The four chief characters of the novel come together, at least through references, in the epilogue. Adam and Dinah are happy together. Arthur, having made his symbolic penance, is ready to take up a realistic and benevolent life. Hetty is dead; unlike Arthur, she has not been given a second chance. Hetty's death is functionally necessary; it places the final bit of emphasis on the moral of the novel, the expression of which Eliot gives to the other sinner, Arthur: "There's a sort of wrong that can never be made up for." With this sober warning ringing in the reader's ears, the novel ends on a peaceful, but chastened, note.
