I think one of my difficulties with Adam Bede is that she begins to lose interest a little bit in the figure of the beautiful, but not actually very bright, village girl, whose seduction is an important part of the story, and by the end of the book we feel that she's actually bored with Hettie, isn't really concerned any longer to explore Hettie's own sufferings as the other woman who has been badly treated by the rascally gentleman.