Eliot’s Scientific Modernism: Newton, Einstein, and Adam Bede

Abstract This exploratory article argues that Eliot uses figurative language to embody her knowledge of theoretical physics by poetically infusing plot structure with moral meaning in Adam Bede, which contains a unified vision of characters, societal milieu, and astrophysical environment. The article’s interpretive analysis demonstrates the influence of Newton’s and, by implication, Einstein’s theoretical physics in Adam Bede’s text, which links characters to their natural environment, analogically identifying them with sun, moon, and Earth. Adam Bede’s key chapters highlight metaphorical solar-lunar imagery inspired by Newton’s laws of motion in the solar system, and amenable to comparisons with Einstein’s empirical photoelectric effect and relativity theory. Blinded by ignorance and arrogance, lunar Hetty and solar Arthur fall into a prolonged collision that violates societal norms personified in earthy Adam. The feminist social conscience of Eliot outpaces Lewes, who advised her to relegate sexually exploited Hetty to a short story, urging her to make mercurial evangelistic Dinah the novel’s female protagonist. Commensurate with Adam Bede’s analogical Newtonian character depiction, Eliot shows narratological inventiveness consistent with her knowledge of mathematics and hard sciences, amalgamating omniscient Newtonian narration interspersed with Einsteinian terse asides, indirect discourse, and avant-garde stream-of-consciousness technique.