Lisbeth, Adam and Seth's mother, occupies the middle ground between the principal characters like Adam and the background figures like Wiry Ben and his co-workers. Her principal function is to help set the novel's atmosphere with her country ways and thick country dialect; when she is on stage the reader can never forget that he is following the adventures of simple, uneducated rural folk. At the same time, she does not remain completely outside the action, but affects the course of events from time to time through her influence on Adam. This influence is subtly underlined by Eliot when she has Adam drop into the "country" dialect as he speaks with his mother.
The rough country folk introduced in these early chapters form the center of the book. Eliot sets out to write a novel about common people, in the social sense of the term, and besides emphasizing the rusticity of her main characters by their manners and mode of speech, she surrounds them with a gallery of farmers, workers, and small tradesmen. Adam resembles his mother, though the resemblance is only physical, and every day he rubs shoulders with such unsophisticated figures as Wiry Ben, Sandy Jim, Chad's Bess. The effect is clear: Adam in his adventures is to be seen not as an atypical young man, some paragon dropped down from nowhere upon a country village, but as a real flesh-and-blood carpenter, closely allied to his people and to the soil. He is exceptional with respect to strength and sensitivity, but still solidly a part of the rural scene.
Adam is a complex character, and it is of the utmost importance that the reader understand him as completely as possible. In this chapter, he is defined primarily in relation to his work. Adam is a perfectionist and has a high sense of duty; when his father fails to do the coffin he has contracted for, Adam stays up all night so that the order will be filled on time. He is described as being "roughly hewn" like one of the timbers he works on, which indicates his strength. And he is an uncomplicated soul who approaches all problems the way he approaches mechanical ones — note his high regard for "cal'clating." He feels that honest effort will solve most difficulties.
