Development of Adam Bede’s self realization through a process of emotional turmoil within him

Critics are of the view that Adam is a true and perfect human being. He is not an ordinary person. He is a towering personality. He is unique in many aspects. He is fully a matured person from the very beginning but it is not true. Though, he is a unique person, yet he is not a fully developed and mature person. In the very beginning of the novel it is clear that he is rash, proud, stiff back, self righteous, hard person. He is over serious. He lacks humour. He has a very little sympathy for the ordinary sinners which we all poor mortals are. The basic fault of his character is that he lacks the balance of head and heart which is the sign of maturity. This shows that he is not a mature person.
The whole novel shows a process by which he gradually sheds his faults of his education, enlightenment and maturity, though a process of sufferings and love; he becomes ultimately a complete man. Adam is very strong physically. His rolled up sleeves above the elbow show that he is going to win the prize for the feats of strength. He is an intelligent person. He is a skilled workman. He is very hard worker. He feels satisfied in his work. He is sincere to every person. He is sincere to his work, to his parents, friends and relatives but he is not sincere with himself. He is proud of his clarity of vision, to understand the character of others but he fails to understand himself. He does not understand Hetty also to whom he loves from the core of his heart. He is self-righteous. He thinks whatever he thinks is right. As he loves Hetty so he is forced to think that she also loves him but it is not true. He feels hesitation to express his feelings of love to Hetty.
Adam’s sense of self righteousness makes him a bit hard and unsympathetic. He becomes impatient and rash at the faults of other. He is stiff back. He is unforgiving. He becomes very harsh towards his father because he is not sincere towards his word, he is not responsible. After the death of his father he repents on his severity which is futile as now it is of no any use. The death of his father is the first step of the beginning of the process of his education and self realization. As Adam is a self righteous, proud and stiff back so he cannot learn until he suffers. Such person cannot understand any other person as he thinks that he is right and no other person has enough time to educate such a person. As true wisdom comes through sufferings when such person undergoes through a process of sufferings and mishaps then he evaluates himself to remove his faults. Till the teenage the nature of a person can be changed by elders but after teen age no body can change his nature until the person himself wants to correct himself.
Adam lacks humour, he is over serious. There is no softness or glimpse of love on his face then how Hetty can love him. She knows about him that he is rash, self righteous and hard. Moreover, Adam also does not express his feelings of love for her then how can she understand that Adam loves her. She respects him but she does not love him. She is confused about his character. When Adam finds his friend Arther making love his beloved in woods, he becomes rash and impatient. He was shocked at his confidence in his self-righteousness and clarity of vision. This was the second step of his learning and to evaluate himself that what weakness he has in his character that Hetty does not love him. Now he cannot tell her that he loves Hetty as he has come to know that somebody else has already come in her life. At this sight he becomes out of his control and fights Arthet and beats him very much. This was the only way for him to express his feelings of love for Hetty.
Adam is intelligent, diligent, trustworthy and loyal but he is not yet a mature person. The reason is that his head outweighs the heart. There is imbalance of head and heart in him. He is wrathful, unyielding and harsh. His emotional involvement with Hetty is not rational one but it is a passion that overpowers him. Adam’s heart strings are bound fast for Hetty. Perhaps it is the result of his emotional involvement with Hetty that he suffers and learns to share the sufferings of others. Adam suffers when he sees Arther and Hetty together in the woods. He suffers at various times when Arther has left Hayslope, the marriage of Adam and Hetty is fixed but when she feels that she cannot conceal her pregnancy. Moreover, she feels suffocated as her feelings and thinking cannot be restricted. Her short meeting with Arther overpowers her and she leaves home in search of Arther. Secondly, she does not want to hurt Adam. Again Adam suffers when he thinks that Hetty has run away to avoid their approaching marriage. This is the third step of the process of his education and self- realization. Hetty does not tell Adam anything as he has lost his trust by beating Arther.
When Hetty has left Hayslope, after some days she gives birth to a baby but the baby dies. People think that she herself has killed her baby when Adam hears that Hetty is arrested and tried for child-murder, he suffers still more. He suffers from deep spiritual anguish but his response is much different from Hetty. Adam lusts for revenge but Irwine tells him that to injure Arther will not help Hetty. Adam when goes to Hetty he comes to realize that now he cannot marry Hetty and Hetty cannot become his wife. So, he helps her as a friend. At the end when Hetty is taken for execution, Arther comes with bail and goes but Adam does not beat him. He cannot understand the love of Hetty and Arther. Adam’s maturity enables him to forgive Arther and it makes him capable of a new sort of love. He realizes the truth that “Love does not exist without sympathy; sympathy does not exist without suffering in common”.
Dinnah and Adam have common painful memories of Hetty. Such common sufferings give rise to mutual sympathy, love follows sympathy and it is fitness of things that they should come together and get married. This love leads to the fulfillment of his personality and process of his growth and maturity is completed. Now there is a full integration of head and heart.
It may be concluded that Adam Bede is a round character. In the whole novel there is development of Adam Bede’s self realization through a process of emotional sufferings within him.