How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
"And I feel it would be a great evil for you if your affections continued so fixed on me that you could think of no other man who might be able to make you happier by his love than I ever can, and if you continued to look towards something in the future which cannot possibly happen. For, dear Hetty, if I were to do what you one day spoke of, and make you my wife, I should do what you yourself would come to feel was for your misery instead of your welfare. I know you can never be happy except by marrying a man in your own station; and if I were to marry you now, I should only be adding to any wrong I have done, besides offending against my duty in the other relations of life. You know nothing, dear Hetty, of the world in which I must always live, and you would soon begin to dislike me, because there would be so little in which we should be alike." (31.5)
In this passage of dialogue, Adam uses his greater experience of the world to argue that Hetty's class biases are wrongheaded. (What greater experience? Doesn't he just hang around in Hayslope and build things?) Hetty values luxury; yet Adam is convinced that she could not be happy unless she marries a man of her "own station." Gee, now what man of that "station" might he have in mind…?