George Eliot's Adam Bede (1859): chps 9-20

"the way in which I have come to the conclusion that human nature is lovable--the way I have learnt something of its deep pathos, its sublime mysteries--has been by living a great deal among people more or less commonplace and vulgar, of whom you would perhaps hear nothing very surpising if you were to inquire about them in the neighbourhoods where they dwelt" (247).

Points of Reflection

1. does the narrator explain away Hetty's self-involvement with the same kind of pitying condescension one finds elsewhere in Eliot's works? Consider chapters 9, 15, and 18.

2. what of Arthur Donnithorne's inability to match action with thought? Does the narrator exonerate his inconsistencies as well? Consider chapters 12, 13, and 16.

3. does Eliot consistently disrupt the facile physiognomic formulae of her contemporaries?

4. how does Eliot go about questioning the early nineteenth-century distinctions of class and rank?

5. what primary points does the narrator attempt to make in chp 17, and does s/he succeed in convincing you of their merit?

6. Eliot's narrators enjoy sharing multiple reflections on human psychology and motivation. Look for examples of this in Adam Bede, and consider whether you agree with the narrator's various conclusions.

7. though Eliot's narrator frequently instructs and exhorts, s/he also indulges in sarcasm, irony, and humor from time to time. Do such moments counter or otherwise complicate the bonds of sympathy s/he is trying to weave between the reader and the novel's characters? (e.g. 189, 216, 236, etc.)

"Work" (1852-65)
Ford Madox Brown

Paul Marchbanks
marchban@email.unc.edu