The tragic role of the character Hetty Sorrel is the one which is central to the storyline of Adam Bede; her heinous crime of infanticide greatly unsettles the imaginary community of Hayslope. Hetty aspires for something more than the manual labour of working on her Uncle's farm; she is primarily drawn to the young squire Arthur Donnithorne, Arthur is attracted to Hetty and results her flirtations without honourable motives of marrying her, he thinks that it would be wrong to marry outside of his own course. During their encounters Hetty naively romanticizes that Arthur will surely marry her, the relationship she visualises however is not one of love but one of luxury and finery, luxuries which would be unobtainable to Hetty as an orphan dependant on the charity of her uncle and his better half. Hetty provides herself to Donnithorne falsely believing that her dreams of grandeur will undoubtedly become a reality, however she immediately converts her affections to Adam Bede when she realises that Donnithorne will not make her a 'girl'. The characterization of Hetty Sorrel seems to vary throughout the book in the last chapters she actually is condemned by the writer on her behalf vanity and selfishness, however in the later chapters of her hurting she appears to be handled more sympathetically.
Hetty is beautiful and is also often referred to using metaphors symbolic of mother nature and of animal imagery; she has 'a beauty like that of kittens, or really small downy ducks' (Adam Bede 91). 'Hetty's was a springtide beauty; it was the beauty of young frisking things' (Adam Bede 92), it was a beauty that seemed 'made to turn the minds not only of men, but of all brilliant mammals, even of women' (Adam Bede 90). However, Hetty is aesthetically beautiful which could be dangerous as it hides her lack of sense George R. Creeger states that Hetty's beauty is that of 'a bogus beauty, for it conceals regarding Hetty a key of hardness', and it is the women she interacts with that are more inclined to note this, Mrs Poyser tells her man that 'she's no better than a peacock, as 'ud strut about on the wall, and pass on it's tail when sunlight shone if all the folks i' the parish was dying', and she believes that 'her heart's as hard as a pebble' (Adam Bede 175). Mrs Pomfret, with whom Hetty examined the duties to be a ladies maid with notes that although Hetty 'gets prettier and prettier everyday, she'll get neither a location nor a husband the sooner for this. Sober well to do men can't stand such attractive wives' (Adam Bede 151). Hetty is aware of her beauty and 'is quite used to the idea that individuals liked to look at her' and she actually is also 'not blind to the reality', (Adam Bede 106) that she allures the interest of men. Hetty's beauty seems to set her aside from other women in a seemingly class-inscribed way and old Mrs Irwine remarks of it, 'she's a perfect beauty!. . . What a pity such beauty as that needs to be thrown away on the list of farmers' (Adam Bede 309). And since Pauline Nestor notes Hetty's 'physicality appears to overcome her little trivial spirit' as her 'body bears the burden of others' misinterpretation, as identity after figure reads in her expression what they themselves wish to find there'.
Hetty desires materials possessions and she is convinced that her beauty can be her means to get yourself a life of luxury, however, rather than marriage and the life she longs for she gets an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy. It really is a pregnancy that Hetty is not psychologically equipped to take care of as she regularly denies that she ever before was and shows little if any sentiment at her trial she appears 'down at her hands' (492) throughout the trial and has a 'blank hard indifference', standing 'like a statue of dull despair'. (494) Hetty is doubtful what she feels for the baby as she says 'I appeared to hate it', but she is sure of one thing which is that she 'longed in like manner be safe at home'. (514) Hetty is constantly associated with connotations of maternal ideology from her significantly less than caring frame of mind towards her cousin Totty and baby animals to her succeeding crime of infanticide.
'But Totty was still every day long plague. . . Hetty would have been glad to hear that she should never see a child again; these were worse than the awful little lambs that the shepherd was always attracting to be studied special treatment of in lambing time; for the lambs were eliminated earlier or later'. (174)
Gillian Beer records that Hetty's 'romantic relationship to her fee the dreadful Totty, is cool on both sides'. George R. Creeger observes of Hetty's relationship with her young cousin that Totty is an excellent measure of 'Hetty's inability to love - anyone besides herself'. Kristin Brady however, defends Hetty's indifference to Totty as she notes that:
'Hetty was brought as an orphan into her Uncle's home, not as an entire relation, but as a domestic help her aunt. . . It is not amazing, therefore, that Hetty should form a dislike for Totty, who so voraciously consumes exactly the maternal attentions that Hetty is deprived of'.
Dorothea Barrett similarly defends Hetty saying that 'the function built up against Hetty seems particularly poor', as her 'indifference to. . . children, animals. . . is utilized to discredit her', and that there is 'actually no reason. . . for Totty's baby-sitter to love her as her mother will'.
The character flaws of Arthur Donnithorne aren't implicated in the events of Hetty's downfall, though he clearly displays characteristics for which Hetty is condemned. It is after all vanity that drives Donnithorne in his seduction of Hetty, he understands that his desire to have her is impractical but he carries on in his seduction of her nonetheless. Arthur is shallow and is ready to 'pitch everything. . . for the sake of surrendering himself to the delicious sense' (Adam Bede149) that Hetty has generated in him. Joan Bennett records of Arthur that he's 'ample, impulsive, greedy for the authorization of his fellows but prone to produce to his own immediate wishes and also to trust the near future to manage itself'. Pursuing Hetty and Arthur's come across in the woods Arthur asserts he 'got not yet seen the girl who would play the girl better half to the first-rate country gentleman' (Adam Bede 497). Additionally he is frustrated by Hetty's goals of relationship 'her eye-sight was all spun by her own childish luxury' (353), and he continues on to say 'but Hetty may have had the trouble in a few other way if not in this' (354), further trivialising Hetty's fall and his own role in it. Arthur never offers to marry Hetty although he is free to achieve this task, he writes 'I know you can't ever be happy except by marrying a guy within your own stop', (376) staying tenaciously category bound throughout the novel. Arthur's rejection of Hetty is a great shock t her, her earlier dreams of becoming a 'sweetheart' are shattered by Arthur's letter but furthermore her ego. Dorothea Barrett expresses that 'Arthur exasperates us at the end of the book, definitely not because we feel he is at fault but because he is equally at fault - yet he suffers nothing at all in assessment'. And since Pauline Nestor records 'though arguably the real victim, Hetty dies, while Arthur is kept to live along with his shame and achieve some last amount of reconciliation'. At the conclusion of Adam Bede the reader is urged to believe stability is brought about by learning through suffering and consequently Arthur carrys out a form of symbolic penance by going away to struggle at warfare, on his return home he resumes his place as mind of the community, as Josephine McDonagh notes 'Arthur Donnithorne, the squire, disgraced for having seduced Hetty, is reincorporated into the community by the finish of the book'. Hetty obtains no such redemption; she in truth dies during her trip home following a completion of her phrase, thus losing her to be able to secure the acceptance of Donnithorne back into his position as brain of the city.
George Eliot provides Hetty Sorrel the ultimate punishment of fatality on her behalf ambition of marrying above her train station, therefore George Eliot was only a pseudonym utilized by Mary Ann Evans to cover up her id as a woman article writer writing in a guy dominated world so that as Dorothea Barrett says she 'had much to loose by openly sympathizing with female erotic delinquency'. Little insight is provided in to the frame of mind of Hetty Sorrel, as her thoughts and emotions are predominantly changed by the narrators own interpretation of Hetty's story so that as Gillian Beer records she 'is never herself articulate which is given incredibly little direct speech'. The narrator appears to scold Hetty for her narcissistic ways so when Kristin Brady remarks Eliot constantly reveals Hetty 'in the way she envisions herself, that is, as an erotic subject', but that pursuing Hetty's 'trip after she discovers she actually is pregnant with Donnithorne's child' that 'instantly the narrator's condescending remarks about Hetty's triviality and sensuality become veiled accusations against his own love-making. Exactly what will be the finish? He asks'. Gillian Beer however, demonstrates that Eliot's knowledge that 'the sequestration of your origin for the task has its results in the literature composition', she further considers Eliot's own knowledge as a lady copy writer 'writing purportedly as a man', when interacting with issues such as when will Hetty actually get pregnant her child and who is it that in reality impregnates her:
The maleness of the narrator is dramatised in relation to Hetty in ways that are sometimes awkward or absurd, but which indicate the down sides of distinguishing between imagining and actually creating- difficulties specifically acute for the woman article writer writing purportedly as a guy.
In conclusion the story of Hetty Sorrel's downfall is essential to the moral development of the other characters in the novel as they ultimately learn to take responsibility for their individual actions. George Eliot directed to portray through her heroes, their human relationships with one another and the eventual 'downfall' of Hetty Sorrel, that from anguish and pain there may be lessons learned plus some good could be gained from an otherwise completely bad situation. It was also Eliot's aim to express that 'commonplace life is heroic' as Beer remarks, her huge focus on Hetty Sorrel's socially taboo storyline is significantly consultant of Eliot's desire to mention the 'realism' of individual nature and the energy of emotional power, it is this in conjunction with her attention to detail that marks her distinctive method of realism. Eliot's pen name was a conscious decision to popularize her fiction in the world of the male copy writer, which means masculine speech that she adopted within Adam Bede was consistent with her knowing of the patriarchal ordered population that she lived in. It was this consciousness that lead to her condemnation of Hetty Sorrel's vanity, however, it can be discerned that it is the characters around Hetty who've provided her with the notion that she is exceptionally beautiful and that it is her most effective attribute, it isn't unusual that she seems a sense of entitlement so when Donnithorne commences to pay her attention which is not so unusual to assume that she'd envision another as his girl wife, with her at the centre receiving lone admiration from him. Though it is not inconceivable that Hetty might have married Donnithorne, an aristocratic son from the category that she so frantically wishes to participate in, what she will fail to realize is the fact his key points are very different to her own, each being bound by the worth of their own category. Though Arthur exhibits some sadness of Hetty's situation and his part in it, and uses his associations to request a partial pardon of Hetty's loss of life word to transportation he seems to respond more out of desperate to save his own conscience. If Arthur possessed merely flirted with Hetty and damaged her ego he may have annoyed her for a short while but not forever as he will by seducing her. Hetty is seventeen years old which is not yet a female with a woman's life experience, however, she actually is judged as a woman despite her obvious lack of knowledge of sexual and class moralities. Although her center is conveyed to be hard as she is merely considering herself, this may be indicative of the less than supportive influence of the Poysers and will not mean that she actually is a potential murderer, and though some critics have directed to Hetty's resentment of her role in Totty's care as somehow resulting in the eventual desertion of her own baby, it should be kept in mind that Totty is Aunt Poysers baby rather than Hettys. Hetty is guilty not of murdering her child but of momentary abandonment as she does go back to the timber where she buried the baby as she 'could listen to it crying at every step', (515) thus imagining the cries of the infant. Hetty is not given the opportunity to save the kid as it is already dead, nor is she given the chance to put right her selfish ways and adult morally. She seems only to serve concerning secure the future of her counterparts, as her history eventually provides way to the marriage of Adam Bede and Dinah Morris.
