The Rector
- Okay, this is weird. George Eliot just killed off her main character's father. We're all in suspense, waiting, waiting like mad, when suddenly, suddenly… it's time to meet the local clergyman. Whoa, anticlimax.
- Eliot begins the chapter by describing the "heavy storms of rain" that break out soon after Thais Bede is found dead (5.1). Even the skies are sad. But inside his house, "Rev. Adolphus Irwine, Rector of Broxton, Vicar of Hayslope" is enjoying a game of chess with his elderly, well-preserved mother (5.2).
- We don't know much about Irwine yet, but we do know that he and his mum are living the good life. We also know that he's got to deal with a dude named Joshua Rann who makes "very deferential bows" (5.13). Joshua Rann: the closest thing the Church of England has to a gigantic teacher's pet. Get used to him. He's going to be here for a few pages.
- After delivering some run-of-the-mill news, Joshua explains that he's upset about some recent goings-on. The town has "thieves, an' a thievin' the church, too. It's the Methodisses as is like to get th' upper hand i' th' parish" (5.19). Translation: the Methodists are trying to become the #1 church in town.
- Joshua the Apple-Shiner starts to tattle out particular "Methodisses," such as Dinah and a craftsman named Will Maskery, "the rampageousest Methodis as can be" (59.5).
- But Mr. Irwine isn't ready to start a crusade—certainly not at the bidding of this guy. He reassures Joshua: "As to people saying a few idle words about us, we must not mind that, any more than the old church-steeple minds the rooks cawing about it" (5.25).
- So out goes Joshua, and in comes our next special guest on the Parson Irwine Show. And it's none other than Arthur Donnithorne, heir to the estate that Mr. Irwine serves.
- Young Arthur is the kind of "dear-complexioned young Englishman whom you have met with in a foreign town, and be proud of as a fellow-countryman" (5.37). Oh yeah, and he's also suffered a riding accident. Nobody's perfect.
- But Arthur isn't just a fine specimen of a "dear-complexioned young Englishman." He's also the bearer of bad news. Irwine and his mother learn of Thias Bede's death from him. Irwine also returns to our earlier segment and vents a little about "Joshua's denunciation of his neighbor Will Maskery" (5.50). Totally unnecessary. But it did spice things up, didn't it?
- Sadly, folks, the Parson Irwine Show is going to be ending early today. Mr. Irwine has "a little matter to attend to" (5.60).
- Before he sets about the rest of his day, he goes to see his invalid sisters, "inartistic figures crowding the canvas of life without adequate effect" (5.62). Well that sounds duller than a pile of bricks.
- That said, Eliot isn't condemning Irwine for indulging these dull gals. In fact, the narrator has a lot of appreciation for Irwine's "thoughtful care for the everyday wants of everyday companions" (5.65). He isn't a saint, but who on earth (or at least in Hayslope) is?