Hetty's World
- Now, we've just spent chapters on the Bede family's troubles, but how much do these troubles matter to Hetty? Answer (without any sugarcoating): 0%. The truth is, "Hetty was thinking a great deal more of the looks Captain Donnithorne had cast at her than of Adam and his troubles" (9.1).
- Okay then… What are we supposed to make of Hetty? Loathe her? Despise her? Not quite. She's not a heroic type, but she isn't a terrible person. Instead, she thinks a lot (perhaps too much) about the many, many men who have crushes on her.
- These men include a slouching, silent fellow named Luke Britton and a flowery (no pun intended) gardener named Mr. Craig. And Adam, who's a real catch, and who's the one the Poysers want her to pursue.
- Adam spends a lot of time lingering around the Hall Farm, but "Hetty had never given Adam any steady encouragement" (9.4). He just doesn't have that "special something" she wants. But now she's found somebody who does—Arthur Donnithorne.
- Until now, Hetty and Arthur have always been at a distance from each other. True, Hetty sometimes helps out around the Donnithorne mansion. But today Arthur spoke to her. And Hetty—who dreams of carriage rides, and fine clothes, and getting the heck off the Hall Farm—is forming a fantasy: she'll be the love of Arthur's life.
- Meanwhile, Arthur Donnithorne has had a revelation or two of his own. He and Mr. Irwine are just riding along, minding their own business, when Irwine asks: "What so fascinated you in Mrs. Poyser's dairy, Arthur?" (9.7).
- Arthur can't help admitting that this "fascination" was Hetty. Mr. Irwine has no problem with this, so long as Arthur simply contemplates Hetty "in an artistic light" (9.9).
- And what other light is there, for our favorite Donnithorne? Arthur believes that Hetty would be "a capital match for Adam" (9.10). So we can assume that he'll just continue with his "artistic" contemplation, right?