Adam Bede - Characters

Characters

• The Bede family:
  • Adam Bede is described as a tall, stalwart, moral, and unusually competent carpenter. He is 26 years old at the beginning of the novel, and bears an "expression of large-hearted intelligence."
  • Seth Bede is Adam's younger brother, and is also a carpenter, but he is not particularly competent, and "...his glance, instead of being keen, is confiding and benign."
  • Lisbeth Bede is Adam's and Seth's mother. She is "an anxious, spare, yet vigorous old woman, clean as a snowdrop."
  • Thias (Matthias) Bede is Adam's and Seth's father. He has become an alcoholic, and drowns in Chapter IV while returning from a tavern.
  • Gyp is Adam's dog, who follows his every move, and looks "..up in his master's face with patient expectation."
• The Poyser family:
  • Martin Poyser and his wife rent Hall Farm from Squire Donnithorne and have turned it into a very successful enterprise. ** Marty and Tommy Poyser are their sons.
  • Totty Poyser is their somewhat spoiled and frequently petulant toddler.
  • Hetty Sorrel is Mr. Poyser's orphaned niece, who lives and works at the Poyser farm. Her beauty, as described by George Eliot, is the sort "which seems made to turn the heads not only of men, but of all intelligent mammals, even of women."
  • Dinah Morris is another orphaned niece of the Poysers. She is also beautiful - "It was one of those faces that make one think of white flowers with light touches of colour on their pure petals" - but has chosen to become an itinerant Methodist preacher, and dresses very plainly.
• The Irwine family:
  • Adolphus Irwine is the Rector, or pastor, of Broxton. He is patient and tolerant, and his expression is a "mixture of bonhomie and distinction". He lives with his mother and sister.
  • Mrs. Irwine, his mother, is "...clearly one of those children of royalty who have never doubted their right divine and never met with any one so absurd as to question it."
  • Pastor Irwine's sister, Miss Anne, is an invalid. His gentleness is illustrated by a passage in which he takes the time to remove his boots before going upstairs to visit her, lest she be disturbed by noise. She and the pastor's other sister are unmarried.
• The Donnithorne family:
  • Squire Donnithorne owns an estate.
  • Arthur Donnithorne, his grandson, stands to inherit the estate; he is twenty years old at the opening of the novel. He is a handsome and charming sportsman.
• Other characters
  • Bartle Massey is the local schoolteacher, a somewhat misogynist bachelor who has taught Adam Bede.
  • Mr. Craig is the gardener at the Donnithorne estate.
  • Jonathan Burge is Adam's employer at a carpentry workshop.
  • Villagers in the area include Ben Cranage, Chad Cranage, his daughter Chad's Bess, and Joshua Rann.