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Adam Bede
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Adam Bede: Week 1 - Book First
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I loved the use of the local dialect too! I think this is what I love so much about Gaskell, Eliot, and the later Hardy, they truly do make an effort to put the reader right there in that little world at that time. Very, very cool!
Christopher wrote: "MadgeUK wrote: "Christopher wrote: "[Irwine] wasn't even all that concerned about Dinah's preaching on the green..."I thought his attitude towards Dinah preaching on the green and the remarks he ..."
Well Chris, I think that the attitude towards the Methodists is clearly shown by Mr. Joshua. he decided to make this the first order of business to be discussed in spite of the fact that Thais Bede was found dead. This, I think, is no small matter and GE was probably pointing towards the pettiness of the establishment putting something like Dinah's preaching before the death of a fellow human being.
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I thought his attitude towards Dinah preaching on the green..."
You are most probably absolutely correct. And having said all of this, I think we are all right back where we started--it makes the Reverend Irwine even that much more of a likable character.
I simply can't believe that this is the first time I have read this novel! I am really enjoying it! Gosh, Eliot is a great writer!
LOL Chris. I hope it is also making that influenza feel better:).
I absolutely LOVE the opening of Chapter 12. "THAT same Thursday morning, as Arthur Donnithorne was moving about in his dressing-room, seeing his well-looking British person reflected in the old-fashioned mirrors, and stared at, from a dingy olive-green piece of tapestry, by Pharaoh's daughter and her maidens, who ought to have been minding the infant Moses"
That "who ought to have been minding..." is priceless.
It's also interesting to compare Arthur looking into his mirror with Hetty, several chapters later, looking into her mirror.
Everyman wrote: "What do people think of Dinah's preaching? I found it personally very impressive, very compelling. I think Eliot did an excellent job of finding a particular voice for her and carrying it through ..."I did too. I think if I'd been there on the green, I'd have been captivated. You know, more than any of the descriptions, I think that's what I've been impressed with so far. Yes, Dinah is overly perfect, but her preaching rings true to me. It's remarkably well done.
Kester wrote: "For me the dialect was pretty tough to master at first. I am so accustomed to dialouge in British Literature being so proper. I have gotten the hang now and it is very melodious especially when del..."I'm still struggling with the dialect. I'm used to being able to read very quickly, and with the dialect I have to slow down and pronounce each word to figure out what they're saying, and I still can't 'hear' it in my head. The closest I can get is a Yorkshire accent from watching James Herriot on TV as a child.
I mentioned Hetty looking into her mirror, in contrast with Arthur looking into his mirrir.But there's also a classic contrast to Dinah in Chapter 15. The two maidens both go to their chambers. But Hetty goes straight to her mirror to look inward at herself, while Dinah goes straight to her window to look outward at the world. One sees only the transient prettiness of her face, the other sees the eternal beauty of God's creation.
Chapter 12 also gives us a delicious sense of Eliot's wonderful irony. Her picture of Arthur subtly, artfully, but also unmistakeably paints the picture of a young man who had no real knowledge of himself, whose sense of who he is is greatly at odds with reality. She does all this without saying a word against him, but making it perfectly clear to us. It's a wonderful piece of writing.
Chris, I think you mentioned Eliot's 'preachiness' a few comments ago, her desire to instruct the reader. Honestly I've enjoyed it. I've picked up so many little tidbits from it that made me say, "Oh, yes! It's just like that!""Love of this sort is hardly distinguishable from religious feeling. What deep and worthy love is so, whether of woman or child, or art or music . . . our emotion in its keenest moment passes from expression into silence, our love at its highest flood rushes beyond its object and loses itself in the sense of divine mystery."
'Divine mystery' more or less summarizes some of my deepest experiences of love. That passage was preachy, but still wonderful.
Then funny bits, like this describing Lisbeth: ". . . a good creature, who had no joy but in the happiness of the loved ones whom she contributed to make uncomfortable . . . " Of course!
I'm enjoying this very much. The only thing this lacks for me is a character I can really love, one to worry over and become anxious over their fate. I loved Dorothea Brooke . . . unlike others, however, I am still fond of both Adam and Dinah despite their overabundance of virtue. Their dialogue and characterization is well done enough that I can believe in them even though they are inherently unbelievable. I think that that alone speaks highly of Eliot's skill.
S. Rosemary wrote: "Then funny bits, like this describing Lisbeth: ". . . a good creature, who had no joy but in the happiness of the loved ones whom she contributed to make uncomfortable . . . " Of course!"I also love those little tidbits. I've been noting a few of them. Such as:
"one can put up with annoyances in the house, but to have the stable made a scene of vexation and disgust, is a point beyond what human flesh and blood can be expected to endure long together without danger of misanthropy."
"Dinah had never said anything disapproving or reproachful to Hetty during her whole visit to the Hall Farm: she had talked to her a great deal in a serious way, but Hetty didn't mind that much, for she never listened..."
'I have heard of a learned man meekly rocking the twins in the cradle with his left hand, while with his right he inflicted the most lacerating sarcasms on an opponent who had betrayed a brutal ignorance of Hebrew. Weakness and errors must be forgiven - alas! They are not alien to us - but the man who takes the wrong side on the momentous subject of the Hebrew points must be treated as the enemy of his race.'
Mod
I enjoy her 'teaching' too! As I said, it is Eliot the didact at her finest. She is much more adept at it, in my opinion, than Hugo or Tolstoy. It bolsters the message her characters are acting out upon the page.
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I am still fond of both Adam and Dinah despite their overabundance of virtue. Their dialogue and characterization is well done enough that I can believe in them even though they are inherently unbelievable. I think that that alone speaks highly of Eliot's skill.
I couldn't agree with you more!
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But there's also a classic contrast to Dinah in Chapter 15. The two maidens both go to their chambers. B..."
I remember this too! What a striking contrast--
One digs around in her box for her little collection of jewelry in front of the mirror in 'artificial' light, and the other is reading her Bible in the 'natural' light of the fading dusk. Good catch!
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Christopher wrote: "It is 8:30 p.m. (Pacific), I am taking my snuffly nose, my sore-throat, and toddling off to bed like a good lad. I bid you all a very good night, and shall rejoin the fray in the morning. Cheers!..."And I'll be following you to bed shortly, though fortunately without the sore throat et. al. But 5:30 comes early. Night all.
I think the exquisite description of Hetty in Chapter VII The Dairy must be one of the longest panegyrics to a woman's beauty in literature and I am wondering who GE based it upon, whether it was her ideal of feminine beauty or a criticism of it? Hetty has a beauty 'like that of kittens, or very small downy ducks making gentle rippling noises with their soft bills, or babies just beginning to toddle...a beauty with which you can never be angry..' Her cheek 'was like a rose petal', she had 'white shell like ears'. Her brown stockings and thick soled shoes lost all that clumsiness they must certainly have had when empty of her foot and ankle'. 'I could never make you know what I mean by a bright spring day. Hetty's was a spring tide beauty; it was the beauty of young frisking things, round-limbed, gambolling, circumventing you by a false air of innocence' But at the end of the panegyric there is a sting in the tail and a foreshadowing as Hetty is compared to 'the innocence of a young star-browed calf...being inclined to promenade out of bounds, leads you a severe steeple-chase over a hedge and a ditch and only comes to a stand in the middle of a bog'. Henry James described Eliot as 'magnificently ugly - deliciously hideous' and she was rejected by two other men because of her lack of beauty. This must have been very hurtful and I wonder whether Hetty, described in her first novel and not long after these rejections, is how she would have liked to have looked and if this quotation about ugly people describes how she felt about herself:
'These fellow mortals every one, must be accepted as they are: you can neither straighten their noses, nor brighten their wit, nor rectify their dispositions; and it is these people amongst whom your life is passed - that it is needful you should tolerate, pity and love: it is these more or less ugly, stupid, inconsistent people whose movements of goodness you should be able to admire - for whom you should cherish all possible hopes, all possible patience.'
I do not find GE particularly ugly, what do others think? This is a portrait painted by Dubade when she was 30, which she said flattered her:-
http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/uploads/...
This is a sketch of the mature Eliot which Lewes liked:-
http://www.wsws.org/images/2009dec/d3...
This is a photograph of her in later life:-
http://molinterv.aspetjournals.org/co...
And not long before she died:-
http://0.tqn.com/d/womenshistory/1/0/...
MadgeUK wrote: "I think the exquisite description of Hetty in Chapter VII The Dairy must be one of the longest panegyrics to a woman's beauty in literature and I am wondering who GE based it upon, whether it was h..."I had the same sense of contrast between Hetty's beauty and Eliot's well known if not ugliness, then certainly nonattractiveness.
But the way she presents Hetty, I think perhaps she is suggesting that physical beauty is incompatible with intelligence and sense. Hetty is so extraordinarily vain, so dismissive of Dinah's goodness, so silly in her encounter with Arthur, in actually crying when she thought she wouldn't see him in the wood, that Eliot seems to be saying that beauty is only skin deep, but that under the skin of beauty almost necessarily lies a vacuum of intelligence and goodness.
As the book progresses and we see what develops, it will be interesting to keep thinking about whether Eliot is really writing a contrast between herself and exquisitely beautiful girls.
What a delightful coincidence! In Chapter 16, when Arthur goes to talk with Rev. Irwine, "On the table, at Mr Irwine's elbow, lay the first volume of the Foulis Aeschylus, which Arthur knew well by sight;"
And a note to my edition of AB says that Foulis was a printer whose "two-volume Greek-Latin edition of the tragedies of the playwright Aeschylus included the trilogy of the Oresteia, which Eliot was reading while she was working on Adam Bede."
As it happens, the Western Canon group here on Goodreads started reading the Oresteia the same day we here started reading Adam Bede. So as Eliot read the Oresteia as she wrote Adam Bede, those who belong to both grops are reading the Oresteia as we read Adam Bede.
Delightful coincidence!
And we can ask, is the only reason she mentions the Aeschylus? Or is there some deeper reason for bringing Aeschylus (the note says she also read Prometheus Bound while writing AB) into the novel, some contextual element?
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In Chapter 16, when Arthur goes to talk with Rev. Irwine, "On the table, at Mr Irwine's elbow, lay the first volume of the Foulis Aeschylus, which Arthur knew well..."
Wow! I remember the scene, but didn't realize that that was what it referred too. I have to confess that I read that section before I had gotten too far into the Introduction of The Oresteia. Sadly, my knowledge associated with classical studies is so woefully inadequate as to be bordering on pathetic. I am attempting to remedy that as we speak, by participating in the group read of The Oresteia in Everyman's "Western Canon" group.
Now that I am about two-thirds of the way through Agamemnon maybe I can start looking for more clues in AB. Thanks for the tid-bit, Everyman!
Everyman wrote: "What a delightful coincidence! ..."
Great coincidence indeed! The gods must be watching over us:):).
I think GE's reference to the Greek authors may be to do with moral values. AE is a story which shows how a community bound together by moral values may be disrupted by those who disregard them and Aeschylus has the same underlying theme. Similarly, AE also shows the inevitability of retribution for evil acts, and the virtual impossibility of wrongdoers to evade that retribution. Hubris-catharsis-hamartia-nemesis etc. Good literature has been using these themes since the time of Aristotle and Victorian authors like Eliot (and Hardy) knew their Greeks.
http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/te...
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"I think GE's reference to the Greek authors may be to do with moral values. AB is a story which shows how a community bound together by moral values may be disrupted by those who disregard them and Aeschylus has the same underlying theme. Similarly, AB also shows the inevitability of retribution for evil acts, and the virtual impossibility of wrongdoers to evade that retribution. Hubris-catharsis-hamartia-nemesis etc. Good literature has been using these themes since the time of Aristotle and Victorian authors like Eliot (and Hardy) knew their Greeks."
This was beautifully put, Madge! I think you are spot-on too. The novel is simply rife with examples of this.
S. Rosemary wrote: "Everyman wrote: "What do people think of Dinah's preaching? I found it personally very impressive, very compelling. I think Eliot did an excellent job of finding a particular voice for her and car..."I have put something in the Background Info about Dinah's reference to Mary Bosanquet in Chapter VII A Vocation.
I love this little musical quip by Eliot when Dinah told Mrs Poyser of Thias Bede's death and of her intention to visit Mrs Bede:-'Dear heart, dear heart! But you must have a cup'o'tea first, child,' said Mrs Poyser, falling at once from the key of B with five sharps to the frank and genial C.'
(And of course that tea would have been made with tea leaves in a Brown Betty teapot:D. )
MadgeUK wrote: "I love this little musical quip by Eliot when Dinah told Mrs Poyser of Thias Bede's death and of her intention to visit Mrs Bede:-
'Dear heart, dear heart! But you must have a cup'o'tea first, c..."
I chuckled over that remark. GE has an amazingly deft touch with her characters. Sometimes I think Hardy (sorry Chris) and the Brontës get a bit too florid, but Elliot is just delightful. Her dialogue and descriptions are full of those zingy little bits.
'Dear heart, dear heart! But you must have a cup'o'tea first, c..."
I chuckled over that remark. GE has an amazingly deft touch with her characters. Sometimes I think Hardy (sorry Chris) and the Brontës get a bit too florid, but Elliot is just delightful. Her dialogue and descriptions are full of those zingy little bits.
I think that the telling point is that GE actually grew up and mixed with these sort of characters and so knew them 'inside out' whereas Hardy and the Brontes observed them from a distance. In her excellent biography George Eliot : The Last Victorian Kathryn Hughes writes:'As Mary Anne followed her father from miner's cottage to farmhouse to Arbury Hall itself, she learned to place herself within this complex social landscape...She observed a whole range of accents, dress, customs and manners, against which her own must be measured and adjusted, In this way she built up a library of visual and aural references to which she could return in her imagination when she was sitting, years later, in Richmond, trying to recapture the way a gardener or a clergyman spoke. It was this faithfulness to the actual past, rather than a greetings-card version of it, which was to become a plank in her demand for a new kind of realism in fiction...Mary Anne Evans had not only seen labourers dancing, she had watched them getting drunk, making love, milking and shearing. She had been patronised by the gentry and petted by their servants...She knew every field, every hedgerow and every clump of trees. In later life, she had only to close her eyes and she could conjure up the smell of cow's breath, hay and fresh rain...She also knew the noise the looms made as the weavers worked into the night..She learned to see that these two strands of life were not conflicting but that they represented a particular moment in the development of English life. The rural community had not been destroyed but it was being radically regeared towards technology, profit and the power of the individual to manage his own life.'
MadgeUK wrote: "I think that the telling point is that GE actually grew up and mixed with these sort of characters and so knew them 'inside out' whereas Hardy and the Brontes observed them from a distance. In her ..."
Perfect explanation. Thanks for the excerpt.
Perfect explanation. Thanks for the excerpt.
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Madge, are you referring to Hardy and the gentry? Or Hardy and the rustics? Because it would be my assessment that Hardy was very familiar with the rustics, but not so much with the gentry, In his novels and fiction (and even poetry) he really pretty much stayed away from the upper class. Even in his personal life I think he felt somewhat of a fish out of water. I think Eliot was probably much more comfortable being around, and writing about the upper classes and their interactions with the lower class rural folk. I think we are saying the same thing, aren't we? ;-)
I don't think Hardy ever lived amongst country folk as Eliot did Chris. As Hughes outlines, Eliot spent a lot of time with her father who was an estate manager for Lord Newdigate of Arbury Hall and who oversaw the farms on that estate so had a lot of contact with the workers there. Her mother was a countrywoman on a farm doing many of the things which Mrs Poyser does. Hardy observed country folk but Eliot actually played with country children, later spending time in farm kitchens and dairies etc. She also observed how the 'gentry' behaved at Arbury Hall. During the early part of her writing career (when writing Adam Bede) she was a working journalist living among impoverished writers and recalling these things. It wasn't until later in her life, when she became more accepted in society, that she mixed with the upper middle class intelligentsia. BTW Mrs Poyser prepares a posset somewhere in these early chapters and I thought of you in your sick bed. Here is a Victorian Ale Posset for you circa 1859:-
http://www.celtnet.org.uk/recipes/mis...
I expect you to be completely better tomorrow on the basis of kill or cure:D.
Everyman wrote: "What a delightful coincidence! In Chapter 16, when Arthur goes to talk with Rev. Irwine, "On the table, at Mr Irwine's elbow, lay the first volume of the Foulis Aeschylus, which Arthur knew well..."
I was tickled by that, too! I'm even more tickled that Eliot was reading the Oresteia while writing AB . . . oh, wow.
I haven't read ahead, so this is speculation not spoilerdom, but I feel as if she's setting us up for some betrayal. There is a love triangle just waiting to happen here- several love triangles, in fact. Adam and Arthur both in love with Hetty; Seth and, I'll bet, very soon Adam, both in love with Dinah. I'll be on the lookout for Oresteia parallels . . .
When isn't there a love triangle in Victorian novels Rosemary! But with Hardy and Eliot you can be sure there will be extra ramifications outside of the 'lurv':).
I had mentioned in an earlier post the happy coincidence of Adam Bede and the Oresteia.However, there are several other books and references mentioned in Book 1 which I think deserve paying a bit of attention to, since I think it is pretty certain that Eliot did not just choose these books at random.
In Chapter 12, "In the Wood," Arthur is whistling his favorite air from the Beggar's Opera, "If the heart of a man is oppressed with care." This is sung by MacHeath, who is known as a seducer of women. Consider the words of the song, and wonder whether Eliot means to imply a degree of danger to Hetty:
If the heart of a man is deprest with cares,
The mist is dispell'd when a woman appears;
Like the notes of a fiddle, she sweetly, sweetly
Raises the spirits, and charms our ears.
Roses and lillies her cheeks disclose,
But her ripe lips are more sweet than those.
Press her,
Caress her,
With blisses,
Her kisses
Dissolve us in pleasure, and soft repose.
Later in that chapter, Arthur is going to go to the Hermitage to finish reading Moore's Zeluco. This was a novel in which Zeluco seduces and abandons a young girl.
In Chapter 13, "Evening in the Wood," where Arthur and Hetty meet and kiss, Eliot writes "if a chest full of lace and satin and jewels had been sent her from some unknown source...." This seems clearly a reference to Faust, where the devil leaves a chest of jewels outside of Gretchen's door, leading to her seduction by Faust. Is Eliot foreshadowing something here? Is there more going on in the wood that Eliot tells us about? (Recall Tess and Alec in a wood, though that was written after, not before, Adam Bede and so if there was a reference here at work it would have been Hardy referencing Eliot, not the other way round.) Or is there a foreshadowing of something further down the road?
It hardly seems that all these mentions of seduction in these chapters (along with a reference to the centaurs who were known for their, uh, non-PG rated behavior) are accidental. Where is Hetty's guardian angel protecting her from evil???
Mod
However, there are several other books and references mentioned in Book 1 which I think deserve paying a bit..."
Superb catches, my friend! I just went back and looked at these too. I am impressed! I should have picked up on the Faust, and it went right by. The Beggar's Opera is new to me. Good for you, Everyman! And it doesn't surprise me in the slightest with Eliot either. She is simply brilliant (as are many of you reading this novel!). Connections, connections, connections!
Good catches Eman. On the subject of references to books, I have put a note in the Background Info about the mention of Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads in Chapter 5. There is another literary foreshadowing at the beginning of Chapter XII In the Wood:
'....Arthur Donnithorne was moving about in his dressing-room, seeing his well-looking British person reflected in the old-fashioned mirrors, and stared at, from a dingy olive-green piece of tapestry, by Pharaoh's daughter and her maidens, who ought to have been minding the infant Moses...'. Pharaoh's daughter seduced Solomon who, according to the historian Josephus 'was fallen into unreasonable pleasures' and she brought about his downfall. She also drew the baby Moses out of the water. In the following chapter Evening in the Wood Hetty is dreaming about a possible laison with Donnithorne 'who might any time take her to his wondrous halls' where a 'chest full of lace and satin and jewels had been sent her from some unknown source' which is perhaps a reference to the 'costly stones' Solomon bestowed upon Pharoah's daughter. (Laurel may be able to help further with this allusion.)
This is a lovely Harlequin-like (but better written (:))description of Donithorne's attraction to Hetty (Chapter 12):
'Arthur laid his hand on the soft arm that was nearest to him, and was stooping towards Hetty with a look of coaxing entreaty.Hetty lifted her long dewy lashes, and met the eyes that were bent towards her with a sweet, timid, beseeching look. What a space of time those three moments were, while their eyes met and his arms touched her! Love is such a simple thing when we have only one-and-twenty summers and a sweet girl of seventeen trembles under our glance, as if she were a bud first opening her heart with wondering rapture to the morning. Such young unfurrowed souls roll to meet each other like two velvet peaches that touch softly and are at rest; they mingle as easily as two brooklets that ask for nothing but to entwine themselves and ripple with ever-interlacing curves in the leafiest hiding places.'
BTW Chris there is a sexy reference to ferns in Chapter 13 which you may like to extrapolate upon and I will again mention that ferns were a preoccupation of the Victorians, so much so that the collection of them became known as pteridomania. The fern craze started to gather momentum in the 1840s; books and magazines maintained that fern growing was a hobby that anyone could enjoy, as ferns would grow in the glazed fernery, garden, shady yard, window box or even indoors in Wardian Cases. The mania also spread from the living plant to depicting it in architecture and the decorative arts. Even roads, villas and terraced houses were named after the fern. There are still a number of Victorian ferneries in our botanical gardens and stately homes.
Pteridomania
A little aside: I have noted that several times characters refer to going to 'another country' instead of 'another county'. This may have been Eliot's way of drawing our attention to the fact that before the advent of better roads and railways, country people moved about very little and to them another county was indeed another country. Even in my young day our counties had distinct differences in agricultural practices, trades and dialects. When I cycled down from Yorkshire to London in my teens, for instance, I could tell when I moved out of one county into another by the shape of the hay bales and haystacks. Nowadays they are all baled in ubiquitous black plastic 'sausages':(. Similarly, styles of building, the type of bricks and thatch varied from county to county thereby giving a feeling of moving out of one distinct environment to another. In Warwickshire red brick bolstered by treated black timber, in the Tudor style, is a common housebuilding style, whereas if you travel North to Yorkshire grey limestone brick bolstered by untreated oak is the norm.
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'Arthur laid his hand on the soft arm that was nearest to him, and was stooping towards Hetty with a look of coaxing entreaty.Hetty lifted her long dewy lashes, and met the eyes that were bent towards her with a sweet, timid, beseeching look. What a space of time those three moments were, while their eyes met and his arms touched her! Love is such a simple thing when we have only one-and-twenty summers and a sweet girl of seventeen trembles under our glance, as if she were a bud first opening her heart with wondering rapture to the morning. Such young unfurrowed souls roll to meet each other like two velvet peaches that touch softly and are at rest; they mingle as easily as two brooklets that ask for nothing but to entwine themselves and ripple with ever-interlacing curves in the leafiest hiding places.'
I'm off to to Chapter 13 to find the bit on the ferns. I can't believe that it didn't register with me initially.
Does Hetty make anybody else want to eruct?
Maybe only in regards to the extensive descriptions of dairy . . .
I have been reflecting on the conversation between Arthur and Rev. Irwine in Chapter 16, Links. (Not sure why that chapter title. Any ideas?)I got distracted and didn't get around to making a substantive post before bedtime, but I don't want to leave Book 1 without getting to it. I'll have more to say soon, but in the meantime one comment, or rather two:
One, I have to keep remembering that Arthur is only 20. He is so semi-formed, such a mass of contradictions and moments of maturity mixed with moments of immaturity. From the way he is written, I keep imagining him an older young man, and I have to keep jerking myself up and reminding myself not to expect to much of him at this age.
Two, it's pretty clear, at least to me, that Eliot is preparing us for more interactions between Arthur and Hetty. If Arthur can't follow through on his resolution to open his mine to Rev. Irwine, he will hardly be able to follow through on his resolution to have nothing more to do with Hetty. And much as I don't care for Hetty, I worry that this can't come out well for her, can it?
Ah well. Bed calls, even though I have so far avoided Chris's bug. More I hope tomorrow.
MadgeUK wrote: '....Arthur Donnithorne was moving about in his dressing-room, seeing his well-looking British person reflected in the old-fashioned mirrors, and stared at, from a dingy olive-green piece of tapestry, by Pharaoh's daughter and her maidens, who ought to have been minding the infant Moses...'. Pharaoh's daughter seduced Solomon who, according to the historian Josephus 'was fallen into unreasonable pleasures' and she brought about his downfall. She also drew the baby Moses out of the water. In the following chapter Evening in the Wood Hetty is dreaming about a possible laison with Donnithorne 'who might any time take her to his wondrous halls' where a 'chest full of lace and satin and jewels had been sent her from some unknown source' which is perhaps a reference to the 'costly stones' Solomon bestowed upon Pharoah's daughter. (Laurel may be able to help further with this allusion.)Solomon and the daughter of Pharaoh who rescued baby Moses lived in different centuries. Perhaps you are thinking of the Queen of Sheba, who heard stories about the riches and wisdom of King Solomon, and, upon visiting him, declared, "The half had not been told me." The Ethiopians believed that Emperor Haile Selassie was a descendant of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
Thanks Laurel. I was not sure of my interpretation here.
Like Everyman, I have been looking at the immaturity of both Arthur, aged 20 and Hetty, aged 17 and thinking about the development of their characters throughout the novel as a Bildungsroman:- http://www.victorianweb.org/genre/had...
In Book First are shown in the process of development and we see the major portion of moral growth towards the end of the novel. In the earlier parts of the novel GE seems more concerned with their moral evasion - their backsliding, self-excusing or rationalising. Looking at Book first from the standpoint of classical Greek drama (and a nod towards Oresteia:)), we see the unrealistic expectations of both Arthur and Hetty, Arthur dreams of squiredom and Hetty dreams of becoming a lady. Arthur, in his hubris, would be 'the model of an English country gentleman' with 'contented tenantry adoring their landlord'. Hetty was sure that 'He would want to marry her, and make a lady of her'. They both avoid discussion of their situation with the Rev Irwine, who, like Dinah, represents moral authority in the novel. At a time when Victorian society believed that everyone had a fixed place in society, ordained by God, we know that Hetty's dreams are bound not to materialise and that this is hamartia, an error of judgement on both their parts. We are all set for an anagnorisis, where the characters begin to become aware of their true situation but no doubt GE will take us through a classical catharsis before the novel reaches its nemesis. :O.
http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Li...
GE wrote that she wanted Adam Bede to be a 'realistic' novel but the characters in Book First have quite a few unrealistic ideas and the countryside is idealised. I am therefore expecting less romanticism and more realism from Book Second onwards, both in the actions of the characters and in the descriptions of the countryside.
Christopher wrote: "I have to agree with all of you on several most excellent observations. First, Eliot love of the English landscape and the English rustics ... Again, as I have discovered in Hardy's works, and in previous reads of Eliot's novels, names seem to be important--
Adam = the first man, and after the Fall, is forced to work hard; and this seems to fit our 'Adam' too."
(Sorry to be looping back in the discussion, but I am only just catching up with book 1.)
I have noticed that some readers are finding Adam a bit one-dimensional and I am wondering whether his name is a hint that he is either going to experience a fall or, in some way, come to the knowledge of good and evil? If that were to be the case, then his state at the beginning of the book must in some sense be innocence and so that may be why he seems too good to be true.
Everyman wrote: "I absolutely LOVE the opening of Chapter 12. ... It's also interesting to compare Arthur looking into his mirror with Hetty, several chapters later, looking into her mirror.
In Chapter VI, when we are introduced to Hall Farm, we are told of Hetty's habit of using the shiny furniture as a mirror, 'looking at the pleasing reflection of herself in those polished surfaces'. Hetty's vanity seems to know no bounds, but she is careful enough to do this 'when her aunt's back was turned'. In their youthful self-love, Hetty and Arthur seem equally naive.
Kathy wrote: "Christopher wrote: "I have to agree with all of you on several most excellent observations. First, Eliot love of the English landscape and the English rustics ... Again, as I have discovered in H..."
Great observation Kathy! His Paradise may soon be Lost:).
Kathy wrote: "In chapter VI......we are told of Hett's habit......"Mention is made of how well polished the 'old clock case' was too Kate so more references to time here. And the beginning of that chapter starts: 'Evidently the gate is never opened, for the long grass and the great hemlocks grow close against it...'. Poison from the hemlock killed Socrates and in Ancient Greece it was traditionally used to kill criminals. In the the UK it is associated with witchcraft and is said to 'obstruct men's generative force'. The Narrator also comments: 'Surely nowhere could an oak clock case and an oak table have got to such a polish by the hand [by witchcraft perhaps] for the oak table was usually turned up like a screen and was more for ornament than for use. [like Hetty]. Prettiness is often associated with the devil and witchraft and GE may be making this connection about Hetty here.
MadgeUK wrote: "Kathy wrote: "In chapter VI......we are told of Hett's habit......"
And the beginning of that chapter starts:'Evidently the gate is never opened, for the long grass and the great hemlocks grow clo..."
Hemlock trees aren't the source of Socrates' hemlock. The hemlock that killed him comes from a flowering bienniel that is related to the carrot. It's often called (surprise) "Poison Hemlock", but the correct name is Conium:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conium
And the beginning of that chapter starts:'Evidently the gate is never opened, for the long grass and the great hemlocks grow clo..."
Hemlock trees aren't the source of Socrates' hemlock. The hemlock that killed him comes from a flowering bienniel that is related to the carrot. It's often called (surprise) "Poison Hemlock", but the correct name is Conium:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conium
Kathy wrote: "I have noticed that some readers are finding Adam a bit one-dimensional and I am wondering whether his name is a hint that he is either going to experience a fall or, in some way, come to the knowledge of good and evil? If that were to be the case, then his state at the beginning of the book must in some sense be innocence and so that may be why he seems too good to be true. "That's a fascinating thought. Adam before eating of the apple (which at that time may Christian theology have had more to do with sex than general otherwise).
I agree with those who think that Eliot is setting up some sort of relationship between Adam and Dinah, though whether it will be happy or unhappy remains to be seen. But the picture of Dinah in Adam's home taking care of his mother is certainly a beautiful and compelling one that would be appealing to any young man of sense.
The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910
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I thought his attitude towards Dinah preaching on the green and the remarks he made to Joshua a..."
Madge, I don't disagree at all. I think my point was--what would his bishop wanted him to have done about a Wesleyan Methodist coming in and 'spiriting' off the parishioners?