Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews February 10, 2023 February 3, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
See the difference between the impression a man makes on you when you walk by his side in familiar talk, or look at him in his home, and the figure he makes when seen from a lofty historical level, or even in the eyes of a critical neighbor who thinks of him as an embodied system or opinion rather than as a man.
In chapter 5, the narrator describes Mr. Irwine from the perspective of his domestic situation. Mr. Irwine has chosen to remain a bachelor in order to care for his mother and sisters, likes a leisurely morning before a day of hard work, and is kind to his dogs. These details make Mr. Irwine a real man, rather than a mere figurehead or even merely the rector of Hayslope. This interjection comes after first meeting Mr. Irwine, whom the narrator has gone to great lengths to personalize.
Eliot uses this personal approach to all of the characters for two reasons. First, Eliot encourages readers not to judge their neighbors harshly but rather to accept those them for who they are. This approach to interpersonal relationships stems in part from Eliot’s realist approach to novel writing and partly from her worldview. Realism demands that Eliot describe her characters as they are, not as ideas or in conformation with some literary ideal. Real people, of course, have domestic lives as well as public ones, so it is important that Mr. Irwine’s home life be part of the realist novel. Eliot’s worldview, which requires suspension of judgment on the basis of things like class, religion, and gender, also fits with this kind of description. None of the characters in Adam Bede is wholly good or wholly bad. None of them is easy to judge.
Second, the personal approach encourages religious tolerance, of which Mr. Irwine is a prime example. Eliot writes in an age of religious tension in England, and she wants to encourage a gentler approach to conversion and religion. Mr. Irwine, with his tolerance of Dinah and the other Methodists, might be viewed by some readers as too lax. Eliot seeks to show that he is motivated by love. To reveal his motivations, she must show him in his home and help us understand and respect him. That is why it is important to Eliot that Mr. Irwine not be seen as an “embodied system or opinion.”
Please wait while we process your payment