According to the narrator of Adam Bede, love is an "a great and beautiful thing." But before you begin rolling your eyes and muttering "Thank you, Captain Obvious," ask yourself, is love always such a "great and beautiful thing" in Adam Bede?
Don't kid yourself; love is a source of anxiety, deception, and out-and-out violence in Eliotland. But precisely because love is so uncertain and hard-fought, perceptions and misperceptions of love help Eliot's characters grow and mature.
Questions About Love
- When does love make the characters in Adam Bede act in outlandish ways? Is giving in to passion always a bad thing for Eliot's characters?
- Do any of Eliot's characters make efforts to deny, disguise, or explain away their feelings of love? Are there ever hints of love or longing in scenes that don't seem all that romantic?
- Does anyone in Adam Bede seem totally incapable of loving others? Are cold or unloving characters the exception or the rule?
- Is romantic love better or more dignified than the other forms of love that appear in the novel?
Chew on This
Throughout Adam Bede, Dinah uses religious rhetoric and ceremony to disguise her growing affection for Adam. She is confused and excited to find herself falling for a non-Methodist, and turns to devotional habits in order to explain (or explain away) her new feelings.
Using the characters of Seth, Mr. Irwine, and Bartle Massey, Eliot represents bachelorhood as a dignified calling—a state of love for one's neighbors that is less demonstrative than romantic love, but just as intense.