her sorrow, Dinah gradually calms Lisbeth. Dinah cleans up the kitchen and makes Lisbeth more comfortable. Then, by assuring her that she will meet her husband again in the afterlife, she induces the old woman to pray and receive the solace of religious feeling. Commentary Lisbeth's dialogue here provides a good insight into her character. An insecure old woman who feels alone in the world, she complains endlessly, thoroughly exasperating Adam. But the real emphasis in the chapter falls on Dinah. We spoke earlier of her almost magical influence over others, and here we are provided with an excellent example of her ability to soothe and comfort. Eliot comments that throughout Dinah's life she has worked among the poor and ill, helping them both materially and spiritually. Even though the people she works with are often sunk in the very depths of poverty and ignorance, Dinah, through experience, has acquired the "subtlest perception" of the best way in which to soften them and bring them from despair to hope, from apathy to spiritual regeneration. When Dinah arrives at the Bedes' cottage, Lisbeth is sitting in her rocking chair moaning in despair. She first gives the old woman the sense that she shares her grief. She then draws Lisbeth out of herself by talking about her own childhood, thus establishing a further bond of communication between them. Dinah cleans up the kitchen and encourages Lisbeth to make herself neat, which distracts the old woman and brings her back into contact with the physical world. And finally she tells Lisbeth she will see her husband in the next life, which gives Lisbeth hope and, at last, peace of mind. Throughout the entire process, Dinah reacts to Lisbeth with "acute and ready sympathy." It is clear that Dinah's piety is not of the easy, lazy variety; she has acquired patience and love for her fellow man through long years of dedicated work and self-denial. Her actions in this chapter, so sensitive and tactful, indicate an exceptional knowledge of practical psychology; Dinah may be guided by the spirit, but she also knows, on a human level, exactly what she is about. Eliot emphasizes her effectiveness as well as her gentleness and sympathy. Whenever Dinah is discussed, Eliot speaks in almost reverent terms. Dinah is Eliot's conception of the ideal woman, one who devotes herself to gentle service, even at the cost of considerable self-sacrifice. The reader, with considerable justification, may sometimes feel the character to be more than a little

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www.cliffs.com implausible, but it is important to realize that in the world of Adam Bede, Dinah is the standard of virtue, the paragon to whom everyone looks with admiration. To restate a point made earlier, she combines great spiritual depth with a commitment to humanity. Dinah is not only a good woman in the sense that she possesses abstract virtue; she also functions, in the real world and every day, as a good woman. She is both spiritual and practical, saintly and involved with others, focused on God and focused on man at the same time. Eliot considers this balance and harmony between the moral and physical realms of paramount importance in human life, and she projects her enthusiasm in the creation of Dinah, the woman (to borrow Eliot's concrete terms) with the face of an angel and the hands of a working woman.

Chapter 11 Summary Dinah comes down to the kitchen at dawn the following morning. Adam is already in the workshop and comes out to see who is there. Dinah explains her presence, and the two young people take a long look at one another: Adam admires Dinah's beauty, and Dinah is impressed by the strong young man. She blushes in spite of herself. After some further talk, they sit down to breakfast with Lisbeth and Seth. Lisbeth is pleased with Dinah's abilities as housekeeper and cook, and she tries to persuade her to stay longer. But Dinah says she must return to her bleak Snowfield to help the poor there. Contrary to Adam's wishes--he wants Seth to help him--Lisbeth insists that Adam make their father's coffin alone. As he and Seth talk in the workshop, Dinah comes in to say that she will be leaving that evening. Seth offers to see her home. When she is out of hearing, Adam encourages Seth not to give up hope of winning her love eventually, saying "she's made out o' stuff with a finer grain than most o' the women." He then sets about making the coffin, wondering how it is that the right woman can soften even the strongest man. Commentary Chapter 11 affords a good example of the way in which Adam approaches life. Although he is grieved by the loss of his father, he doesn't collapse emotionally the way Lisbeth does, nor does he simply stand about helplessly, as Seth tends to do. Adam works, and this is extremely characteristic behavior for him. He explains his attitude on the matter, characteristically, by referring to his trade. He feels that a man can bear any adversity as long as he can work. Since "the natur o' things doesn't change," since the mathematical rules which guide calculation remain intact whether a man is happy or not, one should ignore mere transitory things as much as possible and preserve a stoic calm. Adam's basic viewpoint at this stage is optimistic, constructive, and fundamentally secure. Note the terms in which he thinks; although his father is dead, he doesn't lose faith in "the natur o' things." In his mind, reality in general remains sensible and calculable. Because he retains this outlook, he instinctively reacts to an unpleasant situation by trying to better it. Instead of standing still and allowing himself to feel depressed or defeated, he has the urge to press forward, look to the future, make the best of things. Note that Adam's attitude in this respect resembles Dinah's; she too reacted to Thias Bede's death by working to improve the situation. This active, constructive attitude toward trouble, though it derives from a different source in her case, is as typical of Dinah as it is of Adam; witness her dedication to helping the poor and sick. Adam and Dinah's first meeting is a momentous one. Obviously there is some "magnetism" between the two young people. Adam becomes aware of Dinah as a woman for the first time and his interest is

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www.cliffs.com marked, as his comments to Seth towards the end of the chapter show. He seems to feel that Dinah is "special" in some way which he cannot articulate. Dinah reacts to Adam in a most uncharacteristic manner: She blushes, although her usual demeanor is, above all, serene. Eliot brings the pair together in a plausible enough way. Their actual meeting is a matter of chance, but it follows upon Dinah's decision to visit Lisbeth, a natural action for her. But the author invests the occasion with a romantic aura by the manner in which she discusses it and by introducing small significant actions. When Adam first sees Dinah, Eliot describes his reaction this way: "It was like dreaming of the sunshine, and awaking in the moonlight." She reinforces this romantic rhetoric by having Adam's dog react to Dinah in a friendly way even though the dog, it is explained, normally doesn't take to strangers. Then, when Dinah says goodbye to Seth in the workshop, she refuses to look at Adam, indicating that she feels shy in his presence. By such devices as these, Eliot shows that the feeling between Adam and Dinah is natural and strong.

Chapters 12 & 13 Summary On the same morning as described in the previous chapter, Arthur decides to go on a week-long fishing trip. He discovers, however, that his horse is lame and then resolves just to visit a neighbor, taking his servant's horse. He knows that Hetty will be at the Chase taking needlework lessons from the lady's maid at about five o'clock, and he plans to remove himself from the temptation to see her by staying away all afternoon. But Arthur, almost against his will, returns early. He walks to the grove and deliberately places himself so that he will encounter Hetty as she walks on her way. She appears and he walks some distance with the girl, gently flattering her. He makes her cry by a chance remark and then puts his arm around her to comfort her. For a moment they are very close, but Hetty breaks the spell by dropping her sewing basket, and Arthur comes to his senses and hurries away. Once alone, he berates himself for being so affected by a mere dairymaid and vows not to see her again. But then he changes his mind; he must see her again and let her know that he has no romantic interest in her. While Hetty is with Mrs. Pomfret (the lady's maid who is teaching her to do needlework), she can think of nothing but the possibility that she will meet Arthur again on the way home. It is finally time to go, and she starts back through the grove. Just as she has decided that Arthur will not show up and is beginning to cry, he appears. All his plans for treating her coldly melt when he sees her tears, and he instinctively attempts to soothe the girl. In a moment they are in each other's arms, sharing a first kiss. They walk together to the end of the grove and then Arthur says goodbye and turns back alone. Already his conscience is beginning to bother him; he knows he can't marry Hetty because of the social distance between them, he doesn't really want to deceive her, and he's afraid of losing face in a scandal if his interest in the girl should become known. He decides to tell Mr. Irwine his problem, relying on the parson to turn him from his foolish passion. Commentary These chapters are obviously important in that they forward the relationship between Arthur and Hetty, a relationship which brings about the novel's crisis, and the reader should be careful to follow the emotional situation between these two as it develops. Adam Bede is to a great extent a novel about human motivations, and we should be very much concerned with the question of why the characters do the things they do.

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www.cliffs.com The author focuses our attention on Arthur's talent for vacillation and self-deception. When Chapter 12 opens, he has decided to avoid seeing Hetty, whom he realizes he finds too attractive for his own good. Yet he comes back early from visiting Gawaine and deliberately puts himself in Hetty's way. Later, he decides that he must not see her again but almost immediately changes his mind once more. Arthur not only vacillates, he deceives himself as to the motive for his vacillation. He does not know himself very well and is falsely confident of his ability to resist temptation: He feels that he is much too honorable a man to do Hetty any harm. This vain complacency allows him to believe that he wants to see Hetty again only to convince her that his flirting has not been serious. Arthur is a pleasant young man, but he is also used to having his own way. In this instance, he does what he wants to do--see Hetty--but invents noble motives for his action in order to soothe his conscience. At this point, Hetty's romantic imagination is working at full speed. Eliot emphasizes her state of mind by referring to an image she has used once before; Arthur was described in Chapter 9 as being like an "Olympian god" to Hetty, and now "it was as if she had been wooed by a river-god." Hetty is completely dazzled by Arthur and interprets his interest in her as an opportunity to escape from her present drab life into a higher, more exciting sphere. To her overheated imagination, Arthur presents himself as a sort of personal deus ex machina. It is debatable whether she really cares about Arthur himself; she seems rather to be completely intent on the wealth and social standing he represents. Arthur's reaction to Hetty seems to be more personal than hers to him. His liking for the girl is obviously sincere; he can't bear the thought of hurting her. But at the same time he fights his own inclinations because he knows that the social distance between Hetty and himself makes a serious relationship impossible. No gentleman could marry a farm girl, he says: "It was too foolish." He also realizes that in getting involved with Hetty, he runs the risk of becoming implicated in a scandal and wants to avoid losing the respect of the tenants on the estate. So Arthur has gotten himself into quite an uncomfortable situation. He both wants and doesn't want Hetty, and circumstances keep conspiring against his good intentions. Trace the steps by which Hetty and Arthur come together in these chapters. While it is true that Arthur meets the girl deliberately, it is also true that he would not have met her if his horse had not been accidentally lamed the day before. In the same way, Hetty's tears at the evening meeting prevent him from breaking off the relationship as he had planned; if she had not cried, things might have turned out differently. Arthur is irresolute by nature, and the intervention of adverse circumstances only reinforce his weakness. Instead of directing events, he is directed by them; he lacks the courage to stick to his decisions in the face of obstacles. These events point to one of the themes in the novel--the effect of blind circumstance on human life. By setting up Arthur's plight in this way, the author is attempting to show that men are to a certain extent controlled by outside influences. We make our decisions freely, but we make them in the context of certain circumstances.

Chapters 14 & 15 Summary While Hetty is parting with Arthur, Dinah is taking her leave of the Bedes. When she and Seth are gone, Adam and his mother talk about her. Lisbeth approves of Dinah so much that she hints that Adam ought to marry her, but Adam ignores her. Dinah and Seth, meanwhile, encounter Hetty on her way back from the Chase. Seth turns back, and the two women go on towards the Hall Farm together. Dinah tries to get Hetty to talk about Adam to find out

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www.cliffs.com if she returns Adam's affection, but to no avail. Hetty's thoughts are all of Arthur. When they arrive at the farm, Mr. and Mrs. Poyser are sitting up with Totty, who is ill. Some talk of the Bedes passes; Mr. Poyser praises Adam as a reliable young man, and Mrs. Poyser dispenses some of her usual practical wisdom. Totty becomes restless, and Mrs. Poyser asks Hetty to take her upstairs. The child refuses to go to Hetty, though, and Mrs. Poyser suggests that Dinah take her. Totty very willingly goes to Dinah, and everyone retires for the night. First we follow Hetty into her bedroom. The girl, full of romantic notions about Arthur, sets about her favorite occupation. She puts on the earrings and other bits of finery that she keeps hidden away and admires herself in the mirror. She imagines herself married to Arthur and paces about the room like her conception of a great lady. The author then breaks her narrative to launch into a long analysis of the relationship between goodness and beauty. She says that men are often deceived by a pretty face into thinking that the owner of it is good. On this subject, she insists, all that glitters is definitely not gold. The scene then shifts to Dinah's bedroom. While Hetty has been primping, Dinah has been sitting in the twilight thinking of God, of the poor people at Snowfield to whom she is to return in the morning, and her friends in Hayslope. She hears a sound from Hetty's room, and this starts her thinking about the girl. She knows Hetty is cold and selfish, and she is moved to try to help her. Dinah goes to Hetty's room and assures her that if she ever gets in trouble, she should feel free to contact her. Instead of being grateful for this consideration, Hetty is frightened at the mere mention of future pain and tells Dinah to go away. Dinah sadly complies and prays for Hetty; Hetty, falling asleep, dreams of Arthur. Commentary Even though very little happens in these chapters, some important issues are raised. Perhaps the most obvious of all is the Hetty-Dinah contrast mentioned earlier. The contrast is so very obvious in the bedroom scenes in Chapter 15 that one is tempted to accuse Eliot of sentimentality. All that Hetty does reveals her vanity and immaturity; all that Dinah does reveals her serenity and goodness. The cards are stacked so heavily against Hetty that the two women almost degenerate from human figures into personifications of Saint and Sinner. The black-and-white quality of the contrast is enhanced by its setting. The alignment of Hetty and Dinah in adjoining bedrooms is certainly far from subtle. The description of Hetty is obviously calculated to expose her vanity. The author describes Hetty's primping before the mirror as a religious rite, calling it "her peculiar form of worship." The tone of this borders on sadism as Hetty is held up to the reader as a blind worshipper of her own ego, a completely selfish girl. Note also that Hetty loses herself in fantasies of luxury; again, she seems less interested in Arthur himself than in what he can give her. Her visions of the future are not very precise "but of every picture she is the central figure in fine clothes." Here, with fine economy of diction, Eliot exposes the core of Hetty's dream-world; not only is she to become a lady, but her position is to be "central." She now feels that Arthur will eventually marry her, but she does not so much project herself as his wife as she projects him as her husband. Hetty does not see Arthur as the superior figure to whom she will devote herself; she rather sees herself as receiving devotion. No small part in her fantasy is played by those who will stand about "admiring and envying" her. After showing Hetty indulging in this orgy of selfishness and adding that beauty is not always a sign of goodness, the author turns to Dinah and we go from one extreme to the other. Dinah sits by her window and thinks not of herself but of God and her neighbor. Her heart goes out to the people of Hayslope with

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www.cliffs.com whom she is about to part, and she pities them for the troubles they will have to endure in life. Clearly, Dinah is as unselfish as Hetty is selfish, and the author reinforces the point (if it needs reinforcing) by having Dinah go to Hetty's room out of tenderness for her and having Hetty spurn her aid. The digression in the middle of Chapter 15 is the obvious manifestation of the appearance-reality theme in the novel. The author here makes explicit what she has earlier implied: People very often are not what they seem. Eliot also keeps alive another established theme. At the beginning of Chapter 14, Lisbeth implies that Adam should consider Dinah for a wife, and in Chapter 15, she says that Dinah "shared Seth's anxious interest in his brother's lot." By planting these small details, she keeps the possibility of an eventual romance between Adam and Dinah before the reader's mind. One very important philosophical issue is raised. We have spoken here and there of the notion of controlling one's own fate, of the impermanence of human plans, of the force of blind circumstance. Here Eliot begins to formulate an idea which is central to understanding the novel: that man, in order to be happy, must recognize the existence of forces which he cannot control and must work consciously within the context of these forces. When Hetty becomes frightened and asks Dinah why she foresees trouble in her (Hetty's) life, Dinah responds at length. She tells Hetty that trouble comes to us all, that sickness and death inescapably oppress us, that we harm both ourselves and others by doing wrong. Dinah has faced the inevitability of human suffering and is always prepared to deal with it. It is clear that Hetty has not, and neither has Arthur. But the most significant element to be noted in these chapters is the psychological method Eliot employs in characterizing Hetty and Dinah. We mentioned in connection with Chapter 9 that Eliot uses the omniscient viewpoint to probe the minds of her characters; here we have an even more striking illustration of the practice. We are told not only what the women do, but what they think; the personality patterns which underlie their behavior are examined at length. This method is pursued throughout the novel. Eliot does not merely show us, for example, that Arthur seduces Hetty, nor does she content herself with a few superficial remarks on the pair's motivations. Rather she explains that Arthur gives in to temptation because he does not know himself, and that Hetty allows herself to be deceived because she is naive and vain. We see both the mental and physical elements in the characters' behavior and thus come to know these characters completely. Eliot, through extensive analysis, presents personality and behavior in great depth and with great subtlety. The method is obviously a development in the direction of realism. There is so much authorial comment in Adam Bede because Eliot is not so much interested in simply telling a story as in describing people and events in as realistically detailed a way as possible. We realize, of course, that things do not simply "happen"; individual events, unless they are the result of forces of nature, are caused by human beings acting in response to particular motives. Intention proceeds action, and we cannot completely understand any human action unless we understand the person acting. The psychological approach is specific and concrete, and it tells us a great deal more about human reality than a straight narration of events could. This development is of the utmost importance for the history of the novel. Although character analysis from the psychological viewpoint is as old as literature itself, Eliot popularized for her time the extensive investigation of the complexities of human personality. She created a fictional world in which, as in reality, a significant part of the drama takes place in the minds of people as they struggle to understand and to deal with the situations in which they find themselves. Due to her influence, the psychological novel came into prominence, and in the hands of such writers as Meredith, James, and Joyce, it has developed into the highly complex and sophisticated form with which we are familiar today.

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Chapter 16 Summary Arthur sets out early the next morning to carry through his resolution of confessing to Mr. Irwine. On the way, he meets Adam, and they talk for a while of Adam's prospects. Arthur offers to lend Adam enough money to set himself up in business; Adam is grateful but puts the prospect off into the indefinite future. They discuss morality briefly and then part. When Arthur reaches Broxton Parsonage, Mr. Irwine is sitting at breakfast. As soon as Arthur is in the parson's presence, his determination to confess begins to slip. Mr. Irwine talks easily about books and scholarship, and Arthur mentions his plans for improving the estate when he becomes master at his grandfather's death. The talk turns to love, and, given the opportunity to speak of Hetty, Arthur again vacillates; he is afraid Mr. Irwine will think him foolish. The conversation then switches to morality in general, Arthur arguing that a man who sins isn't necessarily bad and Mr. Irwine maintaining that one must take into account the probable consequences of his actions before giving in to temptation. By this point the rector suspects that Arthur has a personal problem to discuss, and he asks him directly if he is presently struggling with temptation with respect to a woman. Arthur says no and leaves soon after, dissatisfied with himself. Commentary This chapter consists essentially of two long conversations, both of which center on morality. Here, as in many other places, Eliot is more interested in explaining the issues behind the plot than in forwarding the plot itself. This technique may seem ponderous to a modern reader; we are used to novels which move along at a much faster pace. But in order to explain the ethical theory she is setting forth, Eliot must indulge in abstract generalizations as well as in concrete illustrations, and she expresses these abstractions sometimes in her own voice, sometimes--as in this chapter--through one of her characters. Adam and Mr. Irwine here become mouthpieces for the author. It is perhaps implausible to represent a carpenter as being so interested in questions of morality, but that consideration is effaced for the moment by the author's need for an outlet for a series of ideas which the reader must understand in order to interpret the novel correctly. Just as Hetty and Dinah are contrasted, so are Arthur and Adam. Again the contrast works on the appearance-reality basis; both Adam and Arthur appear to be honorable and upstanding young men, but only Adam is so. The distinction between the two men is not drawn in unrealistic black-and-white terms as is that between the two women; Adam, unlike Dinah, has faults, and Arthur is not presented as being quite so self-centered as Hetty is. But the fundamental structure of the contrasts is similar; in each pair of characters, one person who is corrupted by pride is contrasted against one who is relatively humble. This is apparent here. We said earlier that Adam is a proud man. This is true; his pride sometimes makes him insensitive to others' feelings, and the great lesson he learns in the course of the novel is one of humility. But, at the same time, he is much less proud than Arthur. Arthur tends to project the future as totally bright and sunny; he sees himself as the popular young squire, and he does not try to avoid trouble because he does not feel that trouble will come. Note, for example, his benevolent projections for helping Adam in the future and the way in which he avoids confessing to Mr. Irwine in order to preserve his selfimage. Adam, on the other hand, knows as Dinah does that trouble is a part of life. He tells Arthur that we must "do without" things in this life, something which Arthur, at least in the case of Hetty, has not learned. The issue of pride forms the basis for another aspect of the contrast, vacillation. As the conversation

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www.cliffs.com between the two young men brings out, Adam never vacillates; if Arthur is too indecisive, Adam is too inflexible. Both attitudes are extremes, and neither character is praised for possessing his particular trait. Both men have a problem: Arthur thinks be can sail through life avoiding all trouble, while Adam thinks he can solve any difficulty through work. But Arthur's attitude is the worst of the two, and Eliot indicates this (among other things) by contrasting the characters, one against the other. This chapter presents the most striking illustration of Arthur's vacillation. His determination to confess to Mr. Irwine falters when he gets to Broxton Parsonage, and he deliberately evades the issue. When the rector asks him pointblank if he is having problems with a woman, he denies it. Arthur is following his usual pattern. He sets out to do something, then changes his mind in order to avoid unpleasant consequences. He is aware of his own lack of resolution but hasn't the strength to do anything about it though he certainly has every opportunity to do something about it. Just as Eliot emphasized Hetty's bad traits in Chapters 14 and 15, she now emphasizes Arthur's. Some of the same techniques are employed in both cases: contrast with another character, and verbal instruction by another character. As Dinah had counseled Hetty, so Adam and Mr. Irwine counsel Arthur. Just as Hetty's weakness was reemphasized by her failure to heed Dinah's advice, so Arthur's situation is made ironic in that he continues to behave foolishly even while Adam and Mr. Irwine tell him why he shouldn't The chapter's second conversation connects logically with the first. Adam insists that there is an unpleasant side to life and emphasizes each man's responsibility for his own deeds. Later, Mr. Irwine makes the same point in more sophisticated language. Both speakers focus on the inevitability of suffering and the necessity for self-restraint, but Arthur pays no heed. So ends Book I. The author has introduced all her principal characters, set the plot in motion by creating the triangle of Adam, Hetty, and Arthur, and sketched out the ideas upon which the novel is based. We find upon looking back that a moral theory is emerging, one that will apparently be illustrated through the rest of the story. Three of the four central characters are affected by a form of pride: Adam feels he can control the course of his own life, Arthur feels that he can do whatever he wants and escape punishment, Hetty's main goal in life is to be admired. Opposed to them stands Dinah, the archetype of the humble woman; she puts her trust in God. Eliot calls our attention to the force of circumstance, that element in life which is beyond our control, and to the fact that our actions necessarily involve certain consequences. It seems clear that the proud person, the one who refuses to recognize the nature of things, will blunder into trouble, while the humble person, the one who expects to suffer and who conducts himself so as to avoid unpleasant consequences, will lead a more peaceful life and be able to handle whatever unavoidable trouble comes his way.

BOOK II Chapter 17 Summary This chapter, entitled "In Which the Story Pauses a Little" does not advance the plot at all. The author says she intends to tell the truth about people and not to idealize or sentimentalize them. She says she finds more to love in simple, ignorant people, even though they may be vulgar, than in strict idealists or social snobs. She ends with a defense of Mr. Irwine; he is not strictly religious, she says, but we should admire him for his warm heart. Commentary Even though he has encountered other instances of Eliot's use of the "Dear Reader" technique before he comes upon this chapter, the modern reader is still somewhat surprised to find a self-contained essay

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www.cliffs.com dropped into the middle of a novel. Chapter 17 has no logical link with the rest of Adam Bede except that it forms a commentary upon one of the characters and on the author's goal in writing the book. So extended a digression was not commonplace even in the nineteenth century, which was much more tolerant in such matters than the twentieth is. But Eliot felt it necessary to clarify her viewpoint on certain controversial subjects, and so she writes what amounts to a defense of her literary method. Note that the switch from narration to exposition involves a switch in realities as well. We have been reading of the adventures of Adam Bede and his acquaintances; we have been absorbed in an eighteenth century world, complete in every detail. Suddenly the date is 1859, and we are jolted into the realization that the world of Adam Bede is unreal, a product of art. Eliot attempts to connect the two realities by her reference to Adam in his old age; the story, she implies, did actually take place, and she is writing from memory, or basing her work on the evidence of witnesses. But the illusion is destroyed. Instead of becoming a part of, and losing ourselves in, a fictional world, we are forced to detach ourselves from the story and regard it, at best, as a representation of a long-past episode in objective reality. The characters and situations in the novel lose their solidity and become mere fantasies. Why did Eliot consider this interruption necessary? Adam Bede was a revolutionary novel in its day, a conscious attempt to free the novel from certain shackles which prevented it from representing reality as truly as it might. This is evident if one considers the way in which Eliot approaches her topic in this chapter. She imagines her readers raising objections to her way of presenting her characters; she assumes that her audience will find her method unusual and will react negatively to it. And so she defends herself and issues a manifesto. The manifesto, rather obviously, relates to realism in fiction. Eliot says her readers expect her to create moral stereotypes instead of real human beings; they want the characters to be all good or all bad, and they want them, moreover, to be rewarded or punished in the book according to their deserts in the light of generally accepted moral standards. They want to be "edified," in short, to have all their moral prejudices confirmed. This sarcastic attack on mid-Victorian taste was unfortunately well justified. The cult of respectability was so strong in England at this time that writers, in order to be commercially successful, had to conform to their readers' moral bias. There is a famous passage in the preface to Thackeray's Pendennis where he says he cannot represent the character of his hero completely realistically because public opinion forces him to omit the less "nice" side of a typical young man's behavior. The public demanded simple (and often cliched) solutions to simple moral problems, and by and large the public got what it asked for. Eliot saw what great distortions of reality this prudish attitude caused, but unlike Thackeray, who protested but obeyed for the most part, she decided to do something about it. The result was Adam Bede. Here she attempts to draw people and human situations as they really are rather than trying to fit her characters and plot into a mold imposed by public taste. Scholars still debate how successful she was. While it is true that Eliot deeemphasizes some of the Victorians' favorite moral categories--Hetty, for example, is not condemned for sexual misconduct but for self-centeredness--it is also true that her characters are rewarded according to their relative virtue or vice, a sequence which, as we all know, does not always follow in the real world. Although Eliot was an agnostic, she sets up her moral world in such a way that external forces--"the way things are"--determine one's rise or fall. There is little difference in practice between a vision like this and one in which Providence rewards and punishes. But even if Eliot's morality is more categorical than modern forms tend to be, it still enabled her to create characters somewhat more realistically than most of her contemporaries did. Except for Dinah, the characters in Adam Bede are not noticeably stereotyped; even the hero has very great weaknesses which he must overcome. Eliot's attitude toward human nature is essentially tolerant, which allows her to draw

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www.cliffs.com characters who are at the same time weak and admirable. They are realistically complex, realistically ambiguous, a plausible mixture of good and bad traits. Indeed, Eliot's manifesto fades midway through the chapter into a plea for universal sympathy, for a recognition of the community of man. The Rev. Mr. Ryde is a more zealous clergyman in the technical sense, but Eliot prefers Mr. Irwine because Mr. Irwine is benevolent to his parishioners. The standard for judging is not idealistic but realistic. Mr. Irwine is judged a good man not because of what he believes but because of the way he treats other people. Thus Eliot's moral philosophy is based partially on feeling; she thinks it objectively unrealistic to judge people by a priori standards, and she also feels the intrinsic wrongness of arbitrary condemnation. The revolutionary character of Adam Bede, then, cannot be stressed too much. We spoke earlier of the psychological method Eliot employs in reconstructing human characters and situations. This method, coupled with an original moral viewpoint and presented by a writer of genius, was enough to shift the novel's course of development. After Eliot, the mental as well as the physical aspect of man became fair game for the novelist, and fiction took a giant step in the direction of more accurately reproducing reality. Her work had the effect of liberating the novel (and, she hoped, the reader) from a narrow and conventionalized view of human life.

Chapter 18 Summary The action opens at the Poysers' farm, where the family is preparing for church. The walk across the fields to town is described, as are the social and religious customs these simple people observe on a typical Sunday morning. Thias Bede's funeral is held before the regular service, and he is buried in the churchyard. Then the congregation enters the church and the author focuses on Hetty's and Adam's thoughts. Arthur has not come to church this morning and Hetty is bitterly disappointed; she had convinced herself that Arthur was in love with her. Adam, meanwhile, is admiring her from across the aisle. He regrets having treated his father roughly in his last years and recognizes his own lack of humility. When the service is over, the people stand about in the churchyard for a while. The Poysers offer their condolences to the Bedes, and Mr. Poyser asks Adam to come out to the farm soon to look at a broken spinning wheel. Hetty, meanwhile, is receiving the attentions of Mr. Craig, the gardener at the Chase, who reveals that Arthur has gone off on a fishing trip for a week. After some small talk, Mr. Craig goes off with the Poysers and the Bedes head for home. Hetty is more upset than ever; she is afraid that Arthur's sudden departure indicates that he doesn't love her after all. Commentary This long chapter is mostly devoted to the development of "local color"; Eliot describes the people of Hayslope and their ways at considerable length. The author once again points out Hetty's shallowness of spirit by contrasting her with another character. Religion means nothing to Hetty; she ignores the service completely and loses herself in her pettish disappointment over Arthur's absence. Adam, on the other hand, submerges his own feelings in the service, indicating a greater range of sensitivity and more concern for the human community as a whole than Hetty possesses. Adam in this chapter is very much aware of his own faults, which is again an example of foreshadowing;

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www.cliffs.com Eliot intends later to show Adam overcoming his pride in a situation in which "irremediable evil" plays a central part, so now she describes him as striving towards humility in a similar situation, one in which he must adjust to his father's death. Note his self-analysis during the church service. He recognizes that he finds it hard to forgive people who, in his opinion, have done wrong, and he realizes that the most difficult thing for him would be to "go right against [his] own pride." This is a very precise statement of Adam's central personality problem; he knows that humility is desirable (as Arthur and Hetty do not) and intends to do better. But, at this point at least, he hasn't the strength of will to improve; he resembles Arthur in this. His approach to Dinah, the prototype of humility in the novel, will parallel his approach to the ideal of humility as a practical force in his own life.

Chapter 19 Summary The next morning, Adam sets off to work on repairs on a country house. His mind is occupied with Hetty; with his drunken father gone, his burden of responsibilities is lightened, and he can begin to think of marrying within another year or so. He plans to set up a little business on the side; he and Seth will make furniture and sell it in the neighborhood. Adam is not at all sure that Hetty is fond of him, but he has hope and decides to stop at the Hall Farm that evening. The author then comments on Adam's love for and pride in his work, his small stock of book-learning, and his manly virtues. Such men, she says, are always to be found among the laboring classes. Commentary Adam is a very practical young man, as his deliberations here show. Although he is grieved by the loss of his father, he also realizes the advantages it entails for himself--without an alcoholic father to support, he can think of marriage. He thinks of ways to circumvent his mother's disapproval of Hetty and begins to make plans for going into business for himself. He is not one to rush into marriage blindly, and he considers the pragmatic aspects of his position with great care. Toward the end of this chapter, Eliot touches again upon a subject she has mentioned several times before. She says that although Adam is not an "average man," there are many people with his virtues among the working classes. The point, though it is commonplace enough in our democratic society, was not so obvious in 1859. The working classes had only recently begun to emerge from the obscurity in which they had historically been sunk and were taking their place as a self-conscious segment of society whose humanity was recognized. In Eliot's day, most "fashionable" novels still dealt with the upper and middle classes; a novel of "low life," at least one by a serious author, was something of a rarity. But Eliot refused to see human worth in social terms; she says in Chapter 17 that she has spent many years among "people more or less commonplace and vulgar" and has learned to love human nature through her contact with these simple souls. Eliot sets out to show that in her mind the "commonplace and vulgar" people are in fact more useful, more virtuous, and more worthy of praise than their "betters." The novel focuses almost completely on the lives and ways of lower-class figures, in the first place. The hero and heroine are both workers, and the villain--if Arthur really deserves that label--is an aristocrat. The only upper-class figure who is presented sympathetically, Mr. Irwine, is a benevolent man who treats his parishioners as valuable human beings, and the only lower-class figure who is condemned, Hetty, is fascinated by that material splendor which characterizes the rich. The author sets up a general contrast between the common people and the gentry. A comparison of the upper- and lower-class characters reveals that while the former tend to be sickly, stuffy, hypocritically

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www.cliffs.com polite, and morally irresponsible, the latter are on the whole healthy, honest, and vital. On a more particular level, Adam and Arthur are implicitly (sometimes explicitly) compared throughout the novel, and Adam clearly comes off as the more noble figure. Adam Bede, then, is revolutionary in another sense than the ones discussed earlier. Written at a time when rigid social distinctions were only beginning to break down, it defends the dignity of the common man and opposes the notion that human worth is a product of social rank. Eliot, as a matter of fact, seems to attack the very notion of social distinctions on the grounds that they blur communication between man and man, exalt inferior people over their natural superiors, and generally cause more harm than good. Arthur's irresponsibility in seducing Hetty can be attributed to his rich and pampered upbringing, and Hetty's fall is a product of her desire for wealth and social prestige. If the class structure did not exist, their tragedy would not have come about. Eliot, in a time and place where democracy was not very popular, shows some clear democratic leanings.

Chapter 20 Summary When Adam comes home from work, his mother is her usual querulous self, but he brushes off her complaints and declares that he must he left free to do what he thinks is right. He puts on his best clothes and goes to the Hall Farm, where he encounters Mrs. Poyser. She tells him that Hetty is in the garden with Totty and asks him to go and send the child in. Adam does so and then looks for Hetty. He comes upon her unawares and startles her; she blushes, and Adam takes this as a sign of love. It is a "sweet delusion," though; Hetty is thinking of Arthur. There is a lot of misunderstanding in the ensuing conversation; Adam tells Hetty of Arthur's plan to lend him money so that she will have a favorable view of his own prospects, but Hetty is interested in the information only because it relates to Arthur. He plucks a rose for her and Hetty puts it in her hair. Adam disapproves of this mark of vanity and says so; he maintains that Dinah's extremely plain style of dress is "very nice." They go into the house and Hetty goes upstairs while Adam socializes with the Poysers. Mrs. Poyser is angry with one of the maids for breaking some crockery until, suddenly, she drops a jug herself. She has been startled by the appearance of Hetty in one of her aunt's dresses and acts as if she's seen a ghost. After a few comments on Hetty's joke, the talk moves to other topics. Adam mentions his scheme for a second business and Mr. Poyser approves of it. Finally Adam leaves to visit Bartle Massey, the village schoolmaster. Commentary The focus in this chapter is on Adam's misunderstanding of Hetty. While they pick currants together, Hetty's thoughts are almost entirely on Arthur, but Adam takes her softened manner as indicating that she has begun to love him. Adam is so blindly in love with Hetty that he cannot really see her faults; when she puts the rose in her hair, he disapproves of her "love of finery" but almost immediately dismisses the matter. Because he believes Hetty to be a sweet young girl, he cannot recognize her extreme vanity. Adam's situation is ironic because while he is lost in admiration of Hetty's beauty, the reader can see what a complete mismatch the two are. Once again Eliot is working with the appearance-reality motif, and she returns to it again later in the chapter when Hetty appears in the dark dress that makes her resemble Dinah. The identity switch is dramatic in that it points up how far from the truth Adam's vision of Hetty is. No one could be less like Dinah than Hetty; Mrs. Poyser knows this, and her reaction to the sudden apparition is violent. But Adam is not disturbed; because he sees Hetty in a false light, the contrast does not strike him. Eliot here, in one symbolic scene, gives us a vivid representation of how confused the

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www.cliffs.com normally clear-sighted Adam is. The scene also serves to remind us of Dinah, of course. Dinah is out of the way through a good part of the novel, but the author does not allow us to forget her. Here, by referring to her in a situation in which Adam is pursuing a wrong romantic interest, and setting up a contrast between her and Hetty, she indicates where Adam's romantic interest should really tend.

Chapter 21 Summary Adam arrives at Bartle Massey's school and waits until the evening's lessons are over. Bartle's students are boys and men of the town to whom he imparts some elementary skills in reading, writing, and "cal'clating"; the author gives humorous portraits of several of them. Adam and Bartle go into the latter's house. A dog with two puppies greets them. The dog, Vixen, is apparently Bartle's "woman"; he is a confirmed old bachelor who loves to rail at the follies of women, and Vixen is the only female with whom he will associate. Most of the conversation centers on women, Adam defending and Bartle execrating them. The schoolmaster then tells Adam that the Squire's steward has had a stroke. This man had managed the woods belonging to the estate, and Bartle feels that the job will now be offered to Adam. Adam doubts it; he and the old squire had a misunderstanding two years before. Bartle says that Arthur will use his influence to get Adam the job and he counsels Adam not to turn it down out of pride. Adam replies that he'll take this advice into account if the job ever is offered, and the two friends part. Commentary Bartle Massey, though he appears late in the novel, plays a fairly large role in the ensuing action. He almost seems to be an afterthought on Eliot's part; he is hardly mentioned until Chapter 20. It is difficult to categorize Bartle. He possesses the "hobby-horse" mentality of the flat character; most of his conversation concerns itself with the evil of women. But he can also be gentle to his struggling students, and he is proud of the part he has played in developing Adam's mind. All in all, Bartle reminds one of some of Dickens' more successful comic figures--Mr. Micawber, for example. He is funny, he is vivid, he is exaggerated; but at the same time he is human enough to arouse the reader's sympathetic interest. Bartle functions to some extent as a father-figure to Adam. Note that he gives advice to Adam, and that Adam is ready to take his advice seriously. Bartle also understands Adam well, as he shows when he warns him against allowing his pride to interfere with his judgment. Bartle's own pride has isolated him from the opposite sex, and he serves as a sort of object lesson to Adam on the subject of human sympathy. Adam's opinion of Arthur is as exalted as Arthur's of him; here he characterizes the young squire as having "a will to do right." The statement is, of course, ironic from the reader's point of view; he knows by this point that Arthur is constantly flying in the face of his own conscience. The remark thus serves another purpose as well; it reemphasizes Adam's confusion. Adam misjudges Arthur as badly as he does Hetty. As is often the case with strictly honest people, he thinks everyone is honest. Adam gets into difficulties partially because he takes people at face value. The portraits of the three students are an example of the mixing of local color and comic relief. Note that they have nothing to do with the plot but are ends in themselves, calculated to please and divert the reader and to fill the novel's background in more solidly.

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Book II is devoted to bringing the triangle which provides most of the action in Adam Bede to full development. Dinah drops out of sight while the links between Arthur, Adam, and Hetty are strengthened and the pressures within the three-sided relationship begin to mount. In Book I, Eliot had focused primarily upon the flirtation between Arthur and Hetty; now she turns her attention to Adam. The obstacles which had prevented Adam from considering marriage fall away: his father is gone, he sees the opportunity for securing a lucrative new job at the Chase, and he begins to feel that Hetty loves him. Amid a welter of confusion of motives, a conflict between Arthur and Adam becomes more imminent as both men approach Hetty simultaneously. By the end of Book II, Eliot has set the stage for the novel's central conflict.

BOOK III Chapters 22-26 Summary About a month passes, Arthur's twenty-first birthday dawns clear and warm, and all the tenants of the estate prepare for a day of celebration: the heir has come of age. At the Hall Farm, Hetty is dressing for the party. We discover that she has received some pearl and garnet earrings from Arthur and that she thinks Arthur loves her. The whole family proceeds to the Chase, where the tenants from all over the estate are gathering. Arthur is walking about with Mr. Irwine, surveying the scene with obvious satisfaction; he is the hero of the day. He mentions some of his plans for making himself popular on the estate when he becomes the owner of it and adds that he has succeeded in persuading his grandfather to take Adam on as master of the Chase woods. Adam has accepted the position and Arthur is to announce the news today. Mr. Irwine teases Arthur about setting up the situation so as to draw favorable attention to himself, and Arthur blushes, tacitly admitting the charge. Adam has been asked to eat with the "large tenants" (holders of sizeable farms) rather than with the village workmen, and he goes up with Bartle Massey. He is welcomed openly there, and some goodhumored banter passes. Hetty is at the next table and smiles at him, a smile which to her is mere flirtation but to Adam is a sign of favor. In Chapter 24, Arthur and Mr. Irwine, who are making the rounds of all the guests, come in, and a number of impromptu speeches and toasts are made. Arthur feels uneasy about accepting the praise because of his secret affair with Hetty, but he suppresses his sense of guilt quickly. He announces Adam's appointment as master of the woods, and Adam makes an acceptance speech, expressing his gratitude and his resolution to handle the job responsibly. Chapter 25 describes the games held in the afternoon. The gentry, from whose viewpoint the chapter is mostly written, comment on the various guests and distribute prizes to the winners of the different events. We learn that Arthur plans to give Hetty up. At the ball that night, the romantic entanglements among Adam, Hetty, and Arthur become more confused. Arthur treats Hetty coldly at first, which frightens her. Adam goes to claim Hetty's hand for a dance, and as they talk, a locket which she has been wearing out of sight accidentally falls to the floor. It is clearly a lover's token, containing two entwined locks of hair. Adam is shocked that Hetty would have such a thing, and he leaves the dance feeling that she must be in love with another man. But he soon convinces himself that this could not be the case and forgets about it. Meanwhile, Arthur has made an

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www.cliffs.com appointment to meet Hetty in the wood in two days' time; he has definitely resolved to break off the romance. Commentary The crisis which Books I and II have prepared for remains latent in Book III. We learn only one fact of primary importance for the plot: The relationship between Hetty and Arthur has become much more intense, turning, indeed, into a true love affair. The section centers upon the confusion which exists in the minds of the principal characters about their own goals and the emotional dispositions of the others. It also--and this is probably its major function--serves to build suspense. The author spends a great deal of space developing local color as a sort of delaying tactic; while we watch the games going forward in Chapter 25, the plot is actually at a standstill, and our curiosity about the fates of the members of the triangle is temporarily frustrated. Eliot, on the other hand, gives enough attention to Arthur, Adam, and Hetty to keep that curiosity alive; we watch the three drifting closer and closer to the inevitable disaster. Book III is the calm before the storm. The contrast between the growing tension and the background against which it grows is ironic indeed. All of Book III concerns a celebration; on the surface all is peace and happiness, but below the surface an undercurrent is stirring which will cause immense pain to many of the celebrants. Eliot gives the irony greater point by making Arthur's party the high-water mark for all three members of the triangle. Arthur himself is truly in his glory; it is his day, and he savors the tribute which he receives from all sides. Arthur's great dream had always been to become a loved and respected country gentleman. Although he is not yet master of the estate, Arthur seems to have "arrived." He is the center of attention, and he has the respectful affection of all the tenants. Mr. Poyser's toast emphasizes this. He says that all the tenants believe Arthur will be a good, honest landlord and will live up to his noble name. Arthur feels "a twinge of conscience" during the speech, but he brushes his guilt aside; today he is the popular young landlord and is on top of the world. Adam, too, has reached a peak. He has been given a job which moves him out of the ranks of the simple laborers and opens the door to a comfortable, financially secure life. His good qualities have won him social and material advancement, and he receives the laudatory recognition of his peers. Adam also feels that he is making progress in winning Hetty's heart, and this adds to his happiness. In Chapter 26, he has some doubts about the state of Hetty's affections, particularly when he sees her locket, but on the whole the day is as much a triumph for him as it is for Arthur. Hetty, with her inclination towards luxury and high society, is naturally in fine fettle. She is ever so careful in dressing and looks forward with great pleasure to going to a ball where she is not only the prettiest girl but also the apple of the hero's eye. For her, as for the others, there is a disturbing shadow; when Arthur ignores her during the day, her spirits sink, but when he sets up another meeting in the wood, Hetty's joy and confidence are restored and she goes home happy. Book III is, then, an extensive exercise in the contrast of appearance and reality. The overriding structure of the section, the celebration which masks a tension-packed situation, is an obvious manifestation of it. Eliot's constant references to negative elements which mar the three principal characters' happiness carry out the same theme on a more subtle level. Each of the three thinks he has good reason to be happy, but the reader, from a detached viewpoint, can see that the web of pride which Hetty and Arthur have woven will trap them and, indirectly, the relatively innocent Adam. By the use of this double viewpoint, the author seeks to convince her readers that it is dangerous to judge by appearances and that it is equally dangerous to base one's hopes for the future on ill-considered actions in the present. Mr. Irwine has said that "our deeds carry their terrible consequences," and in Book III,

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www.cliffs.com Eliot, by planting small details here and there (for example, the fact that Arthur has "gone a bit far" with Hetty), prepares us for the consequences which are to come. Pride--irresponsible action--consequence: this is the pattern which creates the moral dilemma in Adam Bede. The modern reader might be confused by the extremely indirect way in which George Eliot handles the love affair; it is indeed a far cry from the bluntness with which sex is discussed in modern literature. But the clues are plain enough if one looks for them. Arthur has apparently given Hetty some expensive presents, she is convinced he will marry her, and Arthur mentally admits that he has gone too far with her. This would be more than enough to alert a Victorian audience that the relationship was sexual. It is a matter of convention. In 1859, it was strictly taboo to refer even indirectly to sex in a novel. Consequently, the information that Arthur's interest in Hetty is primarily physical and that his behavior has not been honorable, when coupled with the other facts mentioned above, would be shocking in itself and would make the reader think that something illicit was going on. What for us is indirect and subtle would be blunt and obvious to a Victorian reader.

BOOK IV Chapters 27 & 28 Summary Book IV opens three weeks after the birthday celebration. Adam is superintending some repairs at the Chase Farm this day, and toward evening he has to pass through the grove in which Hetty and Arthur have been meeting. As he walks along, he suddenly sees the pair a short distance before him; they are kissing. When they notice his presence, Hetty hurries away, and Arthur strolls casually towards Adam. He tries to pass the incident off with a few casual words, but Adam is furious; now he knows where the locket came from. He berates Arthur for trifling with Hetty's feelings and for stealing her affection from him. Arthur tries to make excuses, saying he meant no harm. He is about to leave to join his regiment (he is a captain in the local militia), and points out that the affair is about to come to an end. But Adam is not so easily placated; "you've robbed me o' my happiness," he exclaims and challenges Arthur to fight. Arthur is unwilling, but Adam calls him a coward and the fight starts. It is soon over, and Arthur lies on the ground unconscious. After a few moments, Arthur revives. Adam is no longer angry. He brings water, then helps Arthur to the Hermitage, a cottage in the woods which has been Hetty and Arthur's trysting place, and Arthur slowly revives. Adam leaves to get brandy, and while he is gone Arthur hides a woman's kerchief. When Adam returns, he apologizes for judging Arthur rashly but asks for an explanation of his relationship with Hetty. Arthur lies again, saying that it has been nothing but a mild flirtation. He betrays guilt, though, and Adam is suspicious that Hetty's heart has been captured permanently. He demands that Arthur write Hetty a note breaking off the affair if he really cares nothing for her. Arthur unwillingly agrees and promises to put the note in Adam's hands the following day. Commentary These are, both mathematically and structurally, the central chapters in the novel. In Books I, II, and III, Eliot has created a complex situation with the triangle; here the conflict implied in that situation explodes, and in Books IV, V, and VI, Eliot will trace out the consequences to which the situation gives rise. The happy world in which the characters existed is now shattered, and the fortunes of all three (for a limited time in Adam's case) go downhill from this point. The relationships among the members of the triangle shift radically as the characters begin to see through appearances to the reality hidden beneath. Adam and Arthur no longer see one another as friends, Adam no longer sees Hetty as totally innocent (though he places the blame for this on Arthur and excuses Hetty), and Arthur can no longer see himself as good.

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www.cliffs.com Finally, the central character's journey towards spiritual maturity begins here; from this chapter on he moves away from pride towards humility and, in a parallel movement, loses Hetty and gains Dinah. The fight itself is significant not only because it brings the previously unrealized conflict into the open but also because it forms the most striking illustration of the operation of Adam's pride. It is a touchstone incident representing that sort of reaction which Adam must learn to avoid; Eliot refers to it again later on when Adam has turned in the direction of a more mature outlook on life. Adam's primary traits, in their negative aspects, emerge in the confrontation with Arthur. As we have seen, Adam is aggressive, straightforward, and practical in dealing with difficulties, and his behavior here is completely in character. All sympathy for any viewpoint other than his own disappears, as does his normally mild manner. He is suddenly "hard," "harsh," "blind with passion"; we are told at one point that "if he had moved a muscle, he must inevitably have sprung upon Arthur like a tiger." He typically seeks the simplest solution to the problem; he subdues Arthur and then demands that he clarify the situation in the most direct way by writing to Hetty immediately. Adam will listen to no excuses and requires rather tyranically that everything be handled his way. He is, as usual, concentrating on controlling events by taking practical steps and by exercising force of will. Arthur's behavior is just as typical. Adam says, "It'll be better for me to speak plain," and he does; Arthur lies and squirms in order to avoid facing the consequences of his actions. He had repeatedly weakened in his resolution to end the affair, and now he cannot muster the courage to tell the truth. Arthur's way of dealing with unpleasant situations is to run away from them; he cannot make a decision which involves self-sacrifice unless he is forced to it. Adam does quite literally force him to it, and this involves an interesting reversal. We noted earlier that Eliot draws her upper- and lower-class characters in such a way as to suggest that the latter are superior to the former. Here she makes the same point rather bluntly. When Arthur tries to bluff Adam on the question of the note to Hetty, Adam says that he respects Arthur's high position but that in this situation "we're man and man and I can't give up." On a man-to-man basis, Adam is clearly superior to Arthur and can bend him to his will. Social and natural standards of superiority are clearly out of place. The reader should notice also that the fight, like the seduction, takes place in natural surroundings. This reflects one of the few symbol patterns which Eliot uses in Adam Bede. In keeping with one of her major themes--that one must act cautiously and prudently in order to avoid "terrible consequences"--the author sets up a contrast between nature and civilization, or, by extension, between actions which flow from natural urges and those which are logically thought out and controlled. The sin which triggers the novel's conflict is a "natural" one; Adam's fight with Arthur, which he later regrets, is a spontaneous reaction. By placing both actions in a grove, Eliot labels them as natural; by showing what great harm they cause, she points out that man must not act from instinct alone. He must exercise his intellect and will; "nature" is not a safe guide.

Chapter 29 Summary When Arthur rises the next morning, he is deeply troubled. He sits at home for a while and then goes riding, and all the time his mind is turning over the situation with Hetty. He feels guilty about deceiving Adam and about leading Hetty to hope for marriage, but he dodges his own guilt, unwilling to accuse himself of wrongdoing. He doesn't want to cause Hetty pain by writing the letter, but he decides that he must clear the way for Adam to win Hetty's love. He writes the letter and gives it to Adam with the injunction that Adam must follow his conscience in deciding whether or not to deliver it to Hetty. Arthur

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www.cliffs.com then leaves to join his regiment, which is stationed at Windsor. Commentary This chapter emphasizes a side of Arthur's character which should not be missed. Although he is weak, Arthur is not a villain in the usual sense of the word; he has plenty of good qualities. Indeed, it is often the good qualities which get him into trouble. Time and again, when Arthur decides to break off with Hetty, it is his kindness which stops him; he cannot bring himself to hurt her. In creating Arthur, as with Adam and Hetty, George Eliot is carrying out the philosophy she had stated elsewhere: "My artistic bent is directed not at all to the presentation of eminently irreproachable characters, but to the presentation of mixed human beings in such a way as to call forth tolerant judgment, pity, and sympathy." Arthur's bad qualities are greatly in evidence too. He cannot bring himself to face "the irrevocableness of his own wrong-doing"; he finds it impossible to let go of the complacent view of himself which he had always possessed. He had seen himself as the amiable young man who was far too honorable to commit any serious wrong. This attitude had made him careless of his own behavior and irresponsible with respect to its possible consequences. Now he is faced with the fact that he has greatly hurt both Adam and Hetty, but his instinct is still to evade taking the full blame. He casts about for excuses with which to comfort himself and tries to evade responsibility for his final action by leaving it up to Adam whether to deliver the letter or not. By emphasizing his weakness, Eliot indicates that Arthur has not yet learned his lesson. In this chapter, Eliot sums up the feeling which led to the love affair. Arthur was physically attracted to Hetty; she was attracted by the prospect of becoming his wife and gaining prestige. Although Arthur had not deliberately deceived her, he knew that Hetty, operating on her childish fantasies, expected marriage. Yet he could not undeceive her; he could not bear to give her that much pain. Thus the relationship is a web of misunderstanding, kindness, vanity, innocence, and passion. From such complex threads, Eliot implies, are all human relationships woven. Note Adam's intransigence with respect to Arthur; that pride which will not accept weakness in others is still controlling him. He says that forgiveness means only that one decides not to take revenge and tells himself that he can never feel friendly towards Arthur again. Adam's idea of forgiveness is superficial; to harbor a grudge, even if no revenge is actually taken, is certainly not to forgive. Eliot does not lose the opportunity to moralize upon the deeds of her characters. The moral philosophy she dispenses in Adam Bede is known as "ethical determinism" for reasons which this chapter makes clear. "Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds," says Eliot, and she goes on to illustrate the remark. Arthur was once an honest man; he becomes a liar about Hetty because he can see no other way to preserve his self-respect. If he had not seduced Hetty, he would not have had to lie to Adam; if he had not seduced Hetty, he would not have felt that lying was justified. Thus his crime determines him; it makes him a liar. This pattern, according to Eliot, explains much of human behavior. A man is always free to make his first great moral choice, but after that choice is made his later actions (or some of them, at least) are determined by it. In her novels, the characters who make good moral choices prosper, while those who make bad moral choices fall. Earlier novelists in whose books this pattern occurs imply that it is a result of the fact that God rewards the good and punishes the wicked. Not so Eliot; in her opinion, man controls his own moral destiny. The good man's rise is caused directly by his own choices, and vice versa. This is why there is so much emphasis on human will in her books. Since certain inevitable consequences will flow from one's actions, one must have the foresight to predict what those consequences will be and the will power to act accordingly. If, like Hetty, one fails to foresee what the result of an action will be, as

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www.cliffs.com Hetty fails to see that her affair will not end in marriage, disaster results. If, like Arthur, one foresees the consequences but lacks the strength to avoid the bad action, the same end follows. The watchwords of Eliot's philosophy are "moral realism" (accurate foresight) and "self-control." The reader must be aware of the plot line as an illustration of this theory if he hopes to adequately understand Adam Bede. The heart of Adam Bede, then, is the set of ideas it presents: This use of the novel for the explication of a philosophy is an innovation of the first importance, and the reader should take careful note of it. Before Eliot, the novel was thought of primarily as a form of entertainment; some writers, like Dickens, attacked social abuses in their books, but this was looked upon as a secondary function. Eliot, by structuring her fictional works as vehicles for the discussion and illustration of serious intellectual issues, raised the novel to a higher plane and gave it greater dignity as an art form. In this way, as in several others which we have mentioned, Adam Bede is a revolutionary book.

Chapters 30 & 31 Summary The next Sunday, Adam gets himself invited to the Hall Farm; he has resolved to give Hetty the letter. The two walk in the garden, and Adam begins by saying that his intention is to protect Hetty from a man who doesn't intend to marry her. She is frightened and protests that Arthur does love her. Adam repeats his statement and offers her the letter as proof. Hetty takes it but still does not believe. They go back into the house, and the rest of the evening is spent in conversation; Hetty has no opportunity to open the letter. On his way home, Adam encounters Seth, who shows him a letter from Dinah. It is full of piety and tells of Dinah's work with the poor in Snowfield and her desire to visit the Poysers again. Adam praises her goodness and warmth. When bedtime comes, Hetty at last has a chance to be alone. She reads Arthur's letter. In it, he says, very graciously, that he is sorry for causing her pain but that he cannot marry her; their respective social positions are so different that they could never be happy together. Hetty's reaction is extreme; she is completely crushed. She cries herself to sleep and wakes to despair. Her principal impulse is to get away from her surroundings, and she decides to ask her uncle, Mr. Poyser, for permission to look for a position as a lady's maid. When she broaches the subject that evening, Mr. Poyser discourages her, saying that she'd do better to stay at the farm. He says she should get a respectable husband and live a comfortable life. Hetty is upset at first, but when she goes up to bed, she thinks over her uncle's words. He had been referring to Adam, she knows, and she now begins to think that marrying him would have its advantages; she could at least get away from home. Commentary These chapters begin a section in which Hetty is the center of attention. The character is dissected and analyzed at great length, as Eliot exposes the qualities in Hetty which led to her downfall. The foremost quality is her capacity for self-deception, a capacity which goes far beyond Arthur's. Hetty knows how unusual it would be, in a society in which class lines are so rigid, for a gentleman to marry a farmer's niece. She vaguely recognizes the insecurity of her position. Arthur's absence makes her very uneasy. But these anxieties do not cause her to seriously doubt; there is too much pride involved. She clings to the belief that Arthur loves her so much that he could never be happy without her. Adam's "calm certainty" as he tells her that Arthur does not intend to marry her shakes Hetty, but she

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www.cliffs.com cannot abandon her romantic vision until she is absolutely forced to. When Adam gives her the letter, she thinks he is mistaken about its contents. Note that she and Arthur are alike in that both cling to unrealistically optimistic visions of the future to the last gasp. Eliot, as noted above, feels that one must be realistic, basically. Hetty should realize that her station in life itself would prevent her from marrying a gentleman; Arthur should realize that in order to win other people's respect as an honorable man, he must act like one. Hetty is emotionally unstable, to say the least. The only constant in her character seems to be this: She always seeks her own advantage. All else is relative. Faced with the loss of Arthur, she turns almost immediately to Adam. This quick switch shows Hetty in an almost implausibly bad light. She is portrayed as a girl with almost no unselfish feelings at all, capable of using Adam, as she had used Arthur, completely for her own ends. When the vision of future luxury vanishes, her "love" for Arthur simply evaporates. Clearly Hetty is capable only of self-love. Eliot probably sensed how implausible this development is, for she imagines her readers protesting that Hetty's behavior is "strange." But the switch to Adam is structurally necessary if Adam is to become deeply involved in the consequences of Hetty and Arthur's love affair and work out his personality problem through this involvement. But necessary or not, the implausibility represents a flaw; as we move along, we will encounter more evidence that plot construction is not Eliot's greatest strength. The contrast between Hetty and Dinah reveals itself again in these chapters. Eliot never lets us lose sight of the fact that Hetty's evil is the direct opposite of Dinah's good. Here Dinah writes a letter full of love while Hetty responds to one with hatred and resentment. Dinah speaks of her work and her duty while Hetty worries about her selfish ends. Seth goes to visit Dinah on receiving the letter and proposes again; she turns him down because she does not feel the match would be according to God's will and because she doesn't feel she could love Seth perfectly. Hetty, on the other haul, seeks a marriage even though she has no affection for her proposed husband. At one point in Chapter 30, the author speaks of Hetty's "native powers of concealment." Eliot gives Hetty a trait which could almost be read as a symbol for the way in which the girl deals with the people around her: She hides things. Not only does she hide her thoughts and the truth about her relationship with Arthur, she hides her earrings, her locket, her pregnant condition, and, finally, her baby. Hetty, like Arthur, is extremely two-faced; in keeping with the appearance-reality theme, she never is what she seems. She lives in her own little world and makes deceit practically a way of life. In this situation as in others--his father's funeral, for example--Adam thinks humbly even though he usually acts proudly. In contemplating the new developments, he remarks to himself that man must bow to God's will and accept the bad fortune with the good. This ambiguity in Adam's character is the measure of his imperfection; when he learns to act humbly, because such actions entail good consequences, his character will be more worthy of admiration. The introduction of Dinah at this point, when Adam is worried about whether or not Hetty will marry him, serves the same function--foreshadowing--which we have remarked earlier.

Chapter 32 Summary The old Squire pays a visit to the Hall Farm and tries to talk the Poysers into accepting some alterations on their farm which would not be to their advantage. After listening for a few moments, Mrs. Poyser breaks out in a tirade in which she tells the selfish, cold old man what his tenants think of him. He is

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www.cliffs.com thoroughly routed and rides away, followed by the laughter of the farm servants. Commentary This is a comic chapter devoted to exhibiting Mrs. Poyser's skill at colorful invective, and it adds nothing to the plot. The situation developed in the chapter is somewhat contrived, and the sophistication of Mrs. Poyser's sarcasm is a bit implausible in the light of her uneducated rural background, but in this case the problems are not serious ones. The chapter is merely a vignette and its purpose is to amuse. It does, however, forward one theme in the novel. The routing of the Squire by the farmwife illustrates again the superiority of the common man to the aristocrat. Also, the chapter provides innumerable illustrations of Mrs. Poyser's mastery of imagery and homespun wit. Note, for example, how neatly she associates the Squire's spiritual poverty with his miserliness through a metaphor: "An' you may be right i' thinking it'll take but little to save your soul, for it'll be the smallest savin' y' iver made, wi' all your scrapin'."

Chapters 33 & 34 Summary In the days following his delivery of the letter, Adam is surprised to discover that Hetty treats him more kindly than before. She has become quieter in general and always seems pleased to see him. He concludes from Hetty's behavior that there was really nothing between Arthur and her after all. Jonathan Burge, meanwhile, has decided to take Adam on as a partner in the carpentry firm. With this improvement in his financial prospects, Adam sees his way clear to marry in the near future. Early in November, Adam walks Hetty home from church and proposes. Hetty accepts out of a need for security because she wants to feel protected, as she had with Arthur. There is general rejoicing at the Poysers', and Adam is very happy. Commentary In Chapter 33, Eliot spends most of her effort expanding upon the effect of beauty on a young man's heart. She praises the idealism of Adam's love and excuses his self-deception by saying that he thought Hetty loving and tender because he himself was so. Eliot's diction is designed to convince the reader that Adam's tendency to misjudge people is not a fault, but rather a sign that he possesses an open and trusting nature. Here, as in many other places, Eliot is trying to control her reader's reactions to her characters. The essay on beauty as a source of confusion is one of several in the novel. This particular one is gentler than the rest; it is only ironic while the others, like the one in Chapter 17, tend to be openly sarcastic. But the point is still the same; Eliot works tirelessly to convince us that things are not always what they seem, that we should not judge by appearances. Female beauty is by far the most outstanding issue Eliot uses to create the appearance-reality theme; she feels compelled over and over again to point out that a lovely face does not always indicate a lovely soul. Reality is tricky for Eliot; she places great emphasis on the idea that man must be very, very cautious in his actions if he is to pass through life and live with a clear conscience. The appearance-reality theme is intended as imaginative support for this philosophy. She tells her readers to consider carefully the consequences of their actions before performing them, and, in order to give the point more weight, she gives him a picture of reality in which this caution is obviously justified. Adam, Arthur, and Hetty would not have gotten into trouble if they had been cautious, and one of the reasons why they should have been cautious is that appearances do not match reality. The two ideas work hand in hand.

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www.cliffs.com One element in Hetty's motives for accepting Adam should be noted. Hetty is not presented as a thoroughly bad character (though sometimes one is tempted to think so) but as a weak one. Like Arthur, she is drawn somewhat sympathetically. Here, for example, as she has several times already, Eliot comments upon the soft femininity of Hetty's reactions, describing her as a "kitten." Clearly, Hetty is marrying Adam for the wrong reasons, but it is difficult to condemn her when she is presented this way. There is a childlike quality about Hetty, and this softens the judgment the reader makes upon her.

Chapter 35 Summary It is early February. Seth has been to see Dinah at Snowfield, and she has again rejected his offer of marriage. Hetty and Adam are preparing for a March wedding and everything seems fine, though Hetty is sometimes subject to strange fits of depression. We soon find out why: Hetty is pregnant and close to despair. She contemplates suicide but is afraid to go through with it and finally decides to run away to Arthur, who is stationed in Windsor, in the south of England. She tells Adam that she has decided to visit Dinah for a week and thus gets away without arousing suspicion. Commentary The hint of sympathy in the characterization of Hetty expands at this point in the novel until the reader, who has been inclined to condemn the girl before, finally finds himself "on her side." It is a rather surprising switch; one gets the impression that Eliot's attitude toward her own character had changed. Gone are the constant references to Hetty's vanity and selfishness; she is now "a foolish lost lamb" and a "young, childish, ignorant soul." Partially through metaphors like these, the characterization changes from almost completely negative to something much closer to that ambiguity which Eliot said she aimed at in her writing (see the commentary on Chapter 29). Those thoughts and actions which earlier were ascribed to Hetty's shallowness of spirit are now treated as the result of her naivete. No longer a "bad girl," Hetty has become a helpless victim, a victim of her own weakness and of Arthur. As is typical of Hetty, she never considers admitting her pregnancy; she is, as we know, greatly influenced by the desire for other people's approval, and this course of action seems like the worst possible alternative to her. This lack of openness is one of the causes of Hetty's tragedy; pride prevents her from seeking the help she needs. Thus, Eliot would say, do the consequences of a bad action operate. Because Hetty has given herself to Arthur, she is pregnant. Because she has done something which the people around her consider shameful, she cannot admit the fact. Thus she is doomed to wander alone; her thoughtless behavior has influenced her in such a way that she is cut off from contact with the rest of the human race. She is trapped by her own act, an act which accurate foresight would have prevented her from committing. Going to Arthur seems to be her only means of escape. She knows now that he doesn't love her, but that no longer makes much difference. She feels that he "would receive her tenderly--that he would care for her and think for her," and at this point protection is what Hetty seeks above all. She cannot face the scorn of the people at home. Arthur will not make her a great lady, but at least he can offer her basic security. With the exception of Chapter 32, which contributes nothing at all to the plot, Book IV is concerned with the novel's central conflict and the first consequences of Hetty and Arthur's rash affair. It accomplishes two purposes. The lovers' triangle takes its final form as Adam defeats Arthur in a fight, drives him away from Hetty, and becomes engaged to her himself. The three lives become inextricably intertwined. It also sets the stage for the tragedy which will follow in Book V. As this section ends, Adam, Arthur, and Hetty are separated and each is living in his own world. Adam thinks Hetty is going to marry him, Arthur thinks the affair has ended safely and feels secure, while Hetty is wandering lost and helpless, the only one of

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www.cliffs.com the three in full possession of the truth. Hetty's pregnancy is slowly and inevitably bringing the plot to a climax. Eliot ends Book IV at a point where everyone's happiness is threatened; it is only a matter of time. The consequences slowly unfold; Adam, Arthur, and Hetty are trapped in a maze of circumstances, deriving from Arthur and Hetty's relationship, from which there is no escape.

BOOK V Chapters 36 & 37 Summary Hetty's journey to Windsor is a difficult one; ignorant of traveling, driven by fear, worn by fatigue and hunger, she presses on for seven days, finally arriving at Windsor both physically and mentally exhausted. Here she is befriended by a kindly innkeeper and his wife who immediately note her condition and take pity on her. She tells them she is looking for her brother and mentions Arthur's name, only to learn that Arthur's regiment has gone to Ireland. Hetty faints at the news. Hetty remains ill through the rest of that day. She feels utterly lost and hopeless; there seems to be nowhere left to turn. When she wakes the next morning, she tries to form some plans. She can't bring herself to go back home, admit her problem, and face the shame attached to it; at the same time, she dreads the thought of beggary or of bodily hardship. She decides to sell the jewels Arthur has given her in order to get a little money. But what then? She remembers Dinah's words on that night in her bedroom and decides to go to her, if she has not the courage to commit suicide. She sells the earrings and her locket to the landlord and sets out again for the north. Completely in despair, she goes to Stratford-on-Avon and wanders into the fields outside the town. She looks for a pool in which to drown herself, finds one, but falls asleep beside it. When she awakes, it is the dead of night, and she turns away from her suicide plan. Wandering into the next field, she finds a shepherd's hovel and falls asleep in it. She is discovered the next morning by the shepherd, who sends her on her way. She moves vaguely towards Snowfield and Dinah. Commentary These chapters are entitled "The Journey in Rope" and "The Journey in Despair"; in both Hetty is running away, desperately seeking relief. First she runs from the shame which would come upon her if her friends and relatives learned she was pregnant. After she fails to find Arthur, she runs from life itself. Eliot shows us a young woman who is pushed to the very brink of suicide, who is, indeed, only prevented from drowning herself by a lack of courage. By the time Chapter 37 ends, Hetty has been brought so low that she hardly sees even a glimmer of hope. As she sets out for Snowfield after leaving the shepherd, she is as afraid of life as of death; no human contact, except perhaps with Dinah, seems to offer any comfort. The purpose of bringing Hetty into such utterly desperate straits is twofold. Hetty's night beneath the "leaden sky" beside the "wintry" pool creates sympathy in the reader for her. As we have noted earlier, Eliot's purpose is not to condemn Hetty, but to show what gross mistakes human beings can make. And secondly, Hetty's degeneration serves to illustrate Eliot's philosophy; from a reasonably happy and comfortable farm girl, Hetty has become so wretched a figure that the shepherd can rightfully accuse her of looking like a madwoman. The degeneration, though it is quick, is handled with skill and subtlety. Eliot faces a difficult task in these chapters; she must punish the novel's "bad girl" while at the same time arousing sympathy for her, and she must do it in a very few pages. In order to accomplish these ends, she emphasizes those qualities in Hetty's character which both stimulate pity and emphasize the girl's inability to cope with unpleasant

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www.cliffs.com situations: her childishness and helplessness. Both these traits have been mentioned earlier; Hetty has shown herself to be thoughtless, as when she refuses to listen to Dinah's words in the bedroom (Chapter 15), and subject to panic, as when she loses her locket (Chapter 26) and when Arthur announces his intention of leaving (Chapter 29). Eliot simply brings them to the forefront here and de-emphasizes traits less evocative of pity, telling us all the while how she herself feels about the pitiful figure. She shows Hetty being thrown into a fit of terror by the coachman's innocent joke, fainting when she hears that Arthur is not at Windsor, and wandering about in great confusion. Eliot mentions Hetty's homesickness and makes her long for the placid life she has thrown away. Hetty endures a number of very nasty experiences, and Eliot shifts the characterization just enough to make us believe that Hetty must sink under the weight of her troubles. If she had emphasized Hetty's hardness as in earlier chapters, the girl's abrupt degeneration would seem somewhat implausible. As it is, it seems quite natural. There is a certain implausibility, on the other hand, in Hetty's alleged ability to hide her pregnancy from the people at Hayslope. As appears later, she is about eight months pregnant when she leaves home, and even allowing for the considerable bulk of eighteenth-century fashions, it seems unlikely that the sharp eye of Mrs. Poyser would fail to notice Hetty's condition. Eliot attempts to redeem herself at one point; when the innkeeper's wife detects the pregnancy, Eliot comments: "the stranger's eye detects what the familiar unsuspecting eye leaves unnoticed." But this is rather flimsy. The hidden pregnancy is a plot device leading to the child-murder, something which would not have come about if Hetty's relatives had noticed her condition. It is a structural flaw, a link which binds events together while bending the laws of probability. Blind circumstance is rather obviously at work here. If Hetty had known Arthur was not at Windsor, she would probably have taken some other course of action. In any case, she would not have sunk so low as she has at this point in the novel. It seems strange that Eliot would insert the element of chance in so pronounced a way at this stage since it diminishes the force of the implacable operation of "consequences." According to the theory of ethical determinism, Hetty's misery should result directly from her rash act, but Arthur's absence from Windsor cannot be connected in any logical way with the love affair. It seems that Eliot is allowing herself some philosophical latitude here.

Chapter 38 Summary When Hetty does not come back for two weeks, Adam decides to go to Snowfield to get her. He sets off in a state of high happiness, eager to see his prospective bride. But at Snowfield, he learns that Dinah has been in the city of Leeds for three weeks and that Hetty never arrived. Distracted with worry, he traces her as far as he can but loses her track on the second day. Not knowing that Hetty is pregnant, Adam can only conclude that she has run away from the marriage to him and probably gone to Arthur in Ireland. He sadly goes back home, tells Seth and the Poysers what has happened, and prepares to set out for Ireland. He decides, though, that it would be better to tell Mr. Irwine the situation before he leaves. Commentary At this point in the novel, the consequences of Hetty and Arthur's thoughtless behavior begin to involve Adam. He had been a happy man, secure financially, secure (he thought) in the possession of the love of the woman he loved. Now his bright world is shattered, and events begin to hurry him on to a confrontation with himself and with reality. Note once again the force of circumstance. We have seen at various points in the book how Eliot manipulates chance events and events over which the characters have no control to show how circumstance affects human life. Adam has done nothing very seriously wrong so far; he is guilty of pride

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www.cliffs.com and of giving in to impulses toward violence, but he has not behaved so as to permanently injure another human being, as both Arthur and Hetty have. Still he suffers, and will suffer more; his love for Hetty (a good impulse) prevents him from seeing her true nature, and, as a result, he is trapped in a situation which he must deal with. Eliot in this chapter begins to administer one of the prime "object lessons" in Adam Bede: that one must never allow himself to feel that he is in control of his physical fate because circumstance will force him into paths he had not planned on taking. Eliot uses Adam's attitude toward his work as a sort of symbol for his entry into a new reality. Adam's philosophy has always been that as long as one can still work, things are not so very bad. Now for the first time Adam looks at his tools "wondering if he should ever come to feel pleasure in them again." This attitude will persist through Adam's soul-crisis; it represents his recognition of the fact that there is nothing he can do to improve his situation. Note that he begins to abandon his stubborn independence at the end of the chapter: "I can't stand alone in this way any longer." Although Seth is not a major character, the relationship between Adam and him is of some interest. Of the two brothers, Adam is obviously the leader, but when Adam is in trouble, one of the people he leans on most heavily is Seth. Seth is a truly humble man, which gives him a strength in adversity which Adam does not possess. Eliot surrounds Adam in the closing of the novel with people of this stamp; he goes to Mr. Irwine at the end of this chapter, and Dinah appears later on. The point is clear. These characters have what Adam needs to achieve: a proper orientation towards reality. They are models, so to speak, of the sort of attitude he must strive to attain.

Chapters 39 & 40 Summary When Adam arrives at the parsonage, Mr. Irwine is in conference with a strange man. After a few minutes Adam is admitted; he tells his story and then Mr. Irwine tells Adam that the strange man is a constable; he has brought a letter from Stoniton reporting that a girl answering Hetty's description is in prison there for the murder of her own child. Adam at first refuses to believe, then he launches into a tirade against Arthur for deceiving the innocent young girl. He says he forgives Hetty and determines to go in search of Arthur. But Mr. Irwine tells him that Arthur is already on his way home and asks Adam to go with him to Stoniton to confirm that the girl being held is really Hetty. Adam agrees to go. When Mr. Irwine returns from Stoniton the next day--the girl in prison is Hetty, and Adam has decided to stay near her--he learns that the old Squire had died suddenly; Arthur is now master of the estate. He tells his sad story to the Bedes and the Poysers and the news is soon all over town. The Poysers react violently; they feel disgraced and talk of leaving the estate. They send a letter to Leeds, asking Dinah to come to them. That evening, Bartle Massey comes to the rectory to ask about Adam. Mr. Irwine tells him that Adam's mental condition is bad and that, though Adam doesn't know it yet, Hetty is almost certainly guilty. Bartle offers to go stay with him at Stoniton. Mr. Irwine agrees to the plan. Commentary Even though the reader has been subtly prepared for some dramatic turn of events by Eliot's description of Hetty's desperation and fear, the facts set forth in Chapter 39 still come as a shock. The murder of Hetty's child is clearly the worst consequence of the love affair, and Eliot manipulates it for maximum effect. Note how carefully the early chapters of Book V are arranged. Eliot separates Adam and Hetty so that we can follow only one of them at a time. She then shows us Hetty pushed almost to utter despair, seeking hopelessly for a way out of her difficulties. She then shifts our attention to Adam, leaving Hetty's story

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www.cliffs.com hanging. And finally she tells what solution Hetty has adopted for her problems. By switching perspectives in this way, Eliot builds suspense to a much greater pitch than if she had followed Hetty through to the child-murder; instead of a steady, plausible progression, we are given a series of swift, sharp breaks. By proceeding this way, she also creates the opportunity for setting up another appearancereality contrast (Adam's ignorance of Hetty's true condition, and his resultant false happiness). And, finally, she focuses our attention on Adam's reaction to the murder; we are as shocked as he. The development of Adam's personality is her primary interest, and this structure enables her to concentrate upon that interest while giving the reader necessary plot information. The workings of the element of suspense are clearly evident on a smaller scale in Chapter 39. Adam at first must wait to see Mr. Irwine, and the presence of the stranger arouses curiosity. Then, in the conversation itself, Eliot switches back and forth from Adam to the rector; we are aware early that the stranger has brought bad news because of Mr. Irwine's reactions, but the final revelation is carefully delayed. Both these chapters focus upon the effect of the news about Hetty on various characters. The title of Chapter 40, "The Bitter Waters Spread," indicates the primary purpose of this material: Eliot is demonstrating how the consequences of the rash love affair extend themselves far beyond the lives of the two principals. The suffering the Poysers endure because of Hetty and the suffering Lisbeth and Baffle endure in sympathy with Adam form part of the chain of events which have their source in the original imprudent act. The individual reactions themselves are interesting as devices for characterization. Martin Poyser and his father react selfishly; they think first and last of what effect Hetty's crime will have on their reputations. Eliot explains that they are greatly influenced by traditional ideas. Mrs. Poyser's response is more humane; she pities Hetty and inveighs against people who would condemn her out of hand. Bartle Massey reviles Hetty and sympathizes with Adam. Lisbeth and Seth pity Adam, while the townspeople are curious and gossip-hungry. Each of the characters reacts according to his special viewpoint, interpreting the incident in the light of his own set ideas. Their responses are individually typical and somewhat narrow. Most emphasis is laid on Adam's reaction and that of Mr. Irwine, and a meaningful contrast is set up. Like most of the other characters, Adam reacts blindly within the context of his own personality. Following patterns we have observed before, he condemns Arthur rather viciously and refuses to believe in Hetty's guilt. He expresses himself violently, as he is wont to do in pressure situations, and has an impulse to rush right off to Ireland, to take matters into his own hands. But Eliot has constructed this episode in such a way that Adam cannot handle it in his usual pragmatic fashion. This is deliberate and is done for reasons which we shall attend to later. Arthur is already on his way home, and Adam cannot get Hetty out of prison, so all he can do is wait. Eliot emphasizes Adam's unusual situation by referring once again to his work, the symbol of his confident, forthright attitude towards life. Adam decides to stay at Stoniton, he tells Mr. Irwine, because he can't work while Hetty is in prison. Mr. Irwine's reaction to the news of Hetty's crime should be carefully noted. We said earlier that he acts as one of the moral standards in the novel, and in this chapter his influence begins to make itself felt in the plot in a major way. Mr. Irwine is as deeply hurt as Adam is; Eliot stresses the fact that he feels a paternal affection for Arthur. But he does not become angry; he does not view the tragedy in the context of his personal interests. Instead he buries his grief and pities all three of the young people involved. He acts, as Bartle points out, as "everybody's friend." Mr. Irwine is the only character besides Dinah who has enough Christian charity and enough moral courage to deal with an unpleasant situation in a completely unselfish way. He accepts the situation and tries to improve it through understanding, gentleness, and benevolence. Note that both the Poysers' and the Bedes' first instinct in time of trouble is to send for Dinah. This is a

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www.cliffs.com pattern in the book; Hetty had thought of Dinah in her misery and Lisbeth asks for her when she is ill. Through this device, Eliot carries out her characterization of Dinah as benevolent, sympathetic, and helpful. In Chapter 40, she also associates Dinah with Mr. Irwine; both are sources of strength and comfort. Thus Eliot implicitly identifies her as the other standard of right human conduct in the novel.

Chapters 41 & 42 Summary The scene shifts to Stoniton on the eve of the trial. Adam and Bartle are lodged in a small room. Adam has changed greatly; he looks like a man who has just passed through a serious illness. Mr. Irwine comes in and reports that Hetty refuses to see Adam; indeed, since her arrest, she has refused to see or speak to anyone but just sits and stares, quiet and sullen. Adam asks if Arthur has come back yet. Mr. Irwine says he has not, and Adam delivers another tirade against Arthur, insisting that all the guilt for Hetty's crime lies on Arthur's head. Mr. Irwine tries to calm him; Arthur will suffer too, he says, and he urges Adam to give up any desire for revenge. Any act of vengeance on Adam's part will not solve anything and will just make a bad situation worse. Adam is silent for a moment, then wonders out loud if Dinah could have helped Hetty. But no one knows where Dinah is. On the day of the trial, Adam sits in his room weighed down with despair. Bartle comes back from the court and tells him that things are going badly; conviction seems certain. He tells Adam how frightened Hetty looked, and that she will admit nothing, not even the proven fact that she has borne a child. Under the pressure of this news, Adam has a change of heart and decides not to stay away from the trial any longer. Immediately "he stood upright again, and looked more like the Adam Bede of former days." Commentary Since the novel is, in one way, the story of Adam Bede's journey to maturity, the importance of these short chapters cannot be overemphasized. Although Mr. Irwine and Bartle appear, Eliot clearly concentrates upon Adam here; we see everything that happens in its relation to him and follow the turnings of his mind. In these chapters, Adam reaches his low point and begins to emerge from his difficulties a changed man. The physical description of Adam emphasizes the crisis which is going on within; the reader mentally compares the strong, healthy Adam to this young man with his "sunken eyes" and "heavy black hair." His behavior has also changed. He is irresolute, inattentive, given to sporadic outbursts of feeling; his normal calm has become sullenness. These changes reflect a fact of the first importance. Adam is faced with the utter destruction of his moral world. Eliot states the case with admirable precision in a single sentence: "This brave active man, who would have hastened towards any danger or toil to rescue Hetty from an apprehended wrong or misfortune, felt himself powerless to contemplate irremediable evil and suffering." The recognition of irremediable evil is a new experience for Adam; he had always felt that by acting he could correct any situation. Recall, for example, his reaction to his father's death, an event which represented irremediable evil to Lisbeth. Adam reacted by turning to his work. Eliot now, in a striking parallel, places him in a position from which no amount of work can set him free. Hetty's crime cannot be reversed, and there is no way in which Adam can avert or alleviate her punishment. He cannot even take revenge on Arthur since in doing so he would only be making a bad situation worse. Adam's active, aggressive way of solving problems is completely nullified, and he must seek for some other way out. The only viable alternative is humility; Adam must learn to accept what he cannot control or set straight, to accept limitations and live with them. Eliot thus makes the point we have already

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www.cliffs.com anticipated in connection with other events: Since man is not in control of his environment, he must humbly make the best of things. To Eliot, pride conflicts with the nature of reality and will prevent one from leading a good life. Adam does overcome his pride, and the author signals the change by using traditional religious terms to indicate its moral significance: "Deep, unspeakable suffering may well be called a baptism, a regeneration, the initiation into a new state." When he decides to go to the courtroom, he has accepted his situation as it is and, instead of worrying passively about his own problems, has decided to lend what small comfort he can to Hetty. He speaks of mercy and vows, "I'll never be hard again." The reader should compare the description of Adam at the beginning of Chapter 41 with that which ends Chapter 42; Eliot indicates by this contrast that a new life has indeed begun for Adam. Eliot keeps the reader focused on the proper moral reference points in these chapters by having Mr. Irwine enlighten Adam further on the nature of his position and by making Adam wonder whether Dinah will come. The latter reference also serves to foreshadow Dinah's arrival, much like lines in a play can lead the audience to look forward to the appearance of the hero.

Chapter 43 Summary The first thing Adam notices on entering the courtroom is Hetty herself. To Adam she is still beautiful; to less prejudiced eyes she appears hard and worn. Two witnesses give testimony. One says that Hetty had borne the baby in her house and had then run off with it the following day. The other reports finding the dead baby lying half-buried in a small grove and adds that when he had returned to the spot with a constable, they found Hetty sitting there in a state of shock. The case is clear and the verdict of guilty is quickly pronounced. When the judge assigns the death sentence, Hetty shrieks and faints, and is carried from the courtroom. Commentary The chapter is composed for the most part of straightforward facts which require little interpretation. One should note, though, that the author has structured her material so as to get the greatest possible suspense out of the issue of Hetty's guilt or innocence, just as she did with respect to the revelation of the murder. Even though we learn early that Mr. Irwine considers Hetty guilty, we are made to sympathize so strongly with Adam's sufferings in Chapters 40 through 43 that the question remains open. Adam's suspense is ours. The confirmation of Hetty's guilt is the supreme blow to Adam, yet he takes it in the spirit of his new orientation. The man who earlier had preferred to rely only on himself now prays for help to sustain his grief. This reaction to trouble is the same as Dinah's, which indicates the direction of Adam's development.

Chapter 44 Summary Arthur sets out for home from Liverpool. He is in fine spirits; he has just come into his property, and the future looks sunny. He had heard that Adam was to marry Hetty and had been pleased; that affair apparently has ended well. He feels that his life is just beginning. When he arrives at the Chase, he pauses to comfort his Aunt Lydia, who is sorely grieved at the death of

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www.cliffs.com her father, the old Squire. Then he goes to his room and finds a letter from Mr. Irwine explaining Hetty's plight. All his joy shattered, he jumps on his horse and gallops for Stoniton. Commentary The author shifts both time and place here in order to bring Arthur back into the story. Meanwhile, of course, Hetty's trial is left for a time, so this switch in viewpoint accomplishes another purpose as well; it builds up suspense by delaying an anticipated climax. The techniques which Eliot uses in this part of the book to shock the reader and rivet his attention occasionally become melodramatic, as the events recounted in Chapter 44 show. Eliot has the old Squire die at just this moment to set up a sharp contrast between appearance and reality and to make Arthur's punishment as crushing as possible. She carries Arthur to the very brink of success and fulfillment and then snatches the prize away. With the death of his grandfather, Arthur comes into the estate and his cherished ambition is at last within his grasp; he can become the benevolent landlord who is universally loved and respected. From this day on, it appears, his life will be just as he has always wanted it to be. But then at a stroke all his dreams are shattered. All his tenants know of his misconduct, and it is very clear that he will never attain the position he desires. Instead of the dashing, beloved young hero, he will be known on his estate as a sneaking corrupter of young girls, worthy only of scorn and contempt. Arthur is obviously being held up as an object lesson to the reader, which is why Eliot ignores the laws of probability to set up so extreme a contrast. When Arthur opens the letter from Mr. Irwine, he encounters reality, not the reality of his dreams and anticipations, but the reality of his actions and their inevitable consequences. Once again Eliot makes her central point: If one wants happiness, he must act so as to obtain it. Arthur has not acted like an honorable man so he will have no honor. The presentation of this message is perhaps inartistically blunt, but at least it is clear: Arthur has ruined his life through irresponsible behavior, and, in this chapter, Eliot gives him what, in her ethical system, are his necessary and just desserts.

Chapter 45 Summary As evening comes on after the trial, Dinah appears outside the prison. She encounters the gentleman who had watched her from horseback on the day she preached at Hayslope and through him gains admittance to see Hetty. She finds the girl huddled up in a heap. Hetty rises, takes a step forward; Dinah embraces the poor creature, and the two girls sit silently together for a long time. Finally Dinah begins to speak, trying to bring Hetty to confess and unburden her soul. At first Hetty, sunk in despair, can think only of the horror of her imminent death, but slowly she softens and, in response to Dinah's earnest prayers, at last bursts out in confession. She says she abandoned the baby because she could think of nothing else to do; it seemed like the only way out of her dreadful situation. Unencumbered, she could go back home, make up an excuse to explain her absence, and life could go on as before. But, she continues, the baby's crying had haunted her after she left it in the woods, and, drawn by an irresistible impulse, she had gone back. The emotional dam is burst and Hetty sobs hysterically. She asks God's forgiveness, and the two women pray together. Commentary Things take a noticeable turn for the better when Dinah arrives. Even though Adam has abandoned his pride, he and everyone else connected with the trial are still miserable; the picture is totally black. But Dinah brings a ray of hope by speaking of God and the afterlife, and suddenly there is a source of comfort

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www.cliffs.com which is more positive and satisfying than Mr. Irwine's philosophical wisdom and practical sympathy. Dinah is clearly the "heroine" of the novel in that she improves whatever she touches and always has a good effect on the other characters, healing their physical and spiritual ills. Here we have the most dramatic example of her function in Adam Bede; it is clear that the essence of her characterization is that she loves humbly and that her love is effective on a practical level. Eliot makes the point by contrasting Hetty's earlier behavior in prison with her behavior under Dinah's influence. At various points in the preceding few chapters, she indicates that Hetty has refused to speak with anyone. Here we are told the reason: Hetty, never a very strong figure, has been virtually paralyzed by fear and shame and has considered everyone her enemy. As is characteristic of her, Hetty has been reacting as though she were the only person in the world--withdrawing from all human contact. But Dinah, through love, breaks down Hetty's resistance. She brings the girl to a confession of her crime, something which Hetty, with the great value she puts on other people's opinions of her, had been unwilling to do. Hetty is freed from the prison her ego had constructed; her pent-up feelings rush forth, she accepts help from another person, she takes the responsibility for her own acts, and she humbly begs God for pardon. She is no longer selfish and alone. Dinah accomplishes the task through sincerity, concern, and sympathy. She makes Hetty feel that she cares for her and that God cares for her; it is basically the same method she used to comfort Lisbeth in Chapter 10. Note how often Eliot uses the word "love" here and how she emphasizes Dinah's gentleness and fervor. Dinah's love is effective because she can communicate it; by drawing people to herself, she draws them out of themselves. Eliot handles this highly emotional confrontation with great skill. There are two great crises of feeling in the chapter, the first when Dinah enters the cell and the second when she persuades Hetty to confess. In both cases, Eliot makes Hetty hesitate before giving in; she builds up tension until it reaches the breaking point, and Hetty's submission seems natural. This technique not only makes the scene more dramatic, it also puts great emphasis upon the power of Dinah's personality. We can almost feel Dinah's influence working upon Hetty. The causes of Hetty's crime are twofold. The first, of course, is the unwanted pregnancy, a consequence of the love affair which leads to another consequence--the murder itself. The other cause is Hetty's character. If she were not so selfish and so fearful of people's opinions, she would not have abandoned Adam and gotten herself into such desperate straits. If she were not incredibly selfish, she would not have abandoned her child. In Hetty, Eliot shows us a human being whose pride and self-centeredness bring disaster upon herself and great pain upon others; even though she is somewhat sympathetically drawn, she is Eliot's typical "bad" character. As this chapter graphically demonstrates, her personality is the exact opposite of Dinah's. We have said on various occasions that Dinah and Mr. Irwine both act as moral standards. It should be clear by this point that these figures do not stand for exactly the same thing; Dinah is profoundly religious while Mr. Irwine is more secularly and philosophically oriented. But the difference fades into insignificance if the characters' attitudes are looked at in a certain way. Mr. Irwine and Dinah both recognize the existence of powers beyond their control, and this recognition makes them basically humble. It makes no difference to Eliot whether one calls this power "God" or "the nature of reality"; simple belief in its existence will have the desired effect. Since Mr. Irwine and Dinah are humble, neither of them is selfish, and both are dedicated to living lives of Christian charity and benevolence; since they are humble, they accept the existence of evil and of unavoidable human suffering and combat both as much as possible. Thus they are not blind idealists but practical people, people who recognize reality for what it is and try to do good, to improve the lot of those

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www.cliffs.com in trouble, whenever possible. Mr. Irwine and Dinah are categorically "good people" to Eliot because they work to make the world a better place to live in, to establish the "community of man." In order to make this point as emphatically as possible, she not only sets them up as the dispensers of advice in the novel but also shows how the other major characters eventually adopt their attitude. Mr. Irwine is an intellectual moralist while the uneducated Dinah works primarily on feeling. The rector is the spokesman for Eliot's theory; he explains it while he practices it. Dinah acts on the same principles but at a different level; she is "inspired," she pleads, she prays. The difference corresponds to the religious difference discussed in the commentary to Chapter 1; the Anglicans emphasized rationality while the Methodists emphasized emotion and spirituality. By creating two good characters, one an Anglican and one a Methodist, Eliot implies that both denominations have value, that both, indeed, simply take different approaches to the same goal, the living of a good life. Ideally, she seems to feel, spirituality (respect for the unknown) and rationality (foresight, moral realism, practical benevolence) should be joined to form a proper orientation. The question of whether or not this orientation should take the form of participation in any particular organized religion is left open; Eliot herself was an agnostic but not (as the characterization of Dinah so clearly shows) anti-religious.

Chapters 46 & 47 Summary The next morning, Dinah comes to tell Adam that Hetty has repented and now wants to see him. Adam has not yet given up hope of a pardon, but he promises to come the next morning--the day of the execution--if no pardon has been granted by then. He and Bartle watch through the night; there is no news, and early in the morning they go to the prison. When Adam enters the cell, Hetty is leaning on Dinah, drawing strength from her. She begs Adam's forgiveness. He gives it and cries, and they share a last kiss. She asks him to tell Arthur that she forgives him too, and then she is led away. As Hetty and Dinah approach the gallows in the death cart, there is a sudden shout from the crowd. Arthur comes riding madly up with a reprieve in his hand. Commentary The most significant element here from the viewpoint of the theme is the description of the changed Hetty. With her usual precision, Eliot has Dinah say of Hetty, "the pride of her heart has given way," and Hetty's words and actions toward the end of the chapter are calculated to bear out this statement. Gone are Hetty's vanity and her childish flutterings; she has a quiet demeanor, and her fear of death, though still present, is no longer paralyzing. As a result of her confession and the mental release it represents, the blocks which had cut her off from human contact have been swept away, and she shows herself to be humble, forgiving, and capable of love. She no longer pretends or hides things, but is open, sincere and trusting. Thus Hetty learns her lesson, though she does so only at the last moment. Her problems, as we have seen, have been pride, selfishness, and irresponsibility. She now takes responsibility for her crime and for the pain she has caused others. She also, in a development parallel to Adam's, shows concern for others by forgiving Arthur and asking Adam's forgiveness. In Eliot's terms, Hetty has been enlightened; she has learned that one must bear the consequences of one's actions and that one must consider other people's happiness as well as one's own. Eliot does not condemn Hetty completely; she "saves" her in the end, basing the salvation on a development in the direction of Dinah's and Mr. Irwine's attitudes toward life.

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www.cliffs.com Even though he is still bitter towards Arthur, Adam has taken some first steps towards human sympathy. Here he goes to see Hetty in spite of the fact that he knows the meeting will cause him pain. And statements in this chapter indicate that he has absorbed at least part of Mr. Irwine's philosophy. He speaks of that sort of evil which can never be corrected and seems to favor cautious action. This is clearly a new idea for Adam, and his avowal of it is a measure of his growing wisdom. Dinah acts here as a harmonizing influence, as she does throughout the novel. She brings people together and establishes a feeling of community. Everyone recognizes her moral force; not only the characters already mentioned, but also the crowd at the execution, view her with awe. Even Bartle Massey, that obstinate woman-hater, approves of her; this is a sort of comic-ironic "classic tribute." Chapter 47, in which Arthur comes dashing up at the last moment to save Hetty, is obviously extremely melodramatic. The scene is such a cliché as to seem almost silly; it is clearly out of place in a realistic novel. But having softened Hetty, it must have seemed inappropriate to Eliot to kill her off so bluntly, and so she worked out this solution. Whether or not the incident is plausible, it must be admitted that it cannot be read over without a thrill. Eliot has created sympathy for Hetty, and her rescue, though not esthetically pleasing, is imaginatively so.

Chapter 48 Summary The next evening, Adam is walking through the grove at the Chase. Adam though still sad, has reconciled himself to accepting his fate, but he and the Poysers have decided, out of shame, to move away from their homes on the estate. Adam and Arthur meet by chance in the grove and go to the Hermitage to talk. Arthur has been sobered by sorrow and announces that he is joining the army; he knows that Adam and the Poysers are leaving because of him, and he feels that he should be the one to go. He asks Adam to stay and to persuade the others to stay; there's no point, he says, in making a bad situation worse. Adam is inclined to be cold and unforgiving at first, but then he relents. They shake hands and feel a return of some of their old mutual affection. Adam asks about Hetty. Though freed from the death sentence, she is to be transported (exiled). Arthur praises Dinah for helping Hetty and gives Adam a watch to give to Dinah. Adam promises to stay on the estate, and the two men shake hands again and part. Commentary Eliot starts Adam on the road to a new life in Chapters 42 and 43 and "saves" Hetty in Chapters 45 and 46. Here she completes the conversion of Adam and reorients Arthur; the cycle which began at the start of the novel is completed. It is clear from Arthur's words and actions that he is a changed man. No longer flamboyant, he wears black and his manner is subdued and gentle. Like Hetty, he has become fully aware of the error of his ways and is no longer inclined either to dodge his responsibilities or to vacillate in his resolutions. Arthur has accepted the irrevocability of his wrongdoing and now sees himself as he really is; there is no more pretense and deceit, but only sincerity. (The same applies to Hetty, as we have seen. Thus Eliot closes the appearance-reality theme with respect to these characters. At last they are what they seem). Finally--and most important--Arthur is more concerned about other people than about himself: He is willing to leave his beloved estate and bury himself in the army in order to save the Bedes and the Poysers from further pain.

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An even greater emphasis is laid on Adam's development; Eliot spends proportionately much more space explaining his reactions than Arthur's, and his inner struggle is much more vividly dramatized. Adam, like the Poysers, is still reacting defensively at the beginning of the chapter; both want to leave the estate in order to maintain their reputations as honorable people. Also, Adam has still not learned to forgive; he has resigned himself to "bear the unalterable," and he is keeping his violent passions in check, but a complete humility of the sort Arthur has attained still eludes him. In the conversation here, he finds that humility. For the Poysers' sake, he agrees to stay and to accept employment from a man who has injured him; for Arthur's sake, he relents, forgives, and shakes hands. The setting in the grove is symbolic. When he and Arthur had last met there, Adam had been violent, intolerant, determined to have his own way. Now he shows the opposite qualities; he has matured. By implication, according to the theory proposed earlier, the "natural" man has become civilized. Adam has learned that the way to perfection lies through self-control and love, not through aggression and self-righteousness. When he thinks of going back to work, he thinks of doing so not to boost his ego but because "it's right." The changes in each character's attitude, Eliot makes clear, come about through suffering. Suffering is the great teacher of practical wisdom. Mr. Irwine and Dinah already recognize the nature of reality, but Adam, Hetty, and Arthur must obtain this knowledge through suffering. The progression works as follows: through suffering one becomes acquainted with the existence and the effects of irremediable evil; the realization of the existence of irremediable evil makes one humble since it becomes obvious that one cannot completely control one's own fate. This humility results in sympathy, as one realizes that every human being is in the same predicament, and love, as one strives to avoid being the cause of suffering in others. Note that both Adam and Arthur react with instinctive sympathy to marks of suffering in the other. Suffering teaches most people what Mr. Irwine knows in theory and what Dinah knows by nature. Adam Bede is written in the hope that the reader will learn from the novel what suffering will otherwise inevitably teach him: that caution and moral realism are necessary if one is to be happy. Eliot hopes to change her readers' lives before bitter experience does. In this chapter, Arthur and Adam concentrate upon ending the series of consequences; suffering has taught them that only through love can the evil caused by a rash act be brought to an end. If the evil is to be ended, the people who have been affected by it must simply absorb it and do good to others in spite of it. So the action has come full circle. The chain of events which began in egotism and passion ends, realistically, by an exercise of the intellect and an act of will. If Adam and the Poysers had moved away, the bad consequences would simply have been extended another step. They stay, and the chain reaction is halted. The only consequence which remains is that Adam, Arthur, and Hetty have become better people. Thus Eliot works out her reconciliation and her moral philosophy. The central action of the novel--the love affair and its consequences--has been completed, and the set of ideas which that action illustrates has been completely set forth. The two characters who caused the problem are in exile, one involuntarily through a sentence to transportation and the other voluntarily in the army, and the third member of the fateful triangle has stabilized and is as content as possible under the circumstances. Mostly through the efforts and example of Mr. Irwine and Dinah (whose influence on Arthur is stressed in this chapter) all the characters have learned their lessons and are at peace with themselves and with others. Book V resolves the conflicts, both physical and mental, which the rest of the novel has developed. In this section, Eliot brings the action to a climax and works out the basic effects of that climax on her principal characters. Although there are still some loose ends in the plot to tie together, Book V closes on a general note of finality. Chaos has been reduced to order and division to harmony, and all the basic situations and issues upon which the novel is based have been settled.

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BOOK VI Chapters 49 & 50 Summary Book VI begins after a lapse of eighteen months. The scene opens in the Poyser kitchen: Mrs. Poyser is attempting to convince Dinah, who has been living at the Hall Farm for some time, not to go back to Snowfield. Dinah replies that she must resist the temptations of ease and luxury and minister to the poor; she appears resolved to go. Adam arrives and asks Dinah to come home with him and see his ailing mother; she blushes at his approach and agrees to go immediately. When Mrs. Poyser tells Adam that Dinah is leaving, he replies that she must do what she thinks is right, and Dinah mysteriously bursts into tears and hurries from the room. Adam and Mr. Poyser discuss business; Adam is becoming quite prosperous. Then Dinah reappears and she and Adam set out for the Bede's house. As they walk, Adam refers to Dinah as his sister, and she seems uneasy. He also mentions hearing from Arthur, who is still away at the wars. Lisbeth is glad to see Dinah, and the evening passes in talk and work. The author comments at length on the effect on Adam of his long sorrow; it has made him more gentle, loving, and sympathetic. He feels a special affection for Dinah but identifies it as brotherly love; romance, he feels, is now out of the question for him. Dinah sleeps at the cottage, and early the next morning she and Adam have a talk. He tells her he wishes she could stay at Hayslope and she, obviously agitated, says she must go to avoid temptation. Commentary It is clear from the way Book VI begins that Eliot intends a contrast depressing atmosphere of Book V. This section of the novel is to be a love story, one which contrasts sharply with the relationship between Arthur and Hetty. Here there will be no intrigue, no pretense, no shameful secrets, no selfishness. The description of the Hall Farm on this pleasant autumn day sets the mood for the action to come and turns the reader's attention from the unpleasant scenes he has just witnessed. For no very definable reason, Dinah has changed during the eighteen months since Hetty's trial. She has become more domestic, for one thing; Eliot makes a point of saying that she spoils the Poyser children and that she has learned a lot about housekeeping. She is much less serene than before, too; she blushes easily, cries unexpectedly, and betrays a lack of confidence when Adam is near. Although in the past she had always gone back to her people at Snowfield, now she has to force herself to go and speaks of it as a "trial." The reason for the change soon becomes obvious to the reader, even without Eliot's blunt statement towards the end of Chapter 50. Dinah is in love with Adam. But, while the sources of Adam's affection for Dinah are carefully explained, her love for him is almost completely unmotivated from the viewpoint of character; there seems to be no reason why this dedicated, duty-oriented young woman should suddenly become emotionally fixed on one man. Here as elsewhere in the novel--in the descriptions of Adam's affection for Hetty, for example--Eliot treats love in a highly romantic, almost mystical, way. She does not explain its source and development rationally, as she is careful to do with other passions, but

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www.cliffs.com describes it in vague (though eloquent) terms which lend it a dreamlike quality. In Chapter 50, for example, she says that Adam and Dinah communicate through "the soul's language" and calls love "a great and beautiful thing," the signs of which "be like those little words, 'light' and 'music,' stirring the long-winding fibres of your memory, and enriching your present with your most precious past." Since the love between Adam and Dinah has been foreshadowed several times in the novel, the weakness of the motivation for it tends to go unnoticed. The reader is prepared to believe that the couple belongs together and does not stop to consider the implausibility of the development. In this way, careful structuring is used to create an apparent plausibility which does not in fact exist--rather ironic in a novel which insists so heavily on the distinction between appearance and reality. This love affair resembles the book's earlier ones in that it involves confusion and the misunderstanding of actions and motives. Adam fails to see Dinah's romantic inclinations towards him and Dinah misinterprets her own feeling, thinking of it as a temptation rather than a positive desire. Eliot never tires of pointing out that human relationships are complex, and that things rarely are as they seem. In her lengthy comments on the state of Adam's mind eighteen months after the trial, Eliot restates a point which she made dramatically in the last few chapters of Book V. Suffering creates sympathy and develops in the individual the power to love. Adam in one sense is better off now than he was before the trial. He is more open and more loving, altogether more worthy to be matched with Dinah, the paragon of humility and benevolence. In Chapter 46, Adam protests against the notion that good can come from evil, but Eliot implies here and in the changes which come about in Hetty and Arthur that it can. Greater strength of personality and increased sympathy for others can result indirectly from evil through the suffering which it causes.

Chapters 51 & 52 Summary Dinah goes back to the farm that evening, but not before Lisbeth has probed her with questions about Adam. Lisbeth tells Seth that she thinks Dinah loves Adam, but Seth tells her to forget about trying to bring them together; as far as he can see, Adam feels nothing but fraternal affection for Dinah. Lisbeth is not to be so easily discouraged, though; on Sunday morning, she tells Adam that Dinah would be his for the asking. He doubts the truth of her perception, but, at the same time, he recognizes his real love for Dinah and is filled with a new hope. He hesitates to abandon himself to his feelings, however: Seth might still have hopes of winning Dinah's hand, and Adam doesn't want to oppose his brother. But Seth assures him that he is resigned to the fact that Dinah will never accept him, and he encourages Adam to propose. Adam resolves to take the step that very afternoon. When Adam gets to the farm, Dinah is at home alone. After a few moments, Adam overcomes his shyness and declares that he loves her above any other creature. Dinah replies in kind; her main reason for deciding to go away, in fact, was her fear that her love for Adam would divert her from the performance of her duty among the poor. Adam tries to persuade her to stay but in vain: Dinah cannot be sure that giving in to him would not be giving in to temptation. She is afraid that she would be turning away from Christ for Adam's sake, and she is determined to be faithful to her calling as a preacher and consoler of the afflicted. But even though she won't change her mind about leaving, Dinah does hold out one hope: If she is discontented in her work at Snowfield, she says, then she will know that God intends her to return and marry Adam. Adam has no choice but to accept these conditions. The couple walk out into the fields and meet the rest of the family on their way back from church. Some

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www.cliffs.com light talk is exchanged, and the author ends the chapter with a panegyric on old-fashioned leisure. Commentary In Chapter 51, for the first and only time in the novel, Lisbeth directly affects the course of events. She has functioned heretofore as a background character, helping to provide atmosphere but doing and saying nothing of importance for the development of the plot. It is unusual for such a character to suddenly be given a central part to play in the story line--note that similar figures like Mrs. Poyser and Bartle Massey never attain this status. But Eliot needed someone to "enlighten" Adam, and Lisbeth is perfect for the role. Her words to Adam are the culmination of a whole pattern of references to her opinion of Dinah; these references form another example of foreshadowing within the plot. The closeness of the brothers, something which Eliot mentions now and again throughout the novel, is given strong emphasis here; far from being jealous of Adam, Seth is prepared to take joy in his brother's happiness. Through his religion and his mild manner, Seth is associated with Dinah, and it would be imaginatively unsatisfying to create a situation in which approaching the one would entail a break with the other. Adam's affection for Seth is an early indication that Adam may eventually fall in love with a woman with a similar personality, and Eliot ties up this pattern by harmonizing the three characters in this chapter. Adam's realization that his love for Dinah is not merely fraternal is rather sudden, and the preparation for it strikes one as being somewhat artificial. The denseness which Adam displays during his conversation with his mother seems almost coy; Adam is normally not so slow at grasping a point. But it is in keeping with his single-minded nature; Adam, we are told, has quietly resumed his work and has buried himself in practical affairs. Lisbeth's suggestion releases a flow of feeling which he had categorically considered permanently blocked, and he discovers that his urge to love a woman, far from being destroyed, has increased during the time of his sorrow. Once again Eliot emphasizes the healthy effects of suffering; it enlarges the soul, making (in this case) a good man even better. Dinah's hesitation in accepting Adam's proposal is perfectly in keeping with her character. Note how the author begins the movement which ends in the mutual confession of love; through Lisbeth she identifies Dinah as an angel. Unlimited praise is showered on Dinah in these chapters. With a conscientiousness which the modern reader may find annoyingly pious but which Eliot obviously admires above all things, Dinah struggles to overcome her own feelings. Her devotion to God and her humility before Him are so strong that she will not take any step if the possibility exists that in doing so she would be opposing His will. Even though her love for Adam is strong, her first concern is her duty. Eliot creates Dinah as the archetype of the humble person; note how strongly she emphasizes her desire to avoid being selfish. She is a walking illustration of the ideal at which Eliot's value system aims. A human being like Dinah, one who considers not what she wants to do but what she should do, will never make a rash decision which can involve her and others in a remorseful chain of consequences. She can never directly cause pain, and she will take whatever opportunity arises to alleviate it. Her humility before her own conscience and before God or the nature of reality will make her as morally perfect as a human being can be. It is on such principles that the character of Dinah is founded, as is clear not only in these chapters but throughout the novel. If she sometimes strikes the reader as unrealistic, it is because she is the embodiment of an idea, a standard by which Eliot implies that we should judge ourselves. The idyllic nature of this final love affair of the novel has emerged pretty clearly by this point. Although there is some misunderstanding involved in the relationship, it is quickly cleared up, and in these chapters the two young people face one another honestly. There is no pretense of any kind. Both Adam and Dinah react to their love rationally, as mature people. And, most important, both are completely unselfish. Eliot goes to great lengths to indicate that Adam values Dinah's happiness more than his own; he is even

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www.cliffs.com prepared to accept her rejection of his proposal with benevolent resignation if she is determined not to marry, and Dinah, of course, is more interested in obeying God's will than in satisfying her own desires. The love relationship is set up as a direct contrast to that between Hetty and Arthur: Whereas what they called love was compounded of vanity, egotism, and physical attraction, this love is a true meeting of souls, a bond which, as Eliot puts it, possesses the serenity and the warmth of quiet sunshine.

Chapter 53 Summary The following Wednesday, Adam goes to the Hall Farm expecting to see Dinah. The annual harvest supper is being held, and Adam joins the group of farmhands at the table. The author gives portraits of some of the laborers and then describes the ritual of the Harvest Song. After the song is ended, Mr. Craig gives his views on politics and the French. Mr. Poyser then tells Adam that Dinah has already left for Snowfield. An argument about the relative merits of men and women develops between Mrs. Poyser and Bartle Massey. Mrs. Poyser routs her opponent, and Bartle and Adam take their leave. Commentary This long chapter, like Chapter 32, is devoted primarily to the development of local color and adds almost nothing to the central story line. In the beginning of the chapter, Adam admits to himself that the good of his love for Dinah grew out of the evil of his loss of Hetty, and we learn that Dinah has gone to Snowfield, but these are the only considerations of significance for either plot or theme to appear. Besides providing local color, the chapter affords us good examples of Mrs. Poyser's and Bartle's wit. It serves to build suspense by acting as an imaginative time-lapse which delays the culmination of the relationship between Adam and Dinah. And finally, it extends the feeling of peace and harmony which Book VI as a whole creates by presenting a scene which is both humorous and nostalgic.

Chapters 54 & 55 Summary When Dinah has been gone for six weeks, Adam begins to grow impatient, and he decides to go to Snowfield in search of her. When he arrives, Dinah is off preaching in the next town. Adam rides to the top of a hill overlooking the town and waits to intercept Dinah on her way home. After an hour's wait, Adam sees Dinah mounting the hill towards him. She draws near without seeing him, and, as she stops to look back at the hamlet she has left, Adam comes up behind her and calls her name. She turns and comes to him, saying that it is God's will that they be together. Dinah and Adam are married a month later. All who know them are supremely happy, and there is general harmony in Hayslope. Commentary The scene in which Adam watches Dinah slowly mount the hill towards him is one of the most vivid in the whole novel. It is not suspenseful, though one of Eliot's motives in setting the incident up in this way may have been to create suspense; the reader by this point is certain that Dinah will not reject Adam. The real power of the scene lies in the feeling of pastoral peace which it communicates. The author stages the lovers' meeting outside and emphasizes the fact that no other living being is near. All is silence until Adam calls Dinah's name and the two exchange a few words. Then the young people are in harmony with each other and with nature, and there is no jarring note in all the world around. Eliot emphasizes the emotional continuity of Adam's experience in order to show for the last time that

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www.cliffs.com suffering is a teacher, that we learn and profit by our mistakes, that the encounter with evil ends in wisdom. When Adam is on the way to Snowfield, he remembers having passed over the same road after Hetty's trial and sees that his sorrow has strengthened him to love Dinah better. In the course of the novel, Adam has become a realist by Eliot's standards; no longer a young man who feels he can work out all problems, he sees that life has its negative aspect and that one must live in the recognition of that aspect. At his wedding, "there was a tinge of sadness in his deep joy"; Adam's experience has taught him to see life whole, as a process in which good and evil are inextricably mixed. For Eliot, there are no moral absolute of the sort discussed in the commentary to Chapter 17 but only ways of avoiding suffering and of dealing with it when one cannot avoid it. This is why she creates so complex and ambiguous a world in her plot and characters; she strives to teach her readers that reality is not something which can be fit into a simple formula, but rather a series of experiences through which one must guide oneself in a practical way in order to attain happiness. Although Eliot's view involves struggle and pain, it is not depressing in the final analysis. She implies that man can reach a state of modified serenity and qualified joy if he works at it. If one considers the objective conditions of human life, the holding out of this much hope must seem optimistic. Eliot says not only that man can be happy, but that the means for attaining happiness lie within himself rather than in chance or in circumstances beyond his control. This vision imposes responsibility upon the individual, but it is a meaningful and a hopeful one. Appearance and reality finally merge with the marriage of Adam and Dinah. They appear happy and they are; they appear responsible and they are. They understand each other perfectly, and the harmony they have found in their love is based upon a total communication. The culmination of this realistic love represents the triumph of the humble attitude, the attitude which Dinah always had and which Adam has acquired. As Adam says in Chapter 54, "other folks were not created for my sake." This marriage is a union in which each partner will attain happiness through working for the happiness of the other. So ends Book VI. The function of this section of the novel is not particularly clear. It serves one thematic purpose in that it provides a lengthy illustration of the one good consequence of the original affair: Adam has become more loving and more loveable as a result of his experiences. But this point has been made dramatically in the closing chapters of Book V, and it seems extravagant to add another section to an already lengthy novel simply in order to restate it. Eliot may have had another purpose. It is clear that from the very beginning she intended to bring Adam and Dinah together, and a sixth book is almost required if this development is to be given proper emphasis. She may also have felt the need to "humanize" Dinah. It must have been obvious to a writer of Eliot's talent that Dinah is an unrealistic figure; she does not have even the minor faults of the novel's other moral standard, Mr. Irwine. Here Eliot puts her through a struggle which demonstrates that she does have normal human drives and has her turn away from her purely idealistic life plan to a more realistic alternative. But the attempt to make Dinah more human (if it is an attempt to do so) fails; Dinah's devotion to duty is insisted upon so heavily that even in marrying Adam she emerges more as an angel than as a woman. This has the most serious consequences for the theme of Adam Bede. The novel's ending has often been attacked because in a very real sense it undermines the message of the rest of the novel. Adam, in the course of his experiences with Hetty and Arthur, has learned to accept limitations in himself and in others; this pattern in the development of his character is very clear. But in Book VI, Eliot gives him, as a sort of reward for having learned his lesson, a perfect woman. It is a flat contradiction. Instead of accepting limitations in others, Adam marries a woman who has no faults, no weaknesses to accept. Instead of accepting limitations in his own situation (except for the minor "tinge of sadness" intermixed with his joy), Adam ends up in an ideal situation; his marriage has no negative side because Dinah has no negative

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www.cliffs.com side. The difficulty clearly lies with the characterization of Dinah. It almost seems as if in creating her, the author lost sight of her essential doctrine. She preaches realism but makes the goal of her hero's search an ideal. It is a strange reversal; the contrived "happy ending" of the novel contradicts, or at best ignores, the point of its crisis.

Epilogue Summary On a June day some years later, Seth and Dinah, with Dinah's two children, are waiting for Adam to come home. Arthur, now a colonel, has returned from the wars weakened by a fever, and Adam has gone to see him. Dinah expresses her sympathy for Arthur, and for Hetty, who died just as her term of exile ended. Adam appears, looking rather drawn. He has found Arthur changed in some ways. Arthur's past offenses have been forgiven, and though he will never forget, he is ready to resume the role of Squire when he recovers his health. Mr. and Mrs. Poyser are seen entering the yard, and the novel closes on a note of domestic serenity. Commentary The four chief characters of the novel come together, at least through references, in the epilogue. Adam and Dinah are happy together. Arthur, having made his symbolic penance, is ready to take up a realistic and benevolent life. Hetty is dead; unlike Arthur, she has not been given a second chance. Hetty's death is functionally necessary; it places the final bit of emphasis on the moral of the novel, the expression of which Eliot gives to the other sinner, Arthur: "There's a sort of wrong that can never be made up for." With this sober warning ringing in the reader's ears, the novel ends on a peaceful, but chastened, note.

CHARACTER ANALYSES ADAM BEDE Adam is an intelligent but not well-educated rural carpenter who feels that he understands "the natur o' things." For him, life is very simple; he believes that the world operates according to certain rather mechanistic principles which never change and that, likewise, one's life should be lived according to certain principles of right conduct. He has a stoic philosophy in that he feels that one should always do one's duty, no matter what the circumstances. For this reason, he is a sober young man, totally dedicated to his work; he rarely does things for his own pleasure but strives to do the right thing in every situation. This orientation gives rise to many fine qualities. Adam's is a very strong nature; he is brave and aggressive, and he does not give way under pressure. Because he thinks he knows what "right" is, he is very self-confident, and he expresses himself honestly. His dedication to duty makes him strong-willed and persevering; it also leads him to approach problems in a very practical, forward-looking way. All in all, Adam is a very optimistic young man when the novel opens. He feels that he can handle any situation through positive action; he feels that he is in control of himself and the course of his own life. Adam is somewhat immature though; his rather strict view of life has not been tempered by experience. As his reactions to his father show, he lacks sympathy for other people's weaknesses; he is dedicated to duty himself and he expects everyone else to have the same orientation. He is thus self-righteous and somewhat intolerant. His basic aggressiveness finds expression in a tendency towards violence; sometimes, as in his encounter with Wiry Ben, he seems to feel that violence is the honest and practical way to solve problems. Because he feels in control of his situation, Adam is a proud and self-centered man, one who tends to cling to his own opinion and to insist on getting his own way. The negative traits in his personality emerge most clearly in his first reactions to Arthur when he learns of Cliffs Notes on Adam Bede © 1970

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www.cliffs.com the love affair between Arthur and Hetty. His passions get out of hand and he tries to solve his problem in the most direct way possible: by taking physical revenge on Arthur and by forcing him to write to Hetty, terminating the relationship. At this point, his pride has perverted even his good qualities; his strength of will, for example, becomes intransigence and he refuses to forgive Arthur. The regret that Adam feels for having knocked Arthur down is the first step on his journey towards maturity; he realizes that he has done something rash which serves no useful end and which cannot be retracted. From this point on, under the influence of Dinah, Mr. Irwine, and his own experiences, he begins to soften. He becomes acquainted with "irremediable evil" at Hetty's trial; it is the sort of situation which he cannot control or set right. This places him in a dilemma, and he solves it by accepting the imperfect situation and by extending sympathy to Hetty and eventually to Arthur. In short, Adam becomes humble; instead of judging people's behavior by his own standards, he treats them well in spite of their faults. His self-righteousness and intolerance fall away, and he realizes that "doing right" implies acting in a loving way whether people measure up to his notions of proper conduct or not. The pride which had isolated him from others vanishes, and he accepts his own and his acquaintances' limitations. After a great struggle, he is able to put others' happiness before his own, even to forgive the man he had considered his enemy. Adam's personality is consistent throughout the novel. His values simply shift as he grows more mature and realistic. At the end, he is still strong but his strength is founded on an acceptance of the world as it is, not on abstract principles. He has come to see that it is more important to love than to be technically "right" in any given situation. Adam is thus Eliot's primary illustration of the way in which a man can develop what is, according to her standards, a proper orientation; he becomes moral instead of moralistic and evolves a gentleness and a humility which are essentially, rather than dogmatically, Christian.

HETTY SORREL The characterization of Hetty seems to vary through the novel: In the earlier sections, she is condemned savagely for her vanity and selfishness, while during her period of suffering she is treated sympathetically. But even though Eliot's objectivity is somewhat questionable in places, the personality of Hetty does emerge balanced and rounded in the long run. Hetty is only seventeen and has apparently received little or no formal education. She is thus unformed and instinctual. She does not analyze situations because she has neither the intelligence nor the training to do so; she floats like a bubble on the surface of life, never thinking or feeling anything very deeply. Like many young people, Hetty is highly imaginative and tends to live in a world of dreams. Her grasp of reality is slight, and she is in basic need of protection and guidance from others. These qualities can be very charming in a girl since they are traditionally thought of as feminine, and Hetty is certainly charming. There is something appealingly childlike about her, and both Adam and Arthur react to this quality. Her helplessness, her sensitivity to physical or mental pain, stimulate their protective urges and soften the reader's disapproval of her actions. Her youth and softness are most apparent in her lonely wandering, and she seems less like a criminal than a victim--a victim of the fact that Arthur took advantage of her weakness and of the circumstance that Arthur is not at Windsor. But Hetty's childishness also has its negative side. Like a child, she always seeks her own advantage; Hetty is profoundly and eternally selfish. The dream world she lives in is one in which she is the central figure, and no realistic considerations interfere with her imaginings. She gives herself to Arthur even though she does not love him because she sees the opportunity to make her egotistical dreams come true. When it becomes clear that Arthur will not make her a "great lady," she immediately switches her loyalty to Adam; her affections are controlled completely by her own desires. Finally, she kills her own baby in order to avoid disgrace and social ostracism.

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Because Hetty's feelings are so superficial, she is very materialistic. A pair of earrings can send her into raptures, and she judges herself and others in terms of externals--beauty, money, social success, and prestige. Her relationships with others are therefore shallow. She does not seek to know and be known, but only to be admired, and she is very deceitful and evasive, avoiding any contact which could make her face the unreality of her dreams. Bad experience only has the effect of making Hetty withdraw into herself even more; during her trial, she refuses to speak to anyone. But Dinah gets her to confess, and this symbolic act breaks down the walls which her egomania had erected. She takes responsibility for her actions and admits to the world in general that she has been at fault. She faces reality, abandons her selfish dreams, and reveals herself as a weak and helpless child. At the last moment, Hetty summons the courage to forgive and to love, and is "saved" through the acceptance of human contact.

ARTHUR DONNITHORNE Like Adam and Hetty, Arthur is a very complex character, an amalgam of good and bad qualities. He is basically a pleasant and kindhearted young man who hates the thought of hurting anyone and who likes to be on good terms with all who know him. He is a rich man and an aristocrat who intends to use his wealth and social position for good ends; unlike Hetty, his dreams of the future do not concern themselves with his own happiness alone; he wishes to benefit others too. Arthur is a blithe spirit, happy, charming, and friendly. But he is very unrealistic. Because of his background, he does not feel that he has to work to get what he wants; he thinks that his dreams will come true without effort. He also does not know himself very well. Arthur is very self-confident, but without reason; he does not possess the self-discipline which could justify his confidence. He is aware of his own faults--his tendency to vacillate, for example--but he cannot bring himself to correct them. His excellent opinion of his own virtue prevents him from thinking in terms of self-improvement, and he is too weak to follow his own conscience without being forced to do so. This set of attitudes gets Arthur into trouble and prevents him from getting himself out. He knows that his desire for Hetty is impractical, but that does not stop him from seducing her; he wants her and he is used to getting what he wants, though he is not ruthless. Later he refuses to believe that anything bad will come of the relationship, and he continues to play the role of the honorable man even while behaving dishonorably; his objective actions do not influence his self-image. Finally, he cannot bring himself to break off the relationship because he is so kind-hearted; he can't bear to give Hetty pain. Arthur is thus an emotional and moral drifter; he does not guide himself by any fixed and realistic principles, and his good and bad qualities conspire to lead him to ruin another person's life. He is not completely unconcerned about other people, but his basic attitude is egotistical; he cares more about his own desires than he does Hetty's, for example, and his primary motivation for wanting to help his tenants seems to be to win their respect and praise. This selfishness, combined with his delusions about his virtue, make him irresponsible; he does things without calculating their effects on himself or the other people involved. Experience sobers Arthur. When Adam confronted him with his guilt in the grove, he was able to rationalize his actions and maintain his self-image. But when Hetty abandons his child to its death, he realizes that if one is to accomplish one's goals, he must act so as to bring them about. He sees the potential for evil that he possesses, breaks free from the unrealistic self-image he had previously held, and tries to improve the situation he has created as much as possible. After performing a symbolic penance, he returns home, ready to work for good ends without egotism or pretense. Like Adam and Hetty, he has ac-

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www.cliffs.com cepted responsibility and become humble.

DINAH MORRIS Most readers find Dinah's saccharine piety distasteful; it seems like much too much of a good thing. To the extent that this reaction is based on an unhistorical view of the character, it is not valid. Dinah's style of speech strikes the modern ear as unbearably self-righteous and prudish, but a good part of this impression is based on the fact that her type of religious rhetoric has become cliched since 1800; we tend to consider it insincere and to parody it. But Eliot was creating a historically accurate picture, and this should be taken into account in any judgment of the character. On the other hand, to the extent that the negative reaction is based on a perception of Dinah's personality, it is quite valid. Most critics would agree that Dinah is not a realistic character. She is an ideal, a perfect woman who has no faults, the personification of the abstract goal of Eliot's ethical system. There are no perfect women in the world, nor are there likely to be; even Dinah is rather blatantly non-human in her piety. Dinah is a categorically good woman. She is completely dedicated to doing the Lord's work. Wherever she encounters suffering, she alleviates it, and she has spent her whole life in deeds of charity. Dinah's is not an abstract piety; she preaches what she believes and she practices what she preaches. Through long experience she has discovered how to comfort people and bring them to God, and in the course of the novel she has a good effect on everyone she comes in contact with. Dinah is also entirely humble; she sees herself as the servant of God's people. She is a working woman, and no task is too mean for her. She visits afflicted people in prisons and in their simple cottages, and she shares their hard life with them. She is absolutely unselfish. She never allows any thought of her own comfort to interfere with the performance of her duty, and she looks upon her own desires as temptations which must be resisted. She always places God before man, and other people before herself. And finally, she is totally benevolent. Dinah never does anything which is not likely to have good effects. She harbors no dislikes and treats everyone with respect and sympathy. No one in the novel, not even Bartle Massey, disapproves of her; she is universally praised, even reverenced, by all who know her. Dinah gives up her life of exclusive ministering and preaching when she marries Adam. But she takes this step only after assuring herself that it is God's will, and her basic personality does not change at all. Dinah remains at the end what she was at the beginning: a morally perfect woman with the face and bearing of an angel and the heart of a saint.

MR. IRWINE The Rev. Mr. Adolphus Irwine is not so perfect as Dinah is, but he is a good man. He has faults; he is indolent, he lives in comfort in the midst of the poor, he does not zealously try to improve the physical and spiritual lot of others. When Arthur comes to him to confess, he is so casually sophisticated and polite that Arthur decides that his involvement with Hetty would only amuse Mr. Irwine, and he turns away from his resolution. A more seriously moral clergyman might have elicited the confession and prevented Arthur and Hetty's tragedy. But Mr. Irwine is still presented as one of the standards of good conduct in the novel. He is the author's vehicle for the explanation of her ethical theory; he understands that theory and conducts himself according to it. What Dinah knows by instinct and experience, he knows through reason. But more important, he treats people well; his sympathy is universal and his object is always to alleviate pain (within limitations imposed by his laziness), to improve unpleasant situations, and to instruct his parishioners in how to lead a good life. Though a lover of luxury, he is spiritually unselfish; he absorbs the personal blow which Arthur's misconduct gives him and strives to help the others who are suffering

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www.cliffs.com because of the love affair. Mr. Irwine is everybody's friend, a tolerant, benevolent philosopher who is looked up to and admired by all the characters in the novel as a Christian gentleman. Dinah represents the ideal goal of Eliot's system; Mr. Irwine represents the realistic one.

MRS. POYSER Mrs. Poyser is one in a long tradition of English comic characters with rough exteriors but hearts of gold. She is an outspoken farmwife who disguises her kind and generous nature by expressing herself loudly, bluntly, and usually critically on every conceivable issue. No dominated female, she runs her house and her family with energy and efficiency, and she is absolutely fearless, as she demonstrates when she routs Arthur's grandfather. Although she is not developed as completely as the central characters are, Mrs. Poyser is not one-sided; she can become extremely aggressive, but at the same time she reacts sympathetically to people and is always ready to help them. Although she disapproves of Hetty's vanity, she is fond of the girl, and, unlike her husband and father-in-law, she does not selfishly condemn her when she gets into trouble. An extremely vital figure, Mrs. Poyser reacts strongly in every situation and keeps the action moving with her lively and vivid chatter.

CRITICAL ESSAYS THE "DEAR READER" TECHNIQUE "With a single drop of ink for a mirror, the Egyptian sorcerer undertakes to reveal to any chance comer far-reaching visions of the past. This is what I undertake to do for you, reader. With this drop of ink at the end of my pen, I will show you the roomy workshop of Mr. Jonathan Burge, carpenter and builder, in the village of Hayslope, as it appeared on the eighteenth of June, in the year of our Lord 1799." The first paragraph of Adam Bede in itself is enough to mark the novel as a pre-twentieth-century product. With few exceptions, modern authors accept Henry James' notion that a novel should create a world unto itself; a novelist should not take the pose of someone "telling a story" to a group of listeners but should simply present a self-contained, complete imitation of reality and let it stand on its own merits. In Eliot's time, the "dear reader" technique was widely used. The method derives from the earlier popular conception that fiction, since it was literally "untrue," was a base deception and morally unhealthy. Eighteenth-century authors, especially Defoe, took pains to insist that their novels were really accounts of true happenings, and, although the nineteenth century gradually came to accept fiction as fiction, the custom of speaking directly to the reader, as the editor of a journal or the author of a set of memoirs would do, persisted. Probably the most celebrated example of the use of the technique is Thackeray's Vanity Fair, where the author refers to his characters as "puppets" and admits almost shyly that he created an artificial world. The impulse to separate truth from fiction was still alive; it took the novel about another forty years to take its place as a serious art form which did not apologize for its own existence. The technique, then, is first of all a convention. Eliot pretends throughout that Adam Bede is a true story. She takes the pose of one who is merely recording events which she has heard recounted. She says in Chapter 17, for example: "But I gathered from Adam Bede, to whom I talked of these matters in his old age," and goes on to report a conversation which had supposedly taken place years after the events presented in the novel were things of the past. This, at one and the same time, has the effect of both destroying and supporting the illusion of reality which the novel as a whole creates. It destroys that illusion because the events described no longer seem immediate and present; it supports it by making us believe that we are reading an extremely detailed history of real people and things. Thus the novel hangs rather uncomfortably in the balance between fiction and reality; we know the events described are not real, but we are asked to believe that they are. The modern novelist does this too, but in a different way; Cliffs Notes on Adam Bede © 1970

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www.cliffs.com he asks us to freely become absorbed in his fictional world rather than insisting that we assimilate the fictional world into the real one. The "dear reader" technique also serves some practical functions. Because the author pretends to be "outside" her own story, she is free to comment in her own voice upon the characters and events she creates. A very large part of the character analysis in Adam Bede is handled from this viewpoint; in Chapter 5, for instance, we find the following: "On the other hand, I must plead, for I have an affectionate partiality towards the Rector's memory, that he was not vindictive." Eliot also uses the method to ask for the reader's sympathy and understanding, to guide his reactions to her story. In Chapter 3, she begs us to use our historical imaginations to visualize what Methodism was like in 1799, and, in Chapter 17, she asks us to appreciate her realistic approach. These two functions work hand in band. Eliot is very careful to make us see the point of her story, and so she constantly analyzes the people and issues involved in it with an eye to controlling our intellectual and emotional reactions to them. This somewhat insecure way of proceeding indicates once again that Eliot was self-consciously writing a revolutionary novel; afraid that her readers won't know what to think of her unusual plot, she tells them plainly what to think.

CHARACTERIZATION It is always somewhat dangerous to set up ready-made categories and then apply them to something as various as a work of art, but certain definitions can help us to a clearer understanding of the characters we meet in Adam Bede. A flat character is a one-sided figure, a character who exhibits only one or two human traits, usually in exaggerated form. Such a character's speeches and actions are never very surprising because they always spring from the same motivations and preoccupations, and he normally does not change at all in the course of the book. An example in Adam Bede is Mr. Casson, the innkeeper. Mr. Casson is very much impressed with his own importance, and whenever he appears in the novel, he is asserting or defending his dignity. He is a man with an inflated sense of his own importance, and that is all he is. In the same way, Mr. Craig, the gardener at the Chase and another of Hetty's admirers, is a know-it-all, and whenever we meet him he is dispensing (often false) information. Real people are never as simple as figures like these. The characterizations are superficial, static, "flat." Round characters, on the contrary, possess the complexity which is the norm in real life. They are flexible and change in response to changed circumstances. Adam, for example, is capable of being harsh, gentle, loving, cruel, violent, shy, and so on; he has not one trait but many. And he learns a great deal in the course of the novel and changes gradually from a rather brash and immature youth to a selfdisciplined and emotionally stable man. Adam is a "round" character, a fully developed and plausibly human figure. A central character is one who plays a major part in the story and has a hand in the shaping of events. Central characters do meaningful things and have meaningful things done to them. A background character is normally not "on stage" very much, at least in comparison with the central characters. He can serve many purposes: he can help create atmosphere, as Wiry Ben and the other townspeople do; he can provide comic relief, as the men at the harvest supper do; he can provide incident, as Molly does when she drops the ale jug. But straight background characters do not affect the plot line in any very significant way; the drama moves around them, but it never really touches them.

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www.cliffs.com The novel is so set up that the characters fall into three ranks depending on how directly involved they are in the novel's central conflict, the seduction of Hetty and its repercussions. In the "inner circle" stand Adam, Dinah, Arthur, and Hetty. These four are flanked by characters who are deeply affected by Hetty's seduction but whose lives are not changed by it: Mr. Irwine, Lisbeth, Seth, the Poysers, and Bartle Massey. Outside of them are ranged the vast host of straight background figures, people who exist on the periphery of the action. It is easy to see how, with one great exception; the relative fullness with which each character is drawn roughly matches his importance to the story as a whole. All the characters in the third of our categories are "flat," while those in the second are more extensively developed and three of the four in the inner circle are presented completely "in the round." This device is primarily practical. If each character were developed fully, the novel would become unbearably long. But at the same time, the principal characters must be presented as completely plausible human beings if the conflict through which they struggle is to have any meaning. So the relatively unimportant figures are merely sketched in, while many pages are devoted to the elaboration and analysis of the members of the inner circle. The device also has organizational value. The reader will obviously tend to focus on those characters he knows most about, just as he would pay most attention to one close friend in a group of ten people. By setting up her characters the way she does, George Eliot leads us to fix our attention on the central issue of the novel. The great exception to this scheme is, of course, Dinah; her characterization is widely considered to be one of the novel's major flaws. Although Dinah plays a central role in Adam Bede, she is clearly a straw figure, a plaster saint who can do no wrong. George Eliot puts her through some slight agitation and a change of heart toward the end of the book, but her basic view of reality does not change, as Adam's, Hetty's, and Arthur's do. She remains at the finish what she was at the start: a serene young woman, absolutely and totally devoted to duty, whose too-conscious piety tends to become cloying.

LOCAL COLOR AND COMIC RELIEF Local color, as a literary term, refers to depictions of life and character in a particular locality. The customs of the people, their speech, their peculiar way of looking at things is presented to the reader, often in a slightly sentimentalized or nostalgic form. Dickens' Mr. Micawber and the Artful Dodger are local figures, and their environments are local color settings. Bret Harte is probably the best-known American practitioner of the genre. Comic relief is a familiar term which needs little discussion. An author will seek to relieve the intensity of a serious plot line by inserting comic characters or situations; these entertaining diversions help keep the reader's interest lively and balance out the fictional picture of our half-tragic, half-comic world. Probably the most famous example of the use of comic relief in English literature is the knocking at the gate in Macbeth, where the sight of the drunken porter relaxes the audience after the murder of Duncan. Eliot uses both these devices in Adam Bede. In a sense, most of the novel is local color; the settings and the speech of the characters obviously belong to a specific time and place. But certain characters function almost entirely as local color figures: Wiry Ben, for example, or Chad's Bess, or Mr. Craig. These people are part of the novel's background; they provide a concrete milieu in which the central action of the story takes place. Mr. Poyser is a typical (though unusually skilled) Warwickshire farmer; Wiry Ben exemplifies the typical attitudes of the Warwickshire town laborer of his day.

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Eliot gives a lot of attention to the habits and customs of the local people. Most of Chapters 6 and 18, for example, describe what ordinary people did and said on ordinary days in the Warwickshire countryside in 1800. The operation of the Hall Farm and the description of Sunday morning churchgoing are presented not because they are relevant to the novel's conflict but because they help make up the picture of a realistic, functioning, physical world. Parts of Book III (especially Chapter 25 on the games at Arthur's birthday party) show how people celebrated an important event; Chapter 53 describes the local ritual of the harvest supper. The sections of the novel which concentrate on developing local color serve other purposes as well. Book III, as noted in the commentaries, is the calm before the storm; Eliot builds up suspense by talking of minor matters while delaying the explosion of the inevitable conflict. The long descriptions in Chapter 18 put Thias Bede's death in context; if treated as anything other than a "typical" event, his funeral would assume too much importance in the story, thus diverting attention from Adam's real soul-crisis at Hetty's trial. And Chapter 53 wrings the last bit of suspense from the plot by "marking time" while Dinah thinks over Adam's proposal. They also serve, of course, to provide comic relief, Eliot normally places her local color descriptions so as to perform this secondary function as well. It is no accident that the relatively light-hearted Book III comes after the lines of conflict in the novel have been somewhat grimly drawn and before Adam's fight with Arthur, or that Chapter 32, in which Mrs. Poyser routs Squire Donnithorne, interrupts the development of Hetty's tragedy. Thus local color and comic relief work hand in hand in Adam Bede. Eliot, determined to write a realistic novel about common, everyday people, delves into her memories of her Warwickshire childhood and creates a specific, concrete world peopled with generally plausible figures. She projects it back in time past the date of her own birth and perhaps sentimentalizes it a little; one wonders whether rural folk in 1800 were really as charming as she presents them. And, though she is writing a very serious book, Eliot does not forget (as she tended to do in later works) that one function of the novelist is to entertain. So she provides us with something to laugh at with her Bartle Massey and Wiry Ben and hits a nostalgic note with the harvest supper. But most of all, as local color and comic relief, she gives us the inimitable Mrs. Poyser. Perhaps no tenant's wife in 1800 would really tell her aristocratic landlord "you've got Old Harry to your friend." But then again perhaps she would, and it is both educational and amusing to hear Mrs. Poyser "have her say out."

THE SYMBOLIC WORLD OF ADAM BEDE George Eliot communicates the meaning of her novel partially by employing symbolism in the description of the physical world in which her characters live. These patterns point up contrasts and support, by an appeal to the visual imagination, some of the book's central ideas. It is obvious that the names of the two counties mentioned in the novel and the names of the two towns where principal characters live are significant. Snowfield, Dinah's home town, is located in Stonyshire; as the names indicate, this is a bleak, forbidding region in which people eke out a poor living on the rocky hills or else work in a factory. Hayslope in Loamshire, on the other hand, is a pleasant spot where the farmers are prosperous and the workers comfortable; there are no factories, but only small neighborhood businesses like Jonathan Burge's workshop. The "world" of the novel thus divides into light and dark, or hopeful and gloomy areas. Taking this world to represent life, we can see that Eliot is dividing experience into the pleasant and the unpleasant--giving

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www.cliffs.com us symbols for the "light" and "dark" sides of life. Dinah lives in Stonyshire; she is familiar with the darker side of life, accepts human suffering as necessary and inevitable, and knows how to deal with it. Adam, Arthur and Hetty, on the other hand, take a much more optimistic view of things and must learn what Dinah already knows. The crisis of the novel takes place in Stonyshire (in a town called Stoniton, as a matter of fact) and it is here that the three Loamshire people discover the meaning of "irremediable evil." This division is supported by another one--that between controlled and uncontrolled human actions. We noted in the commentaries that the seduction, the fight between Adam and Arthur, and Hetty's abandonment of her child all take place in the woods. These actions, prompted by "natural" urges rather than by a "civilized" use of intellect and will, form one of the two primary causes of suffering in the novel. The other cause is that part of reality which is beyond man's control. This area of human experience is symbolized by the tapping at the door in Chapter 4 which, though a superstition, turns out to be a valid portent of death, by the force of blind circumstances, and by God. Religion in George Eliot's novels seems to mean a respectful attitude towards the great unknown. Dinah, the completely religious woman, realistically recognizes the existence of evil and is patient and humble. Adam, who is religious in a naturalistic way, and Arthur and Hetty, who are not religious at all, have pride in them and must learn humility through experience. Thus the world of the novel is set up to show that man must recognize that life has its less pleasant side and that suffering derives from the nature of things and from a lack of self-control. Like Dinah and Mr. Irwine, he must act upon this knowledge, avoiding evil whenever possible, accepting and dealing with it when it cannot he avoided.

ESSAY TOPICS AND REVIEW QUESTIONS 1. Show how one bad choice--Arthur and Hetty's illicit love--affects the lives of Adam, Arthur, Hetty, and Dinah. How does this illustrate Eliot's theory of ethical determinism? 2. Compare the thoroughness with which one of the central figures and one of the background ones are characterized. What conclusions can you draw about the development of literary character? 3. Comment upon the use of symbolism in Adam Bede. 4. Eliot insists in Adam Bede that she is aiming for realism. How well do you think she succeeds? 5. Adam Bede has been referred to as a psychological novel. Discuss the relevance of this term. 6. Who is to blame for the conflict on which the novel centers? Hetty? Arthur? Both? Do both character and circumstance play a part? 7. Discuss Mrs. Poyser as a comic character. 8. Eliot has written, "It is the habit of my imagination to strive after as full a vision of the medium in which a character moves as of the character itself." How well does she succeed in this aim? 9. "Whereas Dickens . . . did not forget to mix pleasure with edification, in George Eliot's hands the novel was not primarily for entertainment but for the serious discussion of moral issues." Explain.

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10. Comment upon Adam Bede as a criticism of classed society. 11. Show how the appearance-reality theme runs through the novel. What is its function? 12. Eliot has said, "My artistic bent is directed not at all to the presentation of eminently irreproachable characters, but to the presentation of mixed human beings in such a way as to call forth tolerant judgment, pity, and sympathy." Comment on any of the central characters in the light of this statement. 13. Analyze the structure of Adam Bede according to its division into books. 14. Discuss the novel's moral viewpoint as revealed in Dinah's and Mr. Irwine's words and actions. 15. Do you find the ending of the novel satisfactory in the light of the story as a whole? Why or why not?

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ALLEN, WALTER. The English Novel. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1954. Contains a section on Eliot which includes many revealing and simply stated insights into Adam Bede. BENNET, JOAN. George Eliot, Her Mind and Her Art. London: Cambridge University Press, 1948. One of the best-regarded biographies. Includes essays on each of the novels. CECIL, DAVID. Early Victorian Novelists. New York: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1935. A very influential discussion of Eliot's work and that of other nineteenth-century novelists. HAIGHT, GORDON S. The George Eliot Letters. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1952-56. Includes letters to and from Eliot, and her journals. HARVEY, W. J. The Art of George Eliot. New York: Oxford University Press, 1962. Provides lengthy analyses of all the novels. LEAVIS, F. R. The Great Tradition. London: Chatto and Windus, 1948. This classic of criticism traces the development of what the author takes to be the central tradition of English fiction as it is manifested in the work of Eliot, Conrad, and James. STANG, RICHARD, ed. Discussions of George Eliot. Boston: D. C. Heath and Co., 1960. A collection of comments on and analyses of Eliot's work by her contemporaries and later writers. An excellent starting point for the student in that it offers a wide range of viewpoints on Eliot. THALE, JEROME. The Novels of George Eliot. New York: Columbia University Press, 1959. One of the most influential examinations of Eliot's fiction. WILLEY, BASIL. Nineteenth Century Studies: Coleridge to Matthew Arnold. New York: Columbia University Press, 1949. Devotes little space to the novels, but treats Eliot's ideas in the context of the broad spectrum of nineteenth-century thought.

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