Throughout Adam Bede the characters of Dinah Morris and Hetty Sorrell are compared and contrasted, albeit sometimes indirectly, both can, at times, represent the Madonna and the harlot. It is not always clear which woman is the harlot and which is the Madonna. Many critics have commented on the exchange in roles and the position of such a woman in pre-Victorian society. Dinah is a pillar of the society, a good hardworking girl who is a credit to the Poyser family, pretty but not beautiful by Hetty's standards. Dinah is unusual in that her vocation goods beyond dairy work, she is a Methodist preacher, this is the only thing frowned upon by some members of the society. On the other hand, Hetty is aesthetically beautiful, but is simple and vain; she views work as something that ruins her hands. The opinion of much of the village is that...