Chapter One

On June 18, 1799, there are five workmen in the carpenter's shop of Mr. Jonathan Burge in the village of Hayslope. The tallest worker, Adam Bede, is singing. He is a fine, large man with Celtic blood. His brother, Seth, has a different aspect. He looks more shy and less robust. Seth says that he has finished the door that he is working on, and the rest laugh at him because he has forgotten the panels. They joke about hanging the door in the shop as a joke, but Adam persuades them to stop making fun of his brother. Wiry Ben jokes that Seth was absent-minded in finishing the door because he was dreaming about a female Methodist preacher. Seth invites Ben to come and see the preacher for himself so that he can get religion. Adam reveals that he is not so keen on women being allowed to preach, and he disputes Ben's suggestion that Parson Irwine will be upset at him for attending a Methodist meeting.

Adam objects to Methodist philosophy, saying that it is too inward-looking; God put his spirit into the worker to build the tabernacle, and there is holiness in mills and aqueducts as well as in a church. Ben teases Seth once again about the unfinished doors, and Seth concedes that he has a good joke. Ben says that it is better that he does not bristle at every joke like his brother does.

The clock strikes six, and all of the men prepare to go except Adam, who is indignant that the men give up work so quickly, as though they do not enjoy it. Seth says that he will be home late after the preaching, especially since he will see Dinah Morris home if she will allow it. Adam leaves the workshop with his dog Gyp and passes a nearby house, where an old woman named Dolly invites him in to dinner, saying that Miss Mary is there and that Mister Burge will be there soon as well. Adam declines and walks on. An elderly horseman turns around to look at Adam, but Adam does not see him.

Chapter Two

At a quarter to seven, the village of Hayslope shows unusual signs of excitement. Mr. Casson, the landlord of the town inn, stands at the entrance to his property. Although his face looks quite healthy, he is enormously fat. The horseman who stopped to look at Adam pulls up at the door on his horse. Mr. Casson explains that the town is busy because a female Methodist is about to preach on the green. Their parson lives in the next town. The stranger expresses surprise that there are Methodists in such a rural area, and Mr. Casson explains that there are really only two: Will Maskery and Seth Bede. Mr. Casson explains that he is the butler to Squire Donnithorne, and now his grandson, Captain Donnithorne, lives on their property called Donnithorne Chase.

The stranger mentions seeing Adam Bede, who he says would be good for helping to "lick the French." Mr. Casson says that he is extremely strong and is popular with the gentry. The stranger rides to the green, where he is interested in the beauty of the landscape and the crowd of curious townpeople who are staring at the green but who are careful not to enter onto it so that they are not mistaken for Methodists. A group of men are gathered around the blacksmith's shop, where the blacksmith, Chad Cranage, laughs at his own jokes. Mr. Joshua Rann, called "Old Joshway" by his neighbors, stands silently with disapproval.

The women are more curious, and they draw closer to the green. Bessy Cranage, the blacksmith's busty daughter, wonders why the Methodists make such funny faces. She is known locally as "Chad's Bess." She also wears fake-garnet earrings, of which Methodists disapprove. "Timothy's Bess" is the wife of Sandy Jim, who has two children. Her little boy goes by "Timothy's Bess's Ben," and he struggles against being held back from inspecting the Methodists. Mr. Casson says that Seth is wasting his time trying to court the female preacher, because she is too high-class for him, being the niece of the Poysers.

As Dinah approaches, the stranger is surprised by her unselfconsciousness, and the other townsmen are surprised by her prettiness. Dinah gives a prayer, and then she talks about hearing Jesus's prayer to preach to the poor at a Methodist revival when she was a young girl--she decided then that this is what she should do. She assures her listeners that although they are poor, the poor were Jesus's main beneficiaries during his lifetime, and they will continue to benefit after they die.

The stranger notes that Dinah, unlike other "Ranters," does not preach by shouting and gesturing, but simply by modulating her voice to her changing emotions. Chad's Bess is made vaguely uncomfortable by the preaching, knowing that she could be considered a "bad girl" for having loose morals. Dinah beseeches Chad's Bess to think of God rather than of earrings, and the girl, in a fit, throws her earrings off. As the service ends, the horseman rides away to the sound of Methodist hymns.

Chapter Three

As Seth walks Dinah home, he wants to talk to her about their relationship, but he feels discouraged because she seems too holy to need a husband. She tells him that she has made up her mind to go back to Snowfield on Monday, although she would prefer not to leave, especially since she is worried about Hetty Sorrel, in whom Adam is interested.

Seth again asks Dinah to marry him, arguing that the Bible says that this is natural; furthermore, he would be the only man in the world likely to leave her free to continue preaching. Dinah thanks him but says that the Bible also calls upon each man to walk as he will, and she has been called upon to be a minister rather than to have any joys or sorrows of her own. Seth says that he will have to pray to bear it--and his faith must be weak, because he cannot imagine life without her. Dinah counsels him not to follow her to Snowfield.

Seth cries as he walks home, and Eliot observes that he is only twenty-three and that to love as he loves Dinah is almost like a religious feeling, because he feels that she is better than he is. Eliot writes that at this time, Methodism was still a rural, grassroots movement, rather than being associated with low-hanging churches and a hypocritical middle class (as it is at the time during which she has written the novel). Seth and Dinah are still somewhat unthinking in their religious understanding: they believe in modern miracles, open the Bible at random for advice, and often misread and misquote the Bible. Even so, we read, they are still worth the reader's sympathy.

Chapter Four

Adam makes his way home, where his mother, Lisbeth Bede, is waiting at the door. Eliot observes that there is sadness in family resemblances because we are forced to see faces very like our own as they utter sentiments that we do not agree with. After learning that his father has gone to Treddles without finishing work on a coffin, Adam grows angry and goes into the workshop to do it himself, while his mother entreats him to have dinner. Adam is very upset that his father has promised to do work but has not completed it, and he threatens to go away, which makes his mother cry. She says that his father was not so bad before he took to drinking.

His mother gets up and calls to Adam's dog Gyp, intending to feed him extra food because she cannot feed her son, and Adam encourages him to go with her. Adam works off some of his anger and tells his mother to go to bed, with his native dialect deepening when he is kind to his mother. Seth comes home at ten and goes to help Adam, who asks him what is the matter. Seth will not tell him, and Lisbeth worries to Seth that Adam might leave, but Seth reassures her that he will not. Lisbeth complains that he has his heart set on Hetty Sorrel, though he could have had Mary Burge, who is much richer. She reproaches Seth for praying too much and for giving away all of his earnings. She says that Seth over-interprets the Bible, while Adam always says "God helps them that help themselves."

As Adam works, he imagines how awful it will be when his mother reproaches his father when he returns tomorrow morning; the cycle will continue. He remembers that when his father, Thias Bede, was younger Adam used to be proud to learn carpentry from him. When his father began to drink when Adam was eighteen, however, Adam ran away once, returning in two days because he was worried about his family. His mother has been haunted by this memory ever since.

Someone taps at the door, and Gyp howls. When he sees that there is no one there, Adam cannot help feeling a little superstitious. But the morning comes without incident. The two boys carry the coffin to Broxton, and Adam suggests that they look for their father. They find him drowned in a stream. Adam runs home to tell his mother. Looking at his dead father, Adam pities him even though he had been so hard on Adam.

Chapter Five

The rain was also strong at Broxton Parsonage, where Mr. Irwine has been playing chess with his mother. The home is pleasant but not opulent. The vicar wears a powdered wig, and his mother is elegant, wearing a number of rings. She has just won the chess game. The vicar's sister, Anne, is an invalid. Mr. Rann comes to tell the vicar about the happenings in Hayslope. He warns the vicar that the Methodists are likely to get the upper hand in the town if he is not careful, although he does not want to advise him too much because that would mean "getting above his station."

Mr. Rann says that Dinah is about to leave, but he is more worried about Will Maskery, who has no skill as a preacher, yet who insults the townspeople. The vicar says to leave well enough alone; since Maskery has found religion, he has become more responsible, stopped beating his wife, and stopped drinking.

Arthur Donnithorne (Captain Donnithorne) bursts on the scene. He is a well-dressed, handsome young man. Mr. Rann finally comes out with the news that Thias Bede has been found dead. Adam asks the vicar if his father can be buried by the White Thorn because of a dream that his mother had. The vicar agrees.

Captain Donnithorne says that he respects Adam greatly and would like to have him manage the woods on his estate, but for some reason his grandfather dislikes him. He has also seen Dinah and was quite stuck by her appearance. The vicar says that he would like to see her. The Captain's arm is in a sling, explaining why he is not with his regiment, but he expects to return in August. The vicar's mother, Mrs. Irwine, says that she would never have been godmother to the Captain except that when he was a baby he took after his mother's side. The Captain has brought Mrs. Irwine a few books including Lyrical Ballads.

The vicar visits his invalid sister upstairs. Eliot remarks that aristocratic families thought that it was a pity that such a magnificent mother should have such insignificant girls, while the townspeople think that they are good at medicine and call them "the gentlefolks." It is thought that the vicar would have taken a wife if he had not needed to take care of his mother and two spinster sisters. Eliot says that the vicar has no particular religious fervor, although he is a good man. The vicar sets off with Mr. Rann.

Chapter Six

Neither the door nor the gate of the Hall farm has been opened in a great many years, and the inside contains rags and a big wooden doll with no nose. It used to be the home of a squire, but it is now reduced to a working farm. Mrs. Poyser keeps the kitchen spotless and the surfaces polished, and her niece, Hetty Sorrel, often looks at her reflection in these surfaces. Mrs. Poyser is ironing and scolding the maid, Hetty is making butter, and Dinah is sewing. A young, fair-haired child named Totty is ironing miniature rags. Mrs. Poyser says that Dinah looks like her mother's other sister, Judith, who brought her up after she was orphaned. She says that if Dinah marries she will give her a dowry.

She is alarmed by the sight of the vicar and the Captain approaching, afraid that they have come to speak to Dinah about her preaching and that she will be thrown out of her house. But the men claim that they have come only to speak to her husband. The Captain compliments her farm and says that if he ever married and settled down, he would love to settle down on this farm. Mrs. Poyser hurriedly explains the farm's demerits, afraid that she will be kicked off of the land where she is a tenant. The Captain asks to see the dairy, and Mrs. Poyser takes him in.

Chapter Seven

Hetty blushes when the Captain talks to her, and he is captivated by her kitten-like charm. The activity of butter-churning is perfectly suited to showing off her well-shaped arms. He invites the women to a dance on the 30th of June and asks for two dances from Hetty. Mrs. Poyser thinks that it will be much easier to be a tenant of the Captain than of his grandfather, because he is so good-natured that everyone will get new fences and good returns.

The Captain gets Hetty alone by sending her mother off to look for Totty. The Captain asks Hetty if she ever goes out walking. Hetty says that she sometimes walks to see Mrs. Pomfret, the lady's maid, who is teaching her to mend lace. She adds that she is going to tea with Mrs. Pomfret next afternoon. Mrs. Poyser returns with Totty, and the Captain asks her if she has a pocket. Totty lifts up her dress to show him that she has one but that it is empty. The Captain gives her five sixpence and returns to find the vicar.

Chapter Eight

The vicar converses with Dinah about her hometown of Snowfield, which has changed since a new mill was built there, which brought in more residents. Dinah says that she is a member of the Society (of Methodists), which does not prohibit women from preaching. The first time that she preached was in Hetton-Deeps, a mining town without a preacher or minister. Mr. Irwine feels that it would be useless to try to convince her not to preach, since it would be like telling a tree not to grow in its own shape.

He asks her if she ever feels self-conscious knowing that so many young men are looking at her while she preaches, and Dinah says that she does not think that the men are aware of her appearance. She adds that Moses did not notice the burning bush but instead the brightness of God shining out of it. The vicar tells Dinah that Thias Bede has died. She starts to fold up her work to see if she can be of any assistance to Seth's mother.

The Captain returns briefly, and the men leave. Dinah explains that the vicar was quite pleasant to her, and she tells the news about Thias Bede. Mrs. Poyser says that it is a good riddance to the Bede family, because he almost ruined them. Hetty does not look seriously affected when she hears the news.

Analysis

Chapter One mainly serves to introduce the namesake character of the book and to show off certain of his characteristics as he interacts with others. An interesting aspect of the author's description of the main character is her characterization of him as having "Celtic blood." While this might refer to Welsh or Scottish or Irish descent, by including this detail, Eliot signals to her audience that Adam might tend towards the poetic or towards the violent, both common stereotypes of the Celts at the time that she was writing this novel. Adam Bede and his brother, Seth, although they work at the same trade, are set up as opposites in many ways, especially with their divergent opinions about religion.

Religion is first brought up by Wiry Ben, who paraphrases Matthew 11:9, saying, "What come ye out for to see? A prophetess? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophetess-an uncommon pretty young woman." Adam rebukes Ben for taking the Bible lightly in referring to a pretty young Methodist preacher in their town, showing that he is indeed a religious man. Yet, he follows this rebuke by extolling modern progress and technology, rather than the inward-looking practices of the Methodists. He mentions Arkwright's mills in particular, referring to the spinning frame which Sir Richard Arkwright (1732-92) invented. In some ways like Adam, Arkwright was a self-taught mechanic who, after working all day, at night studied the mathematics that was needed for his inventions.

Chapter Two introduces Dinah as a very charismatic young woman. The view of the Methodist meeting on the Green is filtered through the eyes of the horseman, who has the advantages of being an outsider to the community and having some previous knowledge of Methodism. Given his ability to compare Dinah to other Methodist preachers, whom he has seen thump the Bible, mock holiness, or rant, the reader realizes that this is not the first Methodist meeting that he has attended.

The reference to "licking the French" sets the novel in the time of the Napoleonic Wars, which began in February 1793. The French fought against the self-proclaimed emperor, Napoleon, to try to prevent his imperialistic sweep through Europe. It is possible that the horseman is a recruiter for the British Army.

In her sermon, Dinah mentions the founding father of Methodism, John Wesley, as her inspiration. Methodism is a denomination of Christianity founded in Britain in the eighteenth century that emphasized the idea that anyone can be saved. Along with his younger brother Charles, John Wesley launched a religious movement known for its open-air revivals. The preachers at these revivals were often so animated that they were accused of fanaticism.

We see in Chapter Three that the novel not only examines the working class but demonstrates a way to write a novel about the working class. In this chapter, for the first time, the voice of the narrator comes forth in first-person. The narrator seems to overlap enough with Eliot herself that this ClassicNote will refer to the narrator as Eliot, even though the narrator does not necessarily represent Eliot's views precisely.

Eliot's strong voice in the novel is an acknowledgment of the fact that she is writing a new type of novel. Her heroes are not handsome horsemen, and her heroines do not languish in fancy dresses. Rather, Adam Bede is the beginning of a great tradition of social realism in novels. Eliot advocates strongly for this new type of novel, arguing that "we can hardly think Dinah and Seth beneath our sympathy."

In Chapter Four, the night that Adam spends alone making the coffin involves elements of the gothic. First, when the rapping on the door first occurs, Gyp howls instead of barking as usual. Second, Eliot is careful to point out that Adam is uneasy and imagines a number of supernatural occurrences when he does not find anyone at the door. Eliot describes superstition as an unavoidable part of Adam's peasant nature. Although this may seem condescending, it is justified when Adam and Seth find their father dead the next morning--although it is as yet unclear what connection the two events might have.

Although Adam Bede is quite clearly a novel, it also contains more direct commentary on human nature in general than is common in most fiction. This means that, at times, it reads rather more like a treatise than like a novel. This is another sign of Eliot's own views coming through. For example, when Adam stays up all night, he feels a great deal of resentment towards his father, and he thinks rather bitterly that the man will be a "thorn in his side" for many years to come. But when he finds his father dead, Eliot observes that "when death, the great Reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of, but our severity." By generalizing in this statement, Eliot indicates that a certain way of feeling not only applies to Adam but also to most humans. This is a successful way of convincing readers that a story about the working class can have implications for, or shed light on, their own lives as well.

In Chapter Five, the vicar's powdered wig is a signal of old age and conservatism in his society. Eliot is careful to describe his place in the community precisely. He is well liked, but he has no burning immediate concern about the souls of his parishioners. He cannot, or will not, work himself up into an emotional state in the manner of some of the most famous Methodist preachers. By characterizing him in this way, Eliot demonstrates that there is a space left in the community for the role of leading some of the more thoughtful, religious townspeople.

The scene between the vicar, his mother, and Mr. Rann has some qualities of a farce. Mr. Rann delays telling the most important news as a result of his eagerness to talk about what is most important to him. Mr. Rann wastes a great deal of time ranting and raving about the fact that a Methodist has insulted him by calling him irreligious, and he forgets to inform the vicar that a death has just occurred in his vicarage. As in a traditional farce, the characters are exaggerated according to stereotypes: the rigid, class-conscious matron; the jolly, accommodating vicar; the bumbling rustic, eager to show off his own holiness or intelligence to persons of higher position.

Chapter Six shows some interesting similarities among members of the Poyser family. It draws a familial relationship between Dinah and Hetty of which the reader was not previously aware. Their relationship is not one of blood; Hetty is Mr. Poyser's niece, while Dinah is Mrs. Poyser's niece. The two girls, both love interests of the respective Bede brothers, act as foils for one another. Dinah is serious and unromantic, while Dinah is flighty and beautiful, using the surfaces that her aunt has polished to admire her own reflection.

Mrs. Poyser's nervousness at seeing the grandson of her landlord approach reflects on her position in the social hierarchy. In late eighteenth-century England, the social hierarchy was quite rigid, and everyone from the poorest farmer to the richest aristocrat knew his place in the pecking order. The Poysers have been viewed in previous chapters as quite high-class given their large farm. It has even been suggested that a marriage between Dinah and Seth would not quite be acceptable given the difference in social status. Problems of love and marriage across socioeconomic boundaries constitute a common theme among early female novelists, including Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters, who influenced George Eliot.

Chapter Seven begins a flirtation between the Captain and Hetty. The story of a beautiful milk-maid seduced by a squire dates back to the days of Chaucer, and Eliot updates it by making the unequal nature of the interest clear from the very start. It is obvious that the seduction will succeed if the Captain wants it to, not only because he is young and attractive, but also because he is coming from such a position of power over the Poyser family.

It is in his power not only to invite the family to a ball, but also to evict them from his land if he so desires. That this unequal distribution of power might affect his relationship with Hetty is demonstrated by the unquestioning acquiescence of Totty to the Captain's questions. When he asks her if she has a pocket, she "immediately and with great gravity lifted up her frock and showed a tiny pink pocket." Totty's action has a distinctly sexual undertone of obedience, and it may foreshadow Hetty's future actions.

In Chapter Eight the narrator's visible interjections become less visible. It is possible that Eliot is willing to generalize expansively about human nature, but she wants to keep her feelings about religion to herself. Critiquing religious thought and practice can be dangerous, but perhaps she is choosing to let the reader see for himself what is going on in Methodism and how it affects the rural poor. Eliot does not come down in favor of Methodism, but she gives it a very respectable and persuasive voice in the character of Dinah, which impresses even the local vicar.

Although she only makes a brief appearance in this chapter, the reader must begin to wonder if Hetty is a suitable match for Adam. She is flirtatious and flighty in the previous chapters, which is forgivable in a pretty, young girl. But she now is thoughtless and uncaring to hear that Adam's father has died, which is somewhat shocking.

Chapter Nine

Hetty has been extremely flattered by the Captain's attentions. She knows that many men like to look at her including Adam Bede, whom she finds quite manly, She also knows that her father would like her to marry Adam. Although Hetty did not like it when his attentions to her slipped, she is not in love with him-especially because he cannot provide her with any luxuries. She is aware that the Captain went to great trouble to see her, but she does not even conceive of marrying him. She is in awe of him and finds him "as dazzling as an Olympian God."

On the way home, the Captain confesses to the vicar that he finds Hetty attractive, but the vicar responds that the Captain should not give her airs because he therefore will spoil her for an honest man like Adam. The Captain says that Adam would make a better match with Mary Burge, because then he could take over her father's business. The vicar tells the Captain to look at Mary less, because then he will want her less.

Chapter Ten

At five, Lisbeth comes downstairs with the key to the room where her husband lies dead. She performs small offices for him such as mending his shroud, thinking with a peasant's superstition that he is somehow still conscious before he is buried. She always assumed that she would die before her husband, since she is older, so she buries him under a tree that she has dreamed about being buried under herself.

Seth wants to prepare her a cup of tea, which is a luxury that she seldom allows herself, but Lisbeth laments her husband, saying that she would rather follow him in death than have a cup of tea. Lisbeth gets up to look for Adam, but Seth says that he is asleep in the workshop and that she should not wake him. She goes into the shop just to have a look at him, but Gyp wakes him up by barking. Adam was dreaming about the day's events and adding Hetty into the picture. Lisbeth complains of her fear that Adam will marry, worrying that then she would become useless. Adam does not soothe her by saying that he will not marry, so she follows him around the house. When he goes back upstairs, she cries in the kitchen. Dinah enters, and Lisbeth thinks that she might be an angel, but she sees Dinah's rough hands and realizes that Dinah is a working woman.

When Lisbeth finds out that Dinah is a Methodist, she is worried that Dinah will rejoice in the suffering. Dinah explains that she does not want to make light of Lisbeth's suffering but to help her bear it, and Lisbeth replies that she is welcome to stay for tea. Seth is so happy that Dinah is in the house that he has to reproach himself, because it is almost as if he were rejoicing that his father has died. Dinah remembers that she was very sad when her aunt died, and Lisbeth asks if she is an orphan. Dinah sees that her voice soothes the lady, so she tells her life story. As she does so, she cleans up the kitchen, thinking that a sense of order will help Lisbeth feel better. Lisbeth notes that she cleans well, adding that she would like Dinah for a daughter. She invites Dinah to stay the night so they can talk for a while longer. She agrees to clean her face and make herself tidy.

Chapter Eleven

Dinah wakes up at half past four and goes downstairs quietly, joined by Gyp. Adam has also woken up and gone to the workshop to pick out the wood for his father's coffin. Adam hears a light footstep on the stairs and imagines that it might be Hetty. Dinah greets him, Adam looks at her closely for the first time, and she feels self-conscious under his gaze. Gyp appears friendly to Dinah, and she says that she likes dogs.

Seth and his mother come downstairs, and they have breakfast together as Dinah serves them. Lisbeth says that Dinah has made the porridge well. Dinah says that she can stay for one more night, but after that she has to go back to Snowfield, where the people have harder lives and need her more. Lisbeth asks her sons to make their father's coffin, saying that the noise will not bother her; no one else could make the coffin as well. She says that she wants Adam to make it, not Seth. Dinah says goodbye to Seth, adding that she will be in his house when he gets home from work, but she will have to go home soon after that. He says that he will walk her home, maybe for the last time. Adam says that he cannot blame his brother for loving her, and Seth is relieved that his secret has been found out so that he does not have to tell it. Adam thinks that it is a mystery that strong men like his brother and himself can be made weak by a woman.

Chapter Twelve

Captain Donnithorne resolves to go to Eagledale to fish for a week. His character is such that he gets into predicaments but always resolves to let the burden fall solely on his own shoulders. Eliot writes that he is a "nice" young gentleman, but that one should not question the actions of such men too deeply when, for example, one is rich enough to pay to keep a woman after he has ruined her.

He goes into his stables and notices with irritation that his grandfather does not spend enough on the horses to make them truly splendid. He takes pleasure in seeing his horse, Meg, however, until the stableman informs him that she has been made lame by the kick of another horse. He makes new plans, now to see Gawaine for lunch, so that he will be out of the house when Hetty visits his housekeeper. He changes his mind, however, and dashes back on his horse to see if Hetty is still around. He decides to loll in a tree grove that she will be sure to walk through, reading Dr. Moore's Zeluco.

Hetty comes along the path, they both blush, and the Captain begins to walk with her. He asks her why she is learning mending from his housekeeper, and Hetty replies that she would like to be a lady's maid. The Captain asks if sometimes her gardener comes to walk her back, and Hetty says that she does not like the old man. She begins to cry. The Captain puts his arm around her, and they have a loving moment until she drops her basket. After she retrieves all of the yarn, he says that he should probably let her go and then hurries away, confusing her. He hurries back to the Hermitage, knowing that he is falling in love with her and feeling angry for letting himself see her again. He resolves not to see her again, but then he decides that he must meet her once again, if only to explain his conduct earlier. The Captain dresses for dinner.

Chapter Thirteen

Hetty wonders fearfully whether the Captain will meet her again on her way home. The housekeeper notices her beauty and worries for her, thinking that a sensible man would not take her on either as a servant or as a wife. Hetty walks home, delighting in the expectation of meeting the Captain not only because she finds him attractive, but also because of what he could give her in the future. She begins to cry when she thinks that he is not there. When the Captain sees her, he forgets his resolve to behave coldly. He asks her if something has frightened her, and then, before he knows what he is doing, he puts his arms around her and kisses her.

The Captain leaves her quickly, very upset with himself. He thinks that the trees in the grove hold some sort of evil sway over him. He reminds himself that flirting with Hetty is not as uncomplicated as flirting with someone of his own class. The Captain tries to think of a way to regain control over his own actions as he always has done before, and he decides to go confess to the vicar, with whom he has a close relationship.

Chapter Fourteen

Lisbeth watches Seth leave with Dinah and then admits that she is sorry to see Dinah go. She wishes that Dinah would marry Seth, although she can see that Dinah does not really care for Seth since she is moving so far away. Adam says that she will fall in love with Seth eventually, and Lisbeth notes that he always sticks up for his brother.

Seth and Dinah part just as Hetty is coming up the lane. Hetty likes Dinah as much as she can like another woman, although she does not understand her. Dinah is always quick to put in a good word for her to her aunt, or to take care of Totty for her. Dinah says that she has enjoyed visiting the Bedes and seeing their good relationship with their mother, noting that Adam has worked hard for his family. Mr. Poyser meets them at the gate. He is a great combination of gentleness in family life and competitiveness as a famer. He asks after the Bedes, and Dinah explains the situation. Mrs. Poyser is trying to get Totty to go to sleep as the older Mr. Martin Poyser looks on, and she scolds the girls for being so late. She tells Hetty that she can eat supper in the pantry, but Hetty says that she is not hungry.

Upon Mrs. Poyser's asking, Dinah says that Lisbeth, although she does not generally like having young women around, got used to her presence quite easily. Hetty says that she will take Totty to bed, but Totty slaps her away. Mrs. Poyser asks Dinah if she can take her, which she does quite easily and without protest from Totty. Hetty is quite unconcerned at this event. Everyone goes to bed, and Mr. Poyser gently scolds Hetty once again, saying that her aunt was worried when she was so late.

Chapter Fifteen

Hetty and Dinah sleep in two rooms adjoining each other which have no blinds to shut out the moonlight. Dinah is quite upset with her mirror for having so many spots on it; to get a good view of herself she must press her knees against some uncomfortable brass handles. She lights two candles, takes out a smaller, hand-held mirror, and lets down her hair to brush it. She knows that she is prettier than the other young ladies around, especially the ones who have visited the Chase (the Captain's property). She puts large glass earrings on and throws a shawl around herself, but she feels vexed because her hands are coarse with work.

She imagines that the Captain must want to marry her, because why else would he kiss her in that way? The doctor's assistant married the doctor's niece in secret, and then when everyone found out about it there was no use in being angry. Thus, she imagines that her own marriage must happen in the same way. She is so excited that she gets up in a hurry, and the small mirror crashes to the floor.

Eliot observes that her figure is quite lovable in its innocence, and even though she is not wise, it is plain to see that she will love her children very much because she is almost a child herself. Adam feels this way about her, as does the Captain. Eliot notes that nature is tricky in this way, because it makes us believe that a girl with beautiful, long eyelashes is good, which she may or may not be. Eliot compares Hetty to a rootless plant that would be quite happy to be resettled into a new life and to forget the old one completely. She does not care much for her younger cousins as it is, and she takes no pleasure from tending to the hens, except that she can buy ribbons for herself out of the proceeds. The housemaid, who is quite ugly, possesses a much more maternal nature than Hetty. Mrs. Poyser has noted this cold-heartedness in the beautiful Hetty and feels troubled by it. Hetty is afraid of her aunt, so she always bolts the door when she struts around in this fashion, which is just as well, because someone now taps on her door.

Hetty blows out the candles and throws off the scarf. Dinah knocks again, because she heard something fall in Hetty's room, began thinking about the self-absorption of the girl, and decided that Hetty was in need of guidance. She tries to tell Hetty that if she is ever in need, she can find her cousin Dinah available, but Hetty misunderstands her. She thinks that Dinah is predicting that something bad will happen to her soon, and she begins to cry. Dinah mistakes her tears for a religious reaction and, pleased, she goes back to her room to pray.

Chapter Sixteen

The Captain sets out to see the vicar early in the morning, so that he can discuss the affair of Hetty with him over breakfast. He knows that the vicar takes his breakfast alone. He runs into Adam Bede along the way, and he makes Adam very happy by shaking his hand. Adam taught the Captain some carpentry when he was a boy, which made him love the older man very much. He, too, advises Adam to enter into a partnership with Mr. Burge, but Adam makes it clear that he wants nothing to do with Mary Burge. They part ways.

When the Captain arrives at the vicar's house, he finds it harder than he thought it would be to bring up the subject of Hetty. He resolves to do it, however, especially because he performed his last resolution (not to go looking for Hetty in the woods) so poorly. When he turns the conversation to the question of love, the vicar asks him directly if he is infatuated with someone. The Captain denies it, and soon the possibility to talk about Hetty passes; the breakfast is over.

Analysis

Although the narrator's opinions are not so evident in Chapter Nine, Eliot implicitly endorses some of the precepts of Methodism by showing Hetty's vanity in a negative light. All that she desires are material goods, and she prefers the Captain to Adam not because he is smarter or better-looking, but because he can provide her with these goods. This preference fits with her seeming vapidity in earlier chapters. The reader has not yet seen her interact with Adam, but it is becoming increasingly hard to believe that she is a good match for him.

This chapter also connects the visual sense with attraction in a way that was common in the Victorian period. Sight was considered more of a masculine trait, while touch and smell were considered more feminine. This idea might help explain the vicar's logic in recommending that the Captain avoid looking at the object of his affections.

In Chapter Ten, it is perhaps even more remarkable that Dinah is able to give spiritual guidance to one old lady in her own home than to preach to an entire village, because she now is in a personal setting that can hardly benefit from the stamp of authenticity given by an established audience. It is, therefore, a testament to her character that she is able to gain the trust of the old lady so quickly. This point is especially striking given Lisbeth's immediate mistrust of anyone who is Methodist.

Adam's dream uses the literary device of foreshadowing to indicate a conflict that he believes to be beginning in his life. His dream superimposes the image of Hetty onto his everyday affairs, indicating that he would like to marry her. Yet, she always is quickly followed in his dream by the image of his mother, who seems to disapprove of her. This potential conflict is confirmed in his waking life, when his mother does indeed bemoan the idea that he might get married.

Chapter Eleven foreshadows a number of possible avenues that the novel could follow. Dinah takes on the role of helping Lisbeth quite easily, making the porridge and cleaning the house to her satisfaction. This is in contradiction to the statement that Lisbeth has made on a number of occasions that her happiness and usefulness would be over if one of the boys brought another woman into the house by marrying.

Eliot foreshadows the fact that Dinah could make a peaceful and harmonious addition to the Bede family, but this point raises the question of which Bede brother she might marry. Until this point, a reader could have assumed that Seth and Dinah are the right match because of their shared religion. But Adam seems to affect Dinah in a way that Seth cannot, and he expresses his interest in her, although the narrator claims that beholding her is like looking at moonlight after dreaming about sunlight.

Chapter Twelve gives an unusual amount of depth to the usual tale of the squire seducing the milkmaid. Normally, the squire is careless if not evil, and he normally is aware of the power of his position over the milkmaid and is willing to take advantage of it. In this chapter, however, the fundamentally "nice" young man struggles with his conscience, aware of the fact that he could ruin Hetty's reputation or make her miserable.

Still, his choice of reading while he waits for Hetty on the path is a subtle hint that his resolve to remain virtuous may not win out. Zeluco (1786) is a novel by Dr. John Moore about a rich Italian seducer. Despite his aspiration to have sound morals concerning Hetty, it is more than probable that the Captain will give in to temptation.

In Chapter Thirteen, the Captain has a superstition regarding the fault of his actions--that the fault rests on the attractive grove of woods, rather than on himself. His idea is consistent with that of a spoiled aristocrat in that he looks to place responsibility on others before himself. Yet, superstition is a characteristic that Eliot has specifically identified with the peasantry (she notes that it is the peasant-like part of Adam's personality that causes him to be superstitious, rather than the artisan-like part). In any case, the Captain's lack of control over his actions should be cause for serious concern to Hetty, who is too wrapped up in her dreams of luxury to notice that she could be ruining her reputation.

Eliot's main literary device for describing human nature is the extended metaphor. In Chapter Fourteen, she does not merely write that Hetty is much less intelligent than, or has a hard time comprehending her cousin Hetty, but she figuratively compares them to two different types of birds. "Hetty looked at [Dinah] in much the same way as one might imagine a little perching bird that could only flutter from bough to bough, to look at the swoop of the swallow, or the mounting of the lark." The purpose of this extended metaphor is not only to clarify the difference between the two women, but also to attach their relationship to the descriptions of the British countryside that often serve as preludes to the action in Adam Bede.

The detail at the end of the chapter about Totty's preference for Dinah over Hetty once again shows the superiority of the slightly less traditionally attractive niece. The fact that Hetty does not feel offended by this preference shows her insensitivity. It also shows the extent to which she is preoccupied with her memories of the Captain.

In Chapter Fifteen, Eliot ironically describes Hetty's discomfort in using her old looking glass, writing that "devout worshippers never allow inconveniences to prevent them from performing their religious rites, and Hetty this evening was more bent on her peculiar form of worship than usual." The idea of the female toilette as a pagan, pseudo-religious rite is not unique to Eliot. She perhaps borrowed it from Alexander Pope's mock-epic poem "The Rape of the Lock." Pope's poem describes the assault on a woman's lock of hair as tantamount to a rape, and the poem criticizes as almost irreligious the heroine Belinda's self-absorption.

The dichotomy separating Dinah and Hetty into two opposite poles is reinforced in this chapter. When Dinah enters into Hetty's room, the two are compared as opposites: Hetty has a rosy face, while Dinah's is pale; Hetty wears showy glass earrings and green stays, while Dinah wears a simple white nightdress. The difference between the two girls, however, is heightened to a misunderstanding at the end of this chapter.

In Chapter Sixteen, the Captain has two strong male role models that could keep him on the straight and narrow path in life, but he is impeded from telling either man about Hetty. Adam, on the one hand, is much beloved by the Captain, but the Captain rightly judges that he has iron resolution, so it would be useless for him to seek advice about how to control his own resolution. In addition he knows that, as a young man, Adam may be a rival in the case of Hetty.

Nevertheless, there should be no impediment to his telling the vicar about his predicament. Their relationship is balanced by the fact that the vicar behaves paternally towards him, while acknowledging that he is at the mercy of the younger man because he is richer. The Captain is impeded from telling the vicar about Hetty because, since he has mentioned her on a previous occasion, he is worried that the vicar will think that he is more in love with Hetty than he actually is. Also, he wants the vicar to think well of him, and he seems worried that the vicar might think less of him if he knows about the attraction to the rather silly Hetty.

Chapter Seventeen

Eliot anticipates that her reader will be shocked by the dullness of the vicar, perhaps hoping that the vicar would be given a fine sermon to offer. She reminds the reader that her goal, however, is a faithful reprint of life as it actually is. Eliot does not want to represent people as more clearly good and evil than is the norm in real life. She admires the Dutch painters who are realists more than those who paint angels. She believes in beauty of form, but she also thinks that realism has its own type of beauty and that there are so few true heroes and heroines in the world that it would be a waste of time to devote too much written material to them.

Besides, it does not matter so much that the vicar is sound in terms of his doctrine (as Mr. Ryde will be) as that he is loved (as Mr. Ryde will not be). So the vicar is better, although he is not a very good preacher. Eliot observes that heroes are often not what they are built up to be.

Chapter Eighteen

Mrs. Poyser criticizes Hetty for being late to Thias Bede's funeral, but she then sees how pretty she looks in her Sunday dress. The Poysers set off with Hetty, Totty, and their nine- and seven-year-old boys, Marty and Tommy. The grandfather stands by, and Mrs. Poyser remarks that the elderly are like babies, content with merely watching.

As they walk to church, Mrs. Poyser comments on the quality of the cows, and Mr. Poyser delights in her knowledge and experience. They speculate about which side of the family Totty will look like, and then Mrs. Poyser says that if Dinah got some color in her cheeks and did not wear a Methodist's cap, people would think her as pretty as Hetty. But she cannot understand why her niece will not eat more and will not stop giving her money away. Mr. Poyser says that he dislikes Methodists; only tradespeople turn Methodist, never farmers.

Mrs. Poyser notices that the boys are lagging behind, but she forgives them after Marty says that he has found a speckled turkey's nest. Mr. Poyser notices the fine weather and almost wishes that he could harvest his hay, but he knows that it is a Sabbath day. At the funeral the townspeople talk as much about local affairs as about the man to be buried. Hetty is crushed to see that the Captain is absent from the church, although she overhears that he is away at Eagledale, fishing.

Chapter Nineteen

As Adam walks along the farming lanes to work at a country house about three miles away, he hears the joyful sounds of the hay makers, which seem from a distance to be a part of the natural world. People work better to song, Eliot writes, though they do not move as smoothly as birds. Meanwhile, Jonathan Burge has gone ahead on horseback.

Adam also enjoys the charming weather as he walks and thinks; "it was summer morning in his heart, and he saw Hetty in the sunshine." He remembers that when he touched her hand a day ago outside the church, there was a new melancholy kindness in her face. Although she was melancholy for other reasons, to him this is a sign that she has felt sympathy with his family trouble--and that marriage is now a better prospect. Besides, Adam feels confident in his future success and ability to maintain a family, perhaps in just a year. Still, he realizes that there will be obstacles including other suitors and his mother, and she must love him if she is going to wait for him to be successful.

Adam enjoys thinking about his future until he realizes how much work is ahead. He is building a house before he has set the foundation. Moreover, he needs to become more sympathetic about human weakness and error in order to share and understand the human suffering that moderates one's goals. Clearly, he does not yet have enough money, and he needs to make serious plans for success, such as adding a little business with Seth in making furniture. The extra money would help him raise himself up. Adam starts calculating what would be done, and he again turns to dreams and hopes.

Adam nears the work site and feels the energy of the laborers. He supervises and works with the laborers with the splendid energy of industry. The laborers do not know much beyond their physical reality, while Adam knows some things "over and above the secrets of his handicraft." He has been learning well in night school, can write fairly well, and has read a few books in addition to the entire Bible, including John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac. He also tends to remain busy with calculations and extra carpentry. He has "strong conscience and ... strong sense, ... blended susceptibility and self-command." He is an honest workman with some of the virtues of the true gentleman.

Chapter Twenty

Adam wears his Sunday clothes the Monday after, and Lisbeth is upset because she guesses correctly that he is dressed up to visit Hetty. When he reaches the Poysers' farm, Mrs. Poyser asks him to go out where Hetty is picking currants with Totty and to fetch Totty in, because she is probably eating too many currants. Adam walks out and, when Hetty hears him approach, she imagines that it might be the Captain. She blushes deeply. Adam mistakes this blushing as her first sign of love for him.

On the way back to the house, Hetty questions Adam about how far Eagledale is, and she is pleased to learn that the Captain could come back quickly if he wanted to. Adam is happy that she is asking him questions, and he picks a rose to give to her. She puts it in her hair. This displeases him slightly, knowing that Hetty's vanity could irritate his mother, and the flower in her hair reminds him slightly of the accessories of a prostitute. He mentions that Dinah looks very nice without adornment, and Hetty takes the flower out of her hair.

Hetty puts on Dinah's Methodist cap when she gets back to the farm. Adam thinks that she looks nice, but Mrs. Poyser scolds her for making fun of Dinah, who has only just left. Her uncle makes her take off the cap.

Adam lightens the mood at dinner by complimenting the homemade ale, and then he goes to fix the family's broken spinning wheel. Adam discusses his plans of setting up his own business and designing a movable kitchen cupboard which he would sell. He leaves to go to night school, saying that he only stays up late to work extra, not to eat and drink extra. After he leaves, Hetty's family comments that she should try to catch him as a husband, because one day she might ride in her own cart. But Hetty thinks that this would be a miserable fate given her new aspirations.

Chapter Twenty-One

Adam reaches Bartle Massey's house thirty minutes later, just in time to catch the end of night school. The schoolmaster was helping Bill learn to read. The man has a double motivation to get up to speed--his cousin can read, as can a young boy who works in his stonecutter's shop. Another beginner is a bricklayer, previously notorious, now Methodist, who wants to learn to read so that he can better understand religion. The third beginner is a dyer who wants to improve his business.

The schoolmaster is less patient with sixteen-year-olds who are not learning their sums well. The lesson finishes, and Adam helps the schoolmaster clean up. He checks on the two pups of his dog, Vixen. The two men have a supper of bread, cheese, and ale. Bartle says that he likes the Poysers, but that there are too many women there, and he argues that a man can keep his house as comfortably as a woman can. He is better at baking and the like because he knows to measure the ingredients and has figured out that the hotter the oven, the shorter the time to bake. It is a mystery whether Bartle has ever been married, because previous to living in Hayslope he lived in the South.

Bartle says that he has some news for Adam, namely that the Squire has had a stroke. Bartle thinks that if he dies, Adam is likely to be appointed steward of the forest. Adam says that the Squire is not likely to hire him in any case because he made an intricate screen for Miss Lydia once, and the Squire begrudged him the price that he asked for it and told Lydia to pay less. Adam then made a present of it, because to be paid less would imply that he had asked an unreasonable amount. The Squire sent him the money afterward, but he hated him thereafter.

Analysis

Chapter Seventeen is crucial to the literary philosophy of the book. Eliot steps back to explain why she has chosen the subject matter that she has. This chapter could be referred to as meta-literary, because it does not advance the plot at all but instead airs the author's literary theories.

The style of writing that Eliot supports is a sort of working-class realism. The most famous line in the novel is in this chapter: "And I would not, even if I had the choice, be the clever novelist who could create a world so much better than this, in which we get up early in the morning to do our daily work." Eliot holds that literary integrity stems from an exact replication of real life. The Dutch masters whose paintings she so appreciates almost undoubtedly mean people including Rembrandt and Van Eyck, who took peasants as their subjects.

In Chapter Eighteen, it is interesting that Eliot often puts her comments on human nature in the mouths of various characters, considering that she has already given herself a strong narrative voice in the novel. The characters who most often seem to hold Eliot's points of view are the female characters, especially Mrs. Poyser, whose commentary on old age seems to come straight from the author. This can be chalked up to the fact that while Adam Bede is a novel, it is also a treatise on both literary style and human nature.

In Chapter Nineteen, Eliot gives Adam a healthy variety of virtues. On the one hand he is a strong and noble laborer, sure of his craft, able to imagine perfection, able to give advice to others. On the other hand he has the moral strength of an honest artisan who makes the most of his potential each day, almost to the awe of those who can appreciate his hardworking character.

Moreover, Adam has risen above the virtue of the simple worker. He has advanced himself through schooling and through reading good books. He can think thoughts that the average laborer cannot think. Even so, during his three-mile walk, he chooses to think dreamily about the future and how he will be able to become a success in order to be worthy of marrying Hetty, rather than about the ideas he might have found in the writings of Bunyan or Franklin. Also, it is not clear that these virtues are given merely from Adam's own perspective of self-esteem rather than from the narrator's honest assessment of his character.

Eliot observes in Chapter Twenty that often men mistake the signs that a woman is in love with someone else as the signs that she is in love with him. While she claims to be a realist, opinions such as these occasionally cause Eliot to come off as more of a cynic. She also writes that Adam has no way of knowing this general truth because he has not had the opportunity to read many novels and see how women act when they are in love. This is an unsubtle self-promotion of her own work, in that she claims that her novel is not only entertaining but also educational.

The theme of costuming arises in this chapter, with Hetty's quick switch from wearing a flower behind her ear to wearing Dinah's Methodist cap. She makes the switch when she sees that Adam is displeased with her vanity; although she is not in love with him, she cannot bear to lose the attentions of any man. As transgressive as wearing a flower in her hair is, being reminiscent of prostitution, wearing Dinah's cap as mere adornment is even more transgressive because it has definite religious implications.

A lot of Eliot's novel is taken up with sorting the young Bedes and the relatives of the Poysers into various possible matches. Dinah could marry Seth or possibly Adam; Hetty could marry Adam or possibly the Captain. Chapter Twenty-One, therefore, pulls short the notion that such alliances are necessary or even advisable. By showing a bachelor whose home functions at least as well or better than that of a married man, Eliot hints at the possibility that none of the matches might work out in the end.

But even her depiction of a happy unmarried man has some flaws. First, there is the possibility that Bartle was married at some point in his life before, leaving the question of whether it is more likely to reach a happy bachelorhood only after having been married. Second, he is now in possession of a family of his own, whether he likes it or not. His female dog has given birth to pups, and because he calls her a "woman," he does have some elements of a family after all.

Chapter Twenty-Two

The Captain's birthday is at the end of July. Hetty prepares herself in her room, looking at a lovely pair of garnet and pearl earrings that the Captain has given her, which she knows she cannot wear yet. She wears a locket with locks of hair in it hidden in her bosom. Everyone walks towards the Chase, where the great party is to be held. The oldest people all come in a wagon together. The great house was from the time of Queen Anne, but it was attached to the remnant of an old Abbey at one end. Hetty is sad that she has not seen Arthur (the Captain) yet.

The Captain, preparing for dinner, thanks the vicar for his advice: only giving his tenants dinner and doing it earlier in the day, so that his house will not become a riot scene. He says that since Adam is handing out the alcohol, the party will not get out of hand. The Captain confides in the vicar that his grandfather has come around to having Adam manage the estate, although the Captain says that he still does not get along with his grandfather. Adam will dine with the large tenants, and the Captain will announce his new position at dinner.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Adam is called to dine with the large tenants and feels uncomfortable leaving his family downstairs, but Seth encourages him to go. He walks up with Bartle. There was a small argument about who was to sit at the top of the table, because the butler felt strongly that the elder Mr. Poyser should. Bartle settles the matter with a joke: the broadest should sit at the head and the second-broadest at the foot. Thus, Mr. Poyser (the younger) gets the head and Mr. Casson gets the foot. This has put Adam next to Mr. Casson, who thinks that he is too uppity. He asks if it is the first time that Adam has dined at this table. Adam says yes and that he hopes that it is agreeable to the others at the table. A few people say that of course it is.

Adam is pleased, anyway, with his seat, because he can see Hetty. Hetty is preoccupied with scolding Totty for putting her feet up on the bench because she might get dust marks on her dress. Adam cannot see the cause of her vexation, but he thinks that she looks sweet, although the moment of anger would not have looked very good on someone less pretty. Mary Burge sees Adam looking at Hetty and is glad that he has seen her out of humor because he might like her less. Hetty, knowing that Mary Burge and Adam are both looking at her, looks up at Adam and smiles brightly.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Everyone stands when Arthur enters, and he enjoys the sign of respect. Mr. Poyser makes a short speech thanking Arthur and calls for a toast to his health. The Captain feels only a small twinge of conscience for having feelings for Mr. Poyser's daughter and for acting on them. The Captain thanks his tenants for teaching him so much about farming and hopes that when he is in control, he can make their lives better. Arthur also proposes a toast to his grandfather, and the tenants are forced to drink it.

The Captain also praises Adam, announces him as the new manager of the woods, and proposes a toast to him and the vicar together. The vicar makes a speech, saying that the townspeople's high hopes for the Captain as a landlord will certainly be fulfilled, and that Adam is worthy of his honor. The Captain toasts Adam by saying, "may he live to have sons as faithful and clever as himself!"

Adam feels moved and says that he is taken by surprise by the public tribute. He makes a small speech saying that the townspeople must not be wrong if they have such a high opinion of him, though he has only done his duty. He says that rather than thanking the Captain now, he will try to do so in a lifetime of work for him. Some of the women think that this is a proud speech, but the men like it because it is straightforward.

Arthur says hello to Mrs. Poyser and compliments her on her husband's speech. She says that it was good, especially because men are usually so tongue-tied. He cannot greet Hetty specially, and she feels neglected. He seems as far away "as the hero of a great procession is separated from a small outsider in the crowd."

Chapter Twenty-Five

The official dancing does not begin until eight, but there is plenty of music around for the eager. There are contests including races and greased-pole-climbing, the prizes for which are handed out by the vicar's mother, who presides from under a marquee. The Captain talks to his godmother, who encourages him to get married--but to someone handsome and sensible. She asks who the young man helping his mother is, and the Captain says that he is Seth Bede, who may be sad because his father died in such a terrible way, although he has also heard that he was turned down by Dinah. Mrs. Irwine bows to Mrs. Poyser and asks who Hetty is. She says that it is a pity that she will be spoiled on a farmer husband who would not know the difference between her and a coarser woman, but the vicar says that the farmers do know the difference.

Chad's Bess approaches the marquee, having just won the women's race. Her love of finery is similar to Hetty's, and she thinks that the prize will be a nice piece of clothing, but it is a staid flannel dress. Chad's Bess goes under a tree and cries. She is approached by a cousin, an older woman also named Bess, who tells her not to make a fool of herself and asks her if she can have some of the material to make clothes for her boys, and Chad's Bess gives it all to her.

Wiry Ben decides to dance a hornpipe, accompanied by Joshua Rann on the fiddle, although Adam Bede tells him not to make a fool of himself. Despite the fact that many laugh at his dance, the Captain cries "Bravo!" and Mr. Poyser admires the dancing. Mrs. Poyser says that Wiry Ben must be quite light in his brain to be able to dance so well.

Chapter Twenty-Six

The ball is held in the grand entrance room to the Chase. Lisbeth Bede objects to Adam being invited to the dancing because it causes him to leave his family, but when Adam says that he could apologize to the Captain and explain that his mother did not want him to attend, she says that he should go after all. Seth is happy to leave the party because all of the women in their finery remind him too strongly of Dinah, who never wears any ornaments at all.

He finds the Poyser party, and Mr. Poyser encourages him to dance with Hetty. Adam, who had thought that he was not going to dance, engages her for the fourth dance, and he takes out Mary Burge for the first. The old Squire makes the rounds of the hall to say hello to his tenants, all of whom hate him. The Captain leads out Mrs. Poyser for the first dance, while Miss Lydia leads out Mr. Poyser. When he takes her to dance, Arthur squeezes Hetty's hand, which makes her pale with emotion. He imagines that she will look this way again when he breaks it off for good.

Adam thinks that Hetty looks more serious and beautiful than ever and imagines marrying her. He goes to talk to her and collects the sleeping Totty from her arms. Totty wakes up and lashes out her arms, breaking the brown beads around Hetty's neck and popping the golden locket out of her dress. Adam picks it up from the floor, sees the two locks of hair, and becomes confused. As he dances with Hetty he realizes that they must have been given by some other, established, rich lover. He runs from the dance. As he walks home, he surmises that there could be nobody in her life whom he has not known about, so he concludes that she bought it with her own money and was ashamed of her vanity. Meanwhile, As Arthur dances with Hetty, he arranges to meet with her again.

Analysis

In Chapter Twenty-Two, the Captain's behavior towards his tenants is interestingly old-fashioned. He seems to take an almost feudal responsibility for them, a fact enhanced by the setting of the tenants' dinner in a room in the old Abbey. The Captain in no way questions the established social order of his society, but he wants to be--and to appear--as benevolent a master as possible. He is constantly concerned about his image in the eyes of his tenants, and he uses a possible dip in their feelings toward him as a reason that he should not continue to see Hetty (although the gift of the earrings makes it clear that he has not managed to keep this resolution).

The new position for Adam shakes up the established order of the book in the same way that his father's death did. It makes him somewhat more able to marry Hetty. This new development not only frees him economically, but also it increases his social status, bringing him level with large tenants like the Poysers.

Chapter Twenty-Three shows the differences in character between Hetty and Adam once again, suggesting that they might not make a very good couple. Adam's humility is highlighted at the beginning of the chapter, showing that he does not want to be elevated above his family. One moral center in this novel concerns family values, and the fact that Adam does not want to move upward socially without bringing the rest of his family with him is an extremely positive quality in the context of the novel. Eliot has already remarked, however, that if Hetty were invited to make a great social leap, she would do so without a backward glance.

Two of Hetty's most negative characteristics are highlighted at the end of this chapter. Her vanity, the most obvious of her sins, is irritated when Totty innocently does something that might spoil Hetty's careful toilette. Her groundless flirtation is also emphasized here; she smiles winningly at Adam not because she loves him, but because she knows that a competitor is watching. She wants to retain her hold over Adam even if she does not want him for herself.

In Chapter Twenty-Four, all of the people in the village put on a good, happy, and unanimous face, while they are divided by social barriers and generally feel conflicted about their own troubles. The Captain is worried that if others learn about his relationship with Hetty, they will think less of him. Hetty is worried that he does not love her anymore. Adam is worried that he is letting down his family by moving into a new social sphere. There are several other worries here. What Eliot is trying to demonstrate is that, unlike natural events, social events can lend themselves to theatricality, leading people to play their expected roles instead of interacting and responding as they might do in a more natural way. The speeches of the men are weighed and judged, and despite the fact that all of the villagers know that Adam means well, some still judge his speech negatively.

Chapter Twenty-Five steps back from the story of the love problems among the Bedes and Poyser nieces to view the community as a whole. Rather than use the narrator to comment, Eliot brings in Mrs. Irwine as an outsider who rather impartially surveys the community. The result of this outsider perspective is a more even distribution of praise where praise is deserved. For example, she notices Seth Bede's particularity, though he is usually overshadowed by his more charismatic older brother.

The short episode of Chad's Bess's disappointment is almost more like a fable than a novel. Chad's Bess is persuaded to do something that she knows she should not be doing--heating herself up too much by racing--in pursuit of some sort of finery as a prize. She is quite disappointed when she ends up with a prize that is not to her taste. This fable might do well to instruct Hetty, who is carrying on a relationship that she knows she should not in pursuit of luxury and finery herself. Chad's Bess's disappointment may foreshadow her own.

Formal dancing is used in Chapter Twenty-Six in a similar way compared with dancing in Victorian fiction. That is, it is a proxy for, or a prelude to, sexual relations. Certain rules regulate the way that balls, even those as informal as the country dance, are held. Men must ask women to dance, and people may survey their possible prizes with all of the leisure of someone shopping for vegetables in a market. Men must not dance too often with the same partner, or else it will be expected that he has serious designs on her and may even be ready to marry her. For this reason, neither Adam nor the Captain dances with Hetty more than once.

The fact that Adam sees the locket, which is obviously so fine as to be a gift from the Captain, suggests that Hetty's secret cannot remain a secret for very much longer. Even though she tries to hide the signs of her love, and though she is fairly successful at making others believe that her emotions are linked to men other than the Captain, she ultimately will be unsuccessful at hiding such a big secret.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

In the middle of August, Adam performs twice as much work as before. He has begun his work on the Captain's estate, but he also has remained with Mr. Burge until Mr. Burge can find a replacement. His hopes about Hetty are high, because she has behaved more nicely than usual to him after the ball. One evening she goes to Treddleston to buy some things, so Adam is quite surprised to see her walking home out of her way near the Chase, but she explains that she wanted to remain outside a little longer. He walks her home, and she invites him in for a conversation with her family.

He arrives at the Chase Farm late one evening and is occupied with making plans for a new farmhouse until late, so he decides to walk home by cutting through the grove. He thinks about Arthur's good qualities, which he enjoys partly because he has not read widely enough--so Adam must choose his heroes from among the people he knows. He stops to contemplate a beautiful beech at the turnoff to the Hermitage, and he sees Arthur kissing Hetty. Gyp barks, the couple see him, and Hetty hurries off. Arthur, who has had too much wine to drink, confronts Adam, red-faced. Adam understands the locket, everything, in a flash. Arthur tries to pass off the kiss as a casual encounter, but Adam says that he knows that it is not the first time. Adam calls him a scoundrel and will not let the point pass, saying that he has loved Hetty for many years and that Arthur is doing him a disservice by making love to her. Arthur has never been criticized before and does not like the feeling of it. They get in a fistfight. Adam is stronger, and he knocks Arthur to the ground. Adam waits in vain for Arthur to rise. He looks at Arthur's face and sees no sign of life. Adam feels the vanity of his own rage in that it has not solved anything or changed the past.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

After a few minutes, Arthur sits up and says that he fainted. Adam tends to him, putting water on his forehead. They walk to the Hermitage to get Arthur some brandy so that he can stand the walk home. It is a surprise to Adam that the Hermitage has become so well equipped as a hideaway for Arthur. Arthur revives himself by drinking brandy with water.

Adam apologizes for perhaps being too hasty, especially because Arthur had no way of knowing about Adam's secret feelings for Hetty. Arthur wants to shake hands and say no more about the matter, but Adam will not agree to do so unless Arthur ends his relationship with Hetty. Arthur says that he is leaving on Saturday, which should be enough, but Adam insists that he must write a specific letter. Adam says that he will deliver the letter himself, and Arthur somewhat reluctantly agrees to have him pick it up the next day at five. Arthur promises that he will never see Hetty again.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Arthur wakes up in the morning and decides to go for a ride on his horse. He hates to witness pain. Once he gave a gardener his favorite pencil case because he kicked over the man's supper of broth. If Arthur could gain back Adam's self-confidence with gifts, then he would try to do so, but he knows that he cannot.

He also feels bad for Hetty, who, upon learning that he was going away, asked if she could come as his wife. He resolves to make everything up to her with future benefits. He takes a ride on his horse to try to ascertain whether he should write the letter after all, because in his room he is having the mad thought of carrying her away. Once on horseback, he decides to write it after all. When Adam arrives at five, the butler gives him a letter addressed to Adam. He opens it, and enclosed is a letter to Hetty. Arthur wrote that this is what Adam wanted, and he has left to Adam the decision whether to give the letter to Hetty or not. Adam hesitates. He decides to feel out what sort of state of mind Hetty is in before giving her the letter.

Chapter Thirty

The next Sunday Adam joins the Poysers on their way to church with the letter in his pocket. He hopes to find a moment to talk to Hetty alone. After church, Adam asks to speak to her alone. Hetty is relieved, because she knows that Adam must have seen her kiss the Captain and feels sure that they would not have talked about it, but has been afraid that he would tell her aunt and uncle.

Hetty and Adam walk out alone that night, and Adam remembers having his hopes raised in this very garden. Adam says that he must be worried, because he has seen her being courted by a man who will never marry her. She says that he does not really know that she loves Arthur and is being trifled with. Adam says that he does know, otherwise she would not let him kiss her, and she is indeed letting herself be played with. Angrily, Hetty says that she knows that the Captain is serious about her. Adam realizes that he must give her the letter. He does, saying that he has not read it, and Hetty gains some hope again that it might not contain what he thinks.

They go back into the house, Adam swinging Totty up onto his shoulders, and Hetty has no time to read the letter alone yet. Adam tries to carry the conversation with her aunt and uncle, and he is surprised at the amount of self-control that Hetty shows. As he leaves, he squeezes her hand, trying to tell her that she can always take refuge in his love. Adam reflects that she is spoiled for normal men like himself now that she has had an affair with a gentleman. He thinks that he does not have much happiness in his life.

Adam runs into Seth on the way home and asks if he has heard from Dinah recently. Adam apologizes for being a bit short with him lately. Seth replies that everything is always all right between brothers. He adds that Dinah has written him a letter that he would like Adam to read. The letter is full of greetings for their mother, and it brings the news that she is moving to Leeds to preach. Adam says that she would be a great match for Seth, and it is almost like hearing her speak to read the letter. Adam says that the match would work out well and is convenient because their mother likes her so much. Adam does not reply.

Chapter Thirty-One

Hetty reads the letter from Arthur in her bedchamber. It is not easy for her to read the fancy handwriting, although Arthur has tried to write plainly. He says that he loves her and will always remember their love, but it would have been better had they not had it in the first place. He says that even if he married her, she would end up very unhappy, and that she would be happiest marrying someone of her own station. He says that if she ever has any misfortunes, he will try to help her in any way that he can. He tells her not to write him back unless she is in true distress, because they must try to forget about one another. Hetty cries, thinking Arthur cruel to write and cruel not to marry her. The candle goes out, and she throws herself on her bed without undressing.

She wakes up at dawn, remembers her misery, reads the letter again, and fingers the trinkets that Arthur has given her. She thinks miserably that she must hide her sadness from her family. She at first thinks of running away, but that seems too difficult, so she plans on becoming a lady's maid. She asks her uncle for permission, but he says that farming is better for her health and that she is more likely to find a husband that way. The elder Mr. Poyser says that Hetty takes after her good-for-nothing mother. Mr. Poyser hints that she could marry Adam Bede, and Hetty begins to cry. After she goes to her room, the Poysers conclude that even the maid has more family feeling than she does. Hetty, in her room, considers why she should not marry Adam--after all, she does want a change in her life.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Mr. Casson sees the stranger in top-boots ride by again. He says good morning to ascertain the man's accent, and he says that it is foreign and cannot compare to his own refined accent. Bartle makes fun of him, saying that despite the fact that he has worked with gentlefolks, his accent is still terrible.

The old Squire visits the Poysers, a rare event. He looks at the dairy and says that he has a new tenant coming in who would like more space for his farm. He proposes a trade of some of the Poysers' farmland for some more dairy land and the exclusive right to sell butter, cream, and cheese to his family. Mrs. Poyser says that she will not consent to do more dairy work. The old Squire offers to have his servants help her with the fetching and carrying, but she refuses, saying that they would only make trouble with the girls. The old Squire changes tactics and threatens not to renew their lease in a year when it is up, because he is sure that Thurtle, his new tenant, would be happy to enlarge his farm. Despite the fact that the Squire addresses himself to Mr. Poyser, Mrs. Poyser continues to answer, following the Squire out the door as she tells him that few tenants would live with no repairs as she and Mr. Poyser have done, and she adds that everyone in the village hates him. He will do little to save his soul if he does not help his tenants. All of the Squire's own servants listen, grinning.

Mr. Poyser is both worried and amused by his wife's outspokenness. She says that she could not have continued bottling it up inside of her for the rest of her life. He says that she will not be so happy when they have to move at Michaelmas when their rent is up, but Mrs. Poyser says that a lot could happen before then. Mr. Poyser says that they would be like a plant that left their roots behind them if they moved. They would never be able to thrive again.

Chapter Thirty-Three

The barley crop is in, and it is already Michaelmas. Mr. Thurle did not come to the Chase, so the old Squire was obliged to find a steward. The whole town knows that this is because Mrs. Poyser refused to be put upon. Mrs. Irwine approves highly, and she wishes that she were rich enough to give the lady a pension.

Hetty's attitude toward her work improves, and she does not complain when her aunt puts a stop to her lessons at the Chase. Adam begins to be hopeful because she looks happy when she sees him. Eliot observes that it is not the weakness in Adam that is attracted to Hetty, but rather his strength. It is no more shameful to be attracted to a beautiful woman than to be moved by beautiful music. The appearance of a change in Hetty's affections has made Adam more inclined to be less hard on Arthur. It looks like Adam's fortunes are on the upswing in every way now that Mr. Burge, despairing of ever having Adam as a son-in-law, has made him his partner anyway because he is irreplaceable. Now his prospects allow him to marry very soon and perhaps to build a house away from his mother's. His mother might be reconciled to this circumstance if Seth married Dinah. He is excited to tell the Poysers the news.

Chapter Thirty-Four

On the second of November, Mrs. Poyser does not go to church because she has a serious cold. Mr. Poyser decides to keep her company. Adam walks Hetty home from church and tells her that he has been made partners with Mr. Burge. Hetty thinks that this goes together with him marrying Mary Burge, and that Adam is doing so because of what he saw between her and Arthur. She starts to cry, thinking of Arthur, and Adam hopefully thinks that she is crying because she is jealous that he will probably marry Mary Burge. Adam sweeps all caution away and asks her to marry him. She does not speak, but she presses her cheek against his. She agrees that he may tell her uncle and aunt.

Adam and Hetty tell the aunt and uncle, who agree to help with some furniture and a dowry. Adam kisses Hetty goodnight, and there is some discussion of what house he will move to. Mr. Poyser worries that he will be turned out of his own house, but Mrs. Poyser says that the Captain will come home and make everything all right with the Squire.

Chapter Thirty-Five

It is a busy time for Adam, but one that he enjoys, because it takes him closer to March, when he will at last be married to Hetty. It was decided that Adam and Hetty should live with Lisbeth and Seth, as Hetty had agreed. Also, Seth comes back from visiting Dinah and says that her mind is not turned toward marrying at all. Adam worries that Hetty looks unhappy sometimes, but she assures him that she is not-she is only tired because she has to do more work now that her aunt has a cold.

Hetty goes to buy something in Treddleston and takes the long way home so that nobody will see her unhappy face. She sees a cold lake and considers jumping into it, but she worries that those left behind might guess the reason for an action as desperate as this. She had trusted that something would come to save her from her misery, but her marriage is almost upon her and nothing has come to the rescue.

When she gets home she sees a letter from Dinah congratulating her on her engagement. Her uncle encourages her to pick up Dinah from Snowfield, but Hetty argues that it is too far off. She thinks for a bit, however, and decides to undertake the journey so that instead of seeing Dinah she can throw herself at Arthur's mercy at Windsor.

Analysis

The first chapter of Book Fourth is crucial. Matters come to a head in Chapter Twenty-Seven when Adam finds out Arthur's and Hetty's secret. Moreover, despite the fact that they are isolated in the woods, class differences come to bear on the friendship between Arthur and Adam once again. When Arthur at first refuses to fight Adam, Adam worries that Arthur thinks that he does not have to pay for the wrong that he has done to Adam because he is of a nobler rank. When the two men do fight, the fact that Adam is a laborer gives him the decisive advantage in strength against Arthur, against whom he is in other respects well-matched.

Class would also become an issue if, as Adam suspects, Arthur dies. To kill any man would be a large problem in their small community, but to kill the only heir of his landlord would be a crisis for Adam Bede.

There is a decided role reversal in terms of class structure in Chapter Twenty-Eight. In previous parts of the book, Adam was all too glad to shake Arthur's hand, especially because the Captain did not deign to shake the hands of his other tenants. Now, however, Adam is in the moral right in this chapter, and he thus is in a position to refuse his social superior's condescension.

Eliot illustrates her contention that even in their society, it is not the social hierarchy but the moral hierarchy that matters after all. Arthur is sufficiently penitent to realize that he has made a particularly damaging mistake, so he will agree to whatever Adam asks him to do as a result of the mistake, despite the fact that the social order dictates that it is he who should be telling Adam what to do, not the other way around.

In Chapter Twenty-Nine, Eliot uses the common literary device of a misplaced or misdirected letter. This device is famous in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and has long roots in literature. In Shakespeare's play, both lovers die because of the crucial misplacement of a letter. It is not a good sign, therefore, that Adam is second-guessing whether he should deliver the letter or not. When a communication goes awry, terrible results can ensue.

Arthur's character is looking still less appealing in this chapter. He cannot face reproaches to himself comfortably. He tries to place some of the blame on Adam, and he ends up placing the burden of whether to hurt Hetty by giving her the letter or not also squarely on Adam's shoulders. This is unfair because it puts two of Adam's best characteristics in opposition to one another: his love of truth, and his desire to protect those whom he loves.

Chapter Thirty reminds readers that besides the socioeconomic aspects of marriage, there is a stricly social aspect to it as well. The Bede boys need not think only of whether a potential marriage partner is within their socio-economic reach, but also they must consider who will fit well in their existing family. While class plays a role in social acceptance, it is important that their future wives will get along with their mother in more fundamental ways, because they all will live in the same house together.

Hetty is the only character in the novel who does not seem to be old enough or perceptive enough to understand the obvious workings of the class structure in her society. In Chapter Thirty-One, she thinks that Arthur is being cruel in refusing to marry her, rather than pragmatic. She is also not wise enough to know that whatever choices she will make now will continue to affect her for a very long time. She is desperately unhappy, so she wants a change quickly, but she does not understand that a choice to run away, to become a lady's maid, or to marry Adam will have far-reaching, perhaps lifelong, effects.

By Chapter Thirty-Two, Mrs. Poyser has been planning her diatribe against the old Squire for a long time, but she has never been able to muster the courage to tell him what she thinks until this very moment. She is incensed by his arbitrary use of his powers over the family, and she is sufficiently angry to cross class lines in venting this anger.

Eliot engages an interesting point of view about privacy in this novel. Adam Bede focuses so much on the community that it does not seem that any feeling or action can remain private for very long. Hetty's locket bursts out of her dress, where she tried to keep it secret, just as the words burst out of Mrs. Poyser's mouth. Mrs. Poyser thinks that it is unhealthy to avoid giving vent to her feelings. This strong community and lack of privacy has also been reflected in Adam's assumption that Hetty could have no lover he did not know about because she scarcely ever leaves the farm and because he knows all of her acquaintances.

By Chapter Thirty-Three, Adam's life, which has been rather hard throughout the course of the novel, finally begins to look easier. Eliot interposes her own voice yet again in defense of Adam's sentimentality in continuing to love Hetty despite what she has done in the past. Eliot claims that it is a positive feature of Adam's personality that he can be played upon by Hetty's delicate beauty; this virtue seems to correspond to Adam's artistic, rather than his peasant qualities. Recall that Eliot ditinguished such qualities in a previous chapter. The fact that Hetty's outer beauty does not correspond to her inner beauty is something that Eliot seems to propose that Adam has no way of knowing, although one ought to be able to infer moral beauty from one's external words and actions. Adam's inability to see Hetty's flaws clearly is likely to give him great trouble in the future.

Chapter Thirty-Four contains a great deal of dramatic irony, a literary device in which readers have more knowledge about a situation than the characters themselves and can appreciate seeing the drama play itself out. Adam is extremely happy with his engagement, little knowing, as the reader does, that he is completely misinterpreting Hetty's feelings. His misunderstanding seems to work out for the best however, because it emboldens Adam to ask Hetty to marry him, something that the entire novel has led up to.

Hetty's suicidal thoughts at the pond, in Chapter Thirty-Five, recall the suicidal attempt of another famous literary heroine from the 18th century: Richardson's Pamela. In Richardson's novel, he depicts the struggles of a virtuous servant girl to fend off the sexual attempts of her handsome gentleman master. The aristocrat kidnaps the young girl, shutting her up in a country estate. Rather than give in to his advances, the young heroine attempts to drown herself in a small pond on the estate, but her religious convictions are too strong to allow her to do so. It is the knowledge of this suicide attempt which reforms the master, making him repent of his advances to her. Eventually the two marry and are quite happy, despite their difference in class.

Henry Fielding published a satirical response to Pamela (1740), called Shamela (1741). Purportedly told from Pamela's own point of view, it is the tale of how a sexually voracious servant girl entraps her master by acting innocent. The episode of the suicide is a cleverly engineered prank on Shamela's part, designed to make her master think that she has religious sentiments.

Hetty's suicidal attempts lie strangely between these two extremes. Unlike Pamela, she has not fended off the sexual attempts of her social superior with the greatest of success. As will be shown by her later contemplation of suicide, it is not religious sentiments that keep her from taking the plunge. Still, she is not at the extreme of Shamela; she has no sexual relationship with other members of the small town, and she does not think that a mock suicide on her part would bring Arthur running back to her side.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Hetty is terrified at the beginning of her journey, because the coachman jokes with her about the beau whom she is traveling to find, and she assumes that he actually knows about her affairs. She is alarmed further when she finds out how much the trip will actually cost. She tells everyone that she is looking for her brother. She can no longer afford coaches, so she travels on foot, waiting for a cart to give her a lift. She stops to cry, then gets up and walks on. A round-faced man allows her to ride in his cart to Leicester, and a friendly person writes down the names of the stops on the way to Windsor for her. She goes to Stratford-on-Avon instead of Stratford by mistake. She takes a coach to Windsor.

The landlord of a pub sees how forlorn she looks when she alights, so he takes her to his wife, who gives her some supper. After eating, Hetty asks the landlord where she can find the address that Arthur has given her. He says that the house is shut up and that the soldiers have gone to Ireland. Hetty faints away. The landlord's wife says that it is plain what kind of business this is, since she is a pretty, young country girl.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Hetty is too ill for the rest of the day to realize just how bad her predicament is. The next morning she realizes that she is friendless and that all of her money is gone. She yearns to be back at home, where everything is familiar. She decides to try to sell the jewelry that Arthur has given her. But now that all of her money is gone, she cannot bear the thought of going back to Hayslope in shame. She remembers Dinah's offer to help her in case of an emergency, and she decides to consider this option if her renewed plan to commit suicide fails.

She asks the landlord and his wife for help selling her jewelry, and they worry that a jeweler will give her too little, thinking that she has stolen it. They offer to keep the jewels for Hetty, giving her an advance of three guineas. If she does not write to them in two months to get them back, they will sell them. Hetty accepts this "deal," which is to her decided disadvantage.

Hetty returns the way that she came, hoping to find a nice field to commit suicide in. She feels no religious compunction about contemplating this choice. She eventually finds a dark pool and stays overnight contemplating it, but she cannot bring herself to do the deed. She sleeps overnight in a hovel. A farmer wakens her and gives her directions to the nearest village. She makes up her mind to find Dinah.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

The ten days after Hetty leaves pass quietly at the farm, but after two weeks, everyone starts to worry. Adam decides to set out on Sunday to find her and to bring her home on Monday. Seth walks with Adam for the first two miles, saying that he will probably be a bachelor and fuss over Adam's children. Adam is so happy with thinking about Hetty that he feels almost reverent. He reaches Snowfield and finds the cottage where Dinah has lodged with an elderly couple. The old woman tells Adam that Dinah has gone on to Leeds. He is even more alarmed when she tells him that she has not seen Hetty.

He inquires where the coach lets off, but nobody has seen Dinah and nothing has happened to the coach. Adam feels agonized by the thought that Dinah has realized that Hetty cannot love him. He wonders if Arthur has perhaps lured her away to Ireland. Adam tracks down the coachman who joked with Hetty, and the coachman tells him about the joke that did not make her laugh. Adam thinks that he will not betray her secret when he goes back to town in case she returns, but he might even follow Arthur to Ireland to see if he lured her there. It never occurs to him that Hetty would travel unbidden to Windsor, knowing as he does that Arthur is not there anymore.

Adam returns home and lets himself into the workshop. Seth comes down and sees his brother looking terrible. He sobs and tells Seth that Hetty has run away. He keeps Hetty's secret, saying that she has probably run away because she could not reconcile herself to the thought of marriage. He goes to tell the Poysers and is relieved to see Mr. Poyser out for a walk as well. He tells her that he cannot figure out what Hetty did after taking the coach to Stoniton. Mr. Poyser apologizes, saying that she is not good enough to marry Adam. He says that she has probably gone after a place as a lady's maid. Adam asks Seth to explain to everyone that he has had to go on a journey quite suddenly, and he sets off to speak to Mr. Irwine.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

As he shows Adam in, the butler says that a strange person, who has just left, came for some unknown reason. When Adam sees Mr. Irwine, he looks distressed and has a letter open in front of him. Adam tells him the news about Hetty. When Adam says that he may have some idea about where and to whom Hetty has gone, Mr. Irwine's face looks almost eager. Adam tells him the whole history, as he understands it, between Hetty and Arthur.

Mr. Irwine feels guilty remembering that Arthur seemed to be trying to confess something to him at that breakfast. He regrets that he will have to inflict more sorrow on Adam, but he tells him that Hetty is at Stoniton and has been arrested for the murder of her child. The stranger who just left is the constable who arrested her. Adam says that any wrongdoing must be Arthur's, because he was the one who taught her to deceive. Adam resolves to find Arthur, drag him back, and make him see Hetty in misery. Mr. Irwine urges him to stay to see what can be done for Hetty. They set off together to see her immediately.

Chapter Forty

Mr. Irwine returns home from Stoniton that night. His butler tells him that the old Squire is dead. Mrs. Irwine rejoices that Arthur is returning, but the vicar can only groan. Adam has taken a room near the prison, convinced that Hetty is innocent. Mr. Irwine thinks that it is a hard fate that he must tell the town about the misdeeds of a boy whom he loves like a son. He tells the Poysers, who feel that it is an irreversible stain on their honor. Mr. Poyser says that he will give whatever money to lawyers that he must, but he refuses to see her again. He adds that they must move towns because of the shame.

They want to send for Dinah, but nobody knows the address of the woman with whom she is staying in Leeds. The family decides to send for Seth, who will certainly know her name. Lisbeth also is wishing for Dinah's presence. Seth tells the Poysers the address to the best of his ability. By nightfall, the whole town knows the news.

Bartle Massey comes to shake Mr. Poyser's hand for a few minutes, then goes to speak to Mr. Irwine about how Adam is doing. The vicar says that things look bad for Hetty, who denies even having had a child in the face of the strong evidence that she has had one. Bartle says that he does not care whether the woman is hanged or not, but he only cares about Adam. Mr. Irwine worries that he will violently confront Arthur. Bartle offers to go look after Adam in Stoniton and will tell Adam's family that he is doing so. On the way out, he tells his female dog that if she does anything disgraceful, he will disown her.

Chapter Forty-One

Adam and Bartle share a room in Stoniton, and Adam looks terrible. Mr. Irwine arrives and says that Hetty is still refusing to see anyone. Arthur has still not returned. Although Mr. Irwine warns him against acting rashly, Adam says that he would prefer to commit a crime that he would be punished for rather than to stand by and let Hetty be punished for something. Mr. Irwine says that the punishment for evil has far-reaching consequences, so any evil he does to Arthur will be felt by the whole community. He should not do anything prompted by a feeling of vengeance.

Adam asks if Dinah has come yet, and it seems that she has not. Adam wishes that she would come and speak to Hetty.

Chapter Forty-Two

Adam hopes that Hetty will consent to see him on the morning of her trial, so that she will give up this seeming hardness towards her jailors. Bartle comes back from the beginning of the trial with nothing decisive to report. He says that Hetty's lawyer is good, which is fitting because he has been paid a lot. There are many well-dressed women in the courtroom who stare at Hetty and whisper.

Hetty did not speak when asked to plead guilty or not guilty, so her counsel pleaded not guilty for her. Mr. Poyser could barely speak when he was called as a witness, and Mr. Irwine tried to take care of him and accompanied him out of the courthouse. Adam asks if anyone has been there with Hetty, and Bartle says no. Adam decides to come back with the schoolmaster to the courthouse.

Chapter Forty-Three

Adam comes into the court and takes his place beside Hetty. He looks at her and wonders why people say that she is so changed. She looks hardened, but otherwise she is the same person to him. A middle-aged woman is in the witness box. Her name is Sarah Stone, and she keeps a small shop which Hetty mistook for a public house when she came to ask for lodging. Stone took the young woman in for the night anyway. That night, a baby was born, and the woman dressed it in some baby clothes. When Sarah left the house to fetch a friend to look after Hetty, Hetty left with her baby.

Adam imagines that she must have loved her baby because she had taken it; it must have died naturally. Hetty shows no emotion while she speaks, but then she starts when she hears the voice of the next witness, John Olding, a laborer who lives two miles out of Stoniton. He saw Hetty in a field looking pale. After he walked away he heard a strange cry. When he went back to investigate, he found a little baby's hand sticking out. He found the whole dead baby and went to tell the constable. When they went back to the haystack together, they found Hetty there with a big piece of bread on her lap.

Adam concludes that she is guilty. He barely listens to Mr. Irwine's testimony about her good upbringing, with which he tries to get some mercy for her. Mr. Irwine does not try to prove that she is innocent. The jury finds her guilty, and as the judge sentences her to be hanged, she falls into a fainting fit. Adam does not run to her quickly enough to pick her up, and she is carried out of the room.

Chapter Forty-Four

Arthur is not very grieved at hearing the news of his grandfather's death. He plans to show his tenants what a fine man he is--and Aunt Lydia would continue to live with him until he got married--but that event seems far in the future. He is not worried about Hetty, having received news that Adam is to marry her, which he is quite happy about. He assumed that she had felt less about him than he had for her, and he is slightly worried about seeing her again. He resolves to do as much for Adam as he can.

When he arrives at home, Arthur is not surprised to see all of the servants looking terribly sad. Aunt Lydia is the only person in the house who does not know of Hetty's fate. Arthur goes to his own room and is surprised to see an urgent letter from Mr. Irwine. The minute he reads the news, Arthur hurries to Stoniton.

Chapter Forty-Five

An elderly gentleman is standing outside the door to the prison when Dinah asks him if she can get in. The man says that he remembers her, and she asks if he is the man who stayed on horseback throughout her preaching in Hayslope. He says that he is and that he is a magistrate who can gain Dinah's access to Hetty. His name is Colonel Townley. He also tells Dinah where Adam is lodging.

Dinah embraces Hetty and says that she has come to her in her trouble. They sit on the straw pallet together, holding hands. Dinah admits that she cannot save her from the death coming on Monday. Dinah says that she will stay with her to the end, and she mentions the presence of God.

Hetty asks Dinah to help her because she cannot feel anything; she has gone hard. Dinah prays to God that Hetty will feel religion. Hetty finally admits to what she did. She says that she buried the baby, hoping that someone would find it, but she came back to the spot because she still heard it crying. She tried to leave the baby so that she could go back to the farm and never tell anyone why she had run away. She wanted to watch to see if anyone would come and find the baby, but she was scared when the man saw her, so she ran away. She heard it crying all night, and when she went back to the place in the morning she did not know whether to be scared or happy to think that she still heard it crying. Hetty asks if God can take away the sound of the crying in the woods. They pray together,

Chapter Forty-Six

Dinah comes to visit Adam. He thanks her for coming, and Bartle Massey seems transfixed by her face. She says that Hetty wants to ask Adam's forgiveness. It should be done today, since she will be executed tomorrow. Adam says that there is still time for a pardon, but that he will come tomorrow morning if he can find the strength.

Adam and Bartle stay up the whole night. Adam cries that she is being executed on the very day that they were supposed to be married. Adam goes to the cell for a last goodbye, because there is no pardon. After Hetty asks his forgiveness, he sobs that he forgave her long ago. They kiss goodbye. Hetty asks him to tell Arthur that she has tried to forgive him as well. Adam goes back to his room.

Chapter Forty-Seven

The whole town has heard of Dinah Morris, the Methodist woman who got Hetty to confess. Thus, there is as much eagerness among the multitude to see Dinah as to see the condemned woman.

The crowd shouts in a sudden excitement. The rider who appears is Arthur Donnithorne, who is holding in his hand a hard-won release from death.

Chapter Forty-Eight

The next day at evening, prompted by the same memory, both Adam Bede and Arthur Donnithorne walk toward the grove where they had their previous encounter. The old Squire was buried that morning. Adam decided to wind up work with Mr. Burge and move wherever the Poysers chose to move, bound up as they are in a mutual sorrow.

He pauses at the beech that marked the departure into his adulthood, and he thinks for a moment about the Arthur whom he used to love, but who is dead to him now. Adam starts when he sees Arthur, in full mourning, with visible signs of sorrow. Arthur says that he is glad to see Adam and asks him to listen patiently to what he has to say. He says that he is going away to join the army, partially so that no one else will leave Hayslope on his account. Adam severely tells him that no present sacrifice could make up for bygone errors. The Captain begs him to stay, if only because it will incline the Poysers to stay, and Adam is at last moved, thinking that he sees signs of the old Arthur he used to love. Arthur says that if Adam ever did anything that he bitterly repented of in his life, he would understand how hard it is. Adam slowly forgives him, saying that he was too hard on his father and then repented of it when he died. They shake hands.

Arthur then is compelled to make a full confession, and he says that had he known that Adam loved Hetty, he might never have done what he did; it might have saved them all. He feels terrible that he could not get Hetty a full pardon, and he worries that she might die when she is transported. He says that Dinah will stay with her until she leaves, and that he loves Dinah for doing this. He takes off his chain and watch for Adam to give to Dinah, saying that he knows that she has no use for such things, but that he would like to think of her having it. As soon as Adam leaves, Arthur goes to the trash can in the Hermitage and takes out Hetty's pink silk neckerchief.

Analysis

Anyone reading the novel at the time that it was published would have understood the delicate position of Hetty in traveling alone. As uncommon as it was for unmarried women to travel long distances alone at that time, it was even more scandalous at the time period in which Eliot sets the novel. Young women who traveled unprotected on the road risked the ruin of their reputations, assault, or even being pressed into service as a prostitute by older women who would gain their confidence by giving them some kind of help.

To make matters worse, in Chapter Thirty-Seven, Hetty's sale of her jewelry shows a pitiful combination of basic worldliness and naïveté. She has the minimum savvy to realize that her ornaments are of some value, but as an unprotected young girl, she cannot receive their full value because she does not know how to go about selling them. She is glad just to get the bad deal that the landlord offers, because it means that she can avoid going to a shop where a jeweler might ask her uncomfortable, probing questions. Hetty's main concern at this point seems to be to try to get away from people who know anything about her as fast as possible, and she regrets the fact that she has told the landlord the name of the man whom she was looking for.

This anxiety to cover her tracks illustrates that Hetty knows that she is doing something quite dangerous and wrong. It also suggests that she might realize that someone might try to find her by trailing her. Therefore, she tries to leave behind as few clues as possible.

Chapter Thirty-Eight repeats the pattern of crisis that has been established in the novel. The first small crisis was the relationship between Hetty and Arthur. The prelude to its resolution occurred when Adam found out about it. The crisis of Hetty running away is a greater one, however, and it remains to be seen how Adam's knowledge of this situation will help as it did in the other situation.

Adam's guesses about his fiancée's whereabouts and her possible thoughts reveal once again how little he knows about her. He assumes that she has also heard that Arthur was sent to Ireland. More importantly, he assumes that Hetty would never travel so far without a specific invitation from Arthur. Angrily, Adam assumes that Arthur inveigled away his bride-to-be, an assumption that the reader knows to be far from the truth.

Hetty's offstage infanticide is the crisis point that serves as the crux of the novel. Up to this point, we might have wondered where Hetty could possibly turn after her various disappointments and humiliations. There are very few references to her possibly being pregnant, so the fact will have escaped most readers' attention by Chapter Thirty-Nine. The sudden accusation of infanticide will surprise many. The one concrete reference to her condition is when the landlady's eyes "presently returned to her figure, which in her hurried dressing on her journey she had taken no pains to conceal; moreover, the stranger's eye detects what the familiar unsuspecting eye leaves unnoticed." Read backwards, this is a clear indication that Hetty is pregnant, but in the regular course of the narrative, it could just as easily have been read as her being careless in showing more of her figure than was advisable on her trip.

In Chapter Forty, despite the fact that Methodists have been reviled in the novel for their religion, Dinah is the first person who the people tend to turn to in times of trouble. Part of this choice has to do with the fact that they find Dinah immensely personally appealing, and they know that to gain part or all of her attention, they need only tell her of their great trouble. She enjoys sacrifice, so she sometimes only attends to her neighbors or family if their need is very great.

Bartle's threat to his female dog foreshadows the harsh judgment that will come upon Hetty. Women who committed misdeeds of a sexual nature in that period were utterly ruined, since sexual chastity was the primary source of a woman's honor. No one thinks to reproach Arthur in this situation, because it has been assumed that sexual activity is something for men to pursue and women to defend against.

In Chapter Forty-One, for the first time at this late stage in the novel, Mr. Irwine acts as a spiritual advisor. His advice is sound: to seek revenge is useless and hurtful to the community. Wrongs tend to multiply; he compares wrongs to the air that men share by breathing in and out. Adam's (at least temporary) agreement to do no bodily harm to Arthur demonstrates that he does hold some religious principles, despite the fact that he is not as devout as the Methodists portrayed in the novel. This activity also relieves a plot tension. Given that Hetty's kiss with Arthur ultimately led to her trial, the reader must have also wondered about the results of Adam's initial knocking down of Arthur.

In Chapter Forty-Two, due to the great stress that has been put upon him, Adam is behaving somewhat erratically. He goes to the trouble and expense of moving to Stoniton for the duration of the trial, but until this point he has not even seen or tried to speak to Hetty. It is strange that he has not attended the first portion of the trial, if not to comfort Hetty, at least to sate his curiosity about the proceedings and the question of her guilt.

The effect that Eliot creates by Bartle telling the story of the beginning of the trial heightens the drama. Adam has to pull the information out of him, wanting him to describe the action in minute detail. Bartle believes that it is Adam's duty to come to the courthouse, and he throws out subtle hints in his description of the scene that this is what Adam should do.

In Chapter Forty-Three, the narrative of Hetty's murder of her child is horrifying. This chapter reads almost like a sensationalist news article telling a gruesome tale. Elements of the gothic, which were also used in the chapter about the night before Thias died, are more fully realized in this chapter. Even the wording of the testimony is inclined to make the event sound more gruesome, if possible, than it is. When John Olding says that the first thing that he found when he went back to investigate was a baby hand, the crowd gasps. They, along with the reader, imagine a chopped off, disembodied hand. This is not the case, however, because when Olding continues, it becomes clear that the hand is still attached to the body of the baby, which is partially buried.

Adam's unsuccessful action at the end of the trial epitomizes his relationship with Hetty. Even after Hetty has committed the worst crime imaginable, Adam is willing to stay at her side, supporting her. Still, he cannot control Hetty's desire to do wayward things, and they cannot change the past. Thus, when she falls, she must fall unsupported by Adam-as painful as that may feel to him.

Arthur's optimistic return home in Chapter Forty-Four is another example of Eliot's use of dramatic irony. The reader knows the news that awaits him, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Arthur, by meandering around his house, seems to prolong this process even more. His servants, knowing more than their master, are in a state similar to that of the reader, following Arthur around his home and reminding him that he has letters to read. Arthur looks shocked when he hears the news, but what he plans to do upon reaching Stoniton remains unclear.

The scene of Hetty's confession in Chapter Forty-Five is perhaps the most Gothic in the entire book. The women are in a hostile environment, a prison so damp and dark that they can barely see one another's face. Hetty's experience, like Adam's impressions on the night that his father died, has a supernatural tinge transmitted through noises. It is impossible that Hetty could have heard her buried infant crying from such a distance when she buried it. It is instead the sound of her guilt that creates the crying sound in her ears, Hetty asks God to take from her the sound of the crying; she seems to be literally haunted by her dead child.

Hetty's confession also contains distinct undertones of the moral novels that some of Eliot's predecessors wrote. The confessions of former sinners, often former prostitutes (their language could pass the censors but still be semi-pornographic), constituted a common genre of fiction in the 18th and 19th centuries. They formed a tragic counterpart to the comedies of manners. Through such tales, women learned how to behave or not to behave.

In Chapter Forty-Six, Adam has refused to visit Hetty until he has seen that no pardon is likely to come. Only then does he make his final goodbyes. Hetty seems to be completely dependent on Dinah now, and Hetty can hardly seem to stand without her help. Bartle's approval of Dinah is surprising in that he is a confirmed misogynist, but it is unsurprising in that Eliot portrays Dinah as separate from, and perhaps above, other women.

A crowd gathering to watch the execution of a criminal was a common occurrence in early England. Especially in such a small, rural area, a hanging was an uncommon event. Even in larger towns and cities, it was quite normal to treat a hanging as a social gathering. Women would bring their knitting and often their children, who would watch and learn their lessons. Charles Dickens ironically describes these scenes in London and Paris in A Tale of Two Cities. Here, in Chapter Forty-Seven, the crowd adds drama to the Hollywood moment when Arthur arrives with his pardon, shouting with surprise as he rides up on horseback.

The meeting between Arthur and Adam in Chapter Forty-Eight shows that their fraternal bond is stronger than the love that either of them had for Hetty. Perhaps it is easier for them to make up and shake hands, but for whatever reason, they decide to drop their enmity for one another. The resolution of their argument has an important effect on the community at large, because Arthur proceeds to convince Adam to stay in Hayslope, which has a ripple effect on the others, who have thought that they should move away because Hetty has shamed them.

Chapter Forty-Nine

Eighteen months after Adam and Arthur part, in 1801, Mrs. Poyser milks the cows and speaks with Dinah. Both are wearing black dresses. Mrs. Poyser is trying to convince her not to go back to Snowfield. She argues that some of the people in Hayslope whom Dinah helped to find religion will go back to sin; Chad's Bess will go back to wearing finery. Dinah admits that she is leaving to avoid personal temptations, not purely to help others.

Adam comes to the house carrying Totty. He asks Dinah to stay with his mother, who is ailing. Mr. Poyser comes in, they all have tea, and Mrs. Poyser announces the news that Dinah is leaving again. Dinah flushes, and Adam says that he thought that she had come to stay for good this time. Adam defends her, saying that whatever she has decided is right, which makes Dinah cry and leave the table. When Totty brings her downstairs after Adam has spoken