Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Can you really have a book called Adam Bede and not have Eden imagery poking around somewhere? Our hero's name is Adam, for Pete's sake (or maybe for Adam's sake?).
Eliot's narrator is charmed by the "Edenlike peace and loveliness" (4.71) of a fresh morning in Hayslope, and the whole setting can seem like one big, green, happy garden. Is this Eden or the set of Teletubbies?
But no good thing lasts forever, not even Teletubbies. Eliot knows her Bible, and the "Hayslope as Eden" idea sets us up for Hayslope's own version of Adam and Eve's fall. And here, as in Genesis, the women get saddled with the blame. As Bartle Massey (working in high-misogyny mode like never before!) puts it:
"Don't tell me about God having made such creatures to be companions for us! I don't say but He might make Eve to be a companion to Adam in Paradise—there was no cooking to be spoilt there, and no other woman to cackle with and make mischief." (21.26)
Adam Bede has its own Eve figure—pretty, innocent, misguided little Hetty Sorrel. She doesn't cook much, or cackle at all, but she sure does drum up some mischief.
If Hetty is our Eve, who's our Adam? But before you roll your eyes and give us an "Adam Bede, no duh!" there's something you might want to consider. Adam Bede isn't Hetty's partner in sin. And he's never thrown out of Hayslope the way Adam is thrown out of Eden. No, the guy who fits both of these descriptions is our friend Arthur Donnithorne. Arthur and Eve? Has Eliot forgotten her Bible after all? It could be. Or it could be that she's intentionally tweaking the whole "Eden allegory" thing.
Instead of following Genesis character-for-character, Eliot could be trying to deliver an original statement on the Genesis themes of innocence and painful knowledge: that the world is filled with more than just sinners and saints… it's also filled with a bunch of flawed, generally good, kinda weird humans. Eliot doesn't discount sin—her "Arthur and Eve" are chucked out of Paradise for sure—but she seems to be making the claim that although rural England is paradisiacal, people are messy.
But Eliot's Biblical comparisons don't stop at Eden. Check out the symbol of "Carpentry" for more analytical goodness.