Adam Bede Summary

Adam Bede follows four characters in the rural village of Hayslope in 1799. It opens
with the Bede brothers, Adam and Seth, at work in a carpentry shop. The other men
tease Seth about his Methodism and the fact that he is in love with Dinah, the
Methodist preacher. Dinah preaches in Hayslope that night and captivates even her
skeptical audience. Seth walks her home and asks her to marry him for the second
time, but she refuses, saying that it will interfere with her preaching.
Adam returns home to his mother, who is worried that his father is not yet home
because he has promised to make a coffin for the next day. Thias Bede used to be an
honorable man who taught his sons carpentry, but he has become a drunk in the last
few years. Angry with his father, Adam stays up the whole night to complete the
work on the coffin. He hears a strange rapping on the door, but nobody is there.
Captain Arthur Donnithorne visits his mentor, the vicar, and tells him about Dinah's
preaching. They travel together to visit the Poyser farm so that the vicar can meet
Dinah. At the Poysers' farm, Mrs. Poyser's niece, Dinah, and Mr. Poyser's niece are
living with their aunt and uncle. Captain Arthur Donnithorne, whose aristocratic
grandfather is the Poysers' landlord, asks to see Mrs. Poyser's dairy, while Dinah
impresses the vicar by explaining to him why she feels called to preach. In the dairy,
Arthur flirts with Hetty and ascertains that she walks alone to his estate to learn lacemaking from his housekeeper.
In the morning, Adam sets out to the village pub to find his father, but he finds him
face-down, drowned in a stream. The news of the Bedes' misfortune spreads fast
around the village, and Dinah visitsLisbeth Bede to comfort her. Despite the fact that
she does not usually like Methodists--or any young women who she suspects could
take her place in her sons' affections--Lisbeth takes to Dinah. She stays overnight
with the Bedes to help Lisbeth.
Arthur intercepts Hetty in the woods on her way to his estate. He flirts with her and
kisses her. After she goes home, he decides that it is not a good idea to lead her on,
and he resolves not to see her in the future. That night, Hetty dreams of marrying
Arthur, becoming a gentlewoman, and owning beautiful women. Dinah surprises
and frightens her by knocking on her door and saying that if she is ever in trouble,
she should come to Dinah.
There is a well-attended burial service in the parish for Thias Bede. Adam visits the
Poysers afterward to continue his well-established courtship of Hetty. Hetty's uncle

and aunt both approve highly of the match, but Adam is frustrated because he cannot
tell whether Hetty loves him or not. After this visit, he attends night-school, where
he is learning mathematics to improve his skill at carpentry. Bartle Massey, the
schoolmaster, tells him that he would be better off to stay a bachelor.
Arthur's and Hetty's secret affair continues, and he gives her a pair of beautiful
earrings and a locket. At a celebration for Arthur's twenty-first birthday, he
announces that he has appointed Adam Bede the steward for his estate's forest. This
appointment will finally make Adam financially viable enough to ask Hetty to marry
him.
Walking through the woods a few days later, Adam is reflecting on how happy he is
until he sees Arthur and Hetty kissing. Hetty runs away, and Adam confronts Arthur.
The two get in a fistfight, and Adam knocks Arthur down. He makes Arthur promise
to write a letter to Hetty that will end the affair. Adam personally delivers this letter
to Hetty, who is devastated. The letter says, however, to call on Arthur if she is in
any real trouble. Hetty tries to think of how she can get out of her situation and
decides that her best move would be to marry Adam. Adam thinks that she has
learned from her mistakes. They get engaged.
As the marriage approaches, Hetty grows more and more worried. She gladly accepts
as a pretext to run away her uncle's idea that she should leave to fetch Dinah from
where she is preaching in Snowden. She takes all of her money and follows Arthur
to Windsor where he has been stationed as a soldier. It takes all of her money to
arrive there, and when she is informed that Arthur's troops have been sent to Ireland,
she faints away. She remembers her cousin's invitation to look to her if she is ever
in trouble. Hetty sets off in the opposite direction with the resolution that if she is
too cowardly to commit suicide, she will find Dinah.
Hetty's family becomes worried when she does not return after a number of days,
and Adam Bede sets out in search of her. When he arrives in Hayslope, he finds that
she has never visited to collect Dinah at all. Alarmed, he traces her to Stoniton. When
he returns back to Hayslope, the vicar informs him that she has just been arrested for
the murder of her own child.
Adam is convinced that she is innocent until he attends her trial and sees the
incontrovertible proof against her. One of the witnesses is a woman in whose house
she delivered the baby. Another is a workingman who saw her near the spot where
she partially buried the baby in a field before it died of exposure. Hetty is sentenced
to execution. Dinah visits her in prison, persuades her to confess for the first time,
and gives her spiritual counseling.

Adam has sent for Arthur, who receives word first that his grandfather has died, so
Arthur returns to Hayslope without knowing what has happened to Hetty. When he
hears the news, he rushes to get a special pardon for her. It is delivered in the nick
of time. He rides up to where Hetty is riding in the death cart accompanied by Dinah
with the pardon. Hetty is re-sentenced to exile rather than death. Adam and Arthur
meet again and agree to end their old argument. Arthur says that he is joining the
military, and the two shake hands.
Years later, Adam visits the Poysers as they try to convince Dinah not to leave on
her preaching circuit yet again. She insists that she must go because of personal
temptations. When Adam says that whatever she chooses will be right, she begins to
cry. He brings her home to his mother, who is ill and wanted to see Dinah again.
Dinah blushes every time that Adam talks to her, and Seth and Lisbeth see that she
is in love with him. Lisbeth informs her son, who, after asking his brother's
permission, asks her to marry him. She refuses, saying that her first priority is
religion. She leaves for Leeds to preach. After she has been gone for a few days,
Adam follows her to where she is preaching. He meets her on a hill, and she admits
that she has been listening to her heart and what God is trying to tell her--and that it
is to marry him. The two marry, and the epilogue depicts them living happily with
their entire family, including two children.