From Natures to Earrings: Realism and Lessons in Adam Bede
In 1859, George Eliot wrote Adam Bede, a novel famous for its strong sense of realism,
mainly supported by the focus on common people and Eliot’s faithful depiction of their dialects
and ways. Adam Bede is the novel’s main character, and he is a humble carpenter that is
hopelessly in love with Hetty Sorrel, a naïvely shallow yet beautiful girl who falls in love with
Captain Donnithorne. Hetty’s betrayal of Adam is just one of many narratives that Eliot explores
in her portrait of the lives led by the residents of the quiet pastoral town of Hayslope. Throughout
the novel, there are several recurring elements that do bolster the novel’s sense of realism,
including discussions of natures (used to describe one’s character) and pointed questions, and a
few that do not, yet are utilized by Eliot in order to create a better plot, which includes the
symbology of earrings.
