Silas Marner

Silas
Marner
George Eliot

full title · Silas
Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe


author · George
Eliot


type of work · Novel


genre · Victorian
novel, novel of manners, pastoral fiction


language · English


time and place written ·
1860–61, London


date of first publication ·
1861


publisher · William
Blackwood and Sons


narrator · An
anonymous omniscient speaker with no part in the plot


point of view · The
narrator speaks in the omniscient third person, describing what the characters
are seeing, feeling, and thinking and what they are failing to see, feel, and
think. The narrator uses the first person singular “I,” but at no point enters
the story as a character. Near the beginning, a personal story unrelated to the
action of the novel is relayed to provide corroborating evidence for a
generalization, hinting that the narrator is a real person.


tone · Morally
uncompromising, slightly condescending, but nevertheless deeply sympathetic to
characters’ failings


tense · Past


setting (time) · The
“early years” of the nineteenth century


setting (place) · Raveloe,
a fictional village in the English countryside


protagonist · Silas
Marner


major conflict · Silas
Marner lives for a long time without any connection to other human beings or
his youthful faith in God. Though he does not struggle to find purpose and
connection in his life, the novel is about his recovery of purpose, faith, and
community through his finding Eppie.


rising action · Silas
spends fifteen years in relative isolation, amassing a hoard of gold coins that
is then stolen by Dunstan Cass.


climax · Eppie
appears in Silas’s cottage, and he decides to adopt her.


falling action · When
Godfrey fails to claim Eppie as his daughter and marries Nancy, Silas raises Eppie. Silas’s love and
care for Eppie make him a revered member of the Raveloe community, ending his
isolation. Sixteen years later, Godfrey admits that he is Eppie’s father and
tries to adopt her, but she elects to stay with Silas.


themes · The
individual versus the community; character as destiny; the interdependence of
faith and community


motifs · The
natural world; domesticity; class


symbols · Silas’s
loom; Lantern Yard; the hearth


Context




George Eliot was the pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans,
born in 1819 at the estate of her father’s
employer in Chilvers Coton, Warwickshire,
England. She
was sent to boarding school, where she developed a strong religious faith,
deeply influenced by the evangelical preacher Rev. John Edmund Jones. After her
mother’s death, Evans moved with her father to the city of Coventry. There she met Charles and Caroline
Bray, progressive intellectuals who led her to question her faith. In 1842 she stopped going to church, and this renunciation
of her faith put a strain on Evans’s relationship with her father that did not
ease for several years.
Character List






Silas
Marner - A simple, honest,
and kindhearted weaver. After losing faith in both God and his fellow man,
Silas lives for fifteen years as a solitary miser. After his money is stolen,
his faith and trust are restored by his adopted daughter, Eppie, whom he
lovingly raises.


Godfrey
Cass - The eldest son of
Squire Cass. Godfrey is good-natured but selfish and weak-willed. He knows what
is right but is unwilling to pay the price for obeying his conscience.


Eppie - A girl whom Silas Marner eventually
adopts. Eppie is the biological child of Godfrey Cass and Molly Farren,
Godfrey’s secret wife. Eppie is pretty and spirited, and loves Silas
unquestioningly.


Nancy
Lammeter - The object of
Godfrey’s affection and his eventual wife. Nancy is pretty, caring, and stubborn, and
she lives her life by a code of rules that sometimes seems arbitrary and
uncompromising.


Dunstan
Cass - Godfrey’s younger
brother. Dunsey, as he is usually called, is cruel, lazy, and unscrupulous, and
he loves gambling and drinking.


Squire
Cass - The wealthiest man
in Raveloe. The Squire is lazy, self-satisfied, and short-tempered.



Plot Overview






Silas Marner is the weaver in the English
countryside village
of Raveloe in the early
nineteenth century. Like many weavers of his time, he is an outsider—the object
of suspicion because of his special skills and the fact that he has come to
Raveloe from elsewhere. The villagers see Silas as especially odd because of
the curious cataleptic fits he occasionally suffers. Silas has ended up in
Raveloe because the members of his religious sect in Lantern Yard, an insular
neighborhood in a larger town, falsely accused him of theft and excommunicated
him.


Much
shaken after the accusation, Silas finds nothing familiar in Raveloe to
reawaken his faith and falls into a numbing routine of solitary work. His one
attempt at neighborliness backfires: when an herbal remedy he suggests for a
neighbor’s illness works, he is rumored to be a sort of witch doctor. With
little else to live for, Silas becomes infatuated with the money he earns for
his work and hoards it, living off as little as possible. Every night he pulls
his gold out from its hiding place beneath his floorboards to count it. He
carries on in this way for fifteen years.


Squire
Cass is the wealthiest man in Raveloe, and his two eldest sons are Godfrey and
Dunstan, or Dunsey. Dunsey is greedy and cruel, and enjoys tormenting Godfrey,
the eldest son. Godfrey is good-natured but weak-willed, and, though secretly
married to the opium addict Molly Farren, he is in love with Nancy Lammeter.
Dunsey talked Godfrey into the marriage and repeatedly blackmails him with
threats to reveal the marriage to their father. Godfrey gives Dunsey 100 pounds
of the rent money paid to him by one of their father’s tenants. Godfrey then
finds himself in a bind when Dunsey insists that Godfrey repay the sum himself.
Dunsey once again threatens to reveal Godfrey’s marriage but, after some
arguing, offers to sell Godfrey’s prize horse, Wildfire, to repay the loan.


The
next day, Dunsey meets with some friends who are hunting and negotiates the
sale of the horse. Dunsey decides to participate in the hunt before finalizing
the sale, and, in doing so, he has a riding accident that kills the horse.
Knowing the rumors of Silas’s hoard, Dunsey makes plans to intimidate the
weaver into lending him money. His walk home takes him by Silas’s cottage, and,
finding the cottage empty, Dunsey steals the money instead.


Silas
returns from an errand to find his money gone. Overwhelmed by the loss, he runs
to the local tavern for help and announces the theft to a sympathetic audience
of tavern regulars. The theft becomes the talk of the village, and a theory
arises that the thief might have been a peddler who came through the village
some time before. Godfrey, meanwhile, is distracted by thoughts of Dunsey, who
has not returned home. After hearing that Wildfire has been found dead, Godfrey
decides to tell his father about the money, though not about his marriage. The
Squire flies into a rage at the news, but does not do anything drastic to
punish Godfrey.


Silas
is utterly disconsolate at the loss of his gold and numbly continues his
weaving. Some of the townspeople stop by to offer their condolences and advice.
Among these visitors, Dolly Winthrop stands out. Like many of the others, she
encourages Silas to go to church—something he has not done since he was
banished from Lantern Yard—but she is also gentler and more genuinely
sympathetic.





Nancy
Lammeter arrives at Squire Cass’s famed New Year’s dance resolved to reject
Godfrey’s advances because of his unsound character. However, Godfrey is more
direct and insistent than he has been in a long time, and Nancy finds herself exhilarated by the
evening in spite of her resolution. Meanwhile, Molly, Godfrey’s secret wife, is
making her way to the Casses’ house to reveal the secret marriage. She has
their daughter, a toddler, in her arms. Tiring after her long walk, Molly takes
a draft of opium and passes out by the road. Seeing Silas’s cottage and drawn
by the light of the fire, Molly’s little girl wanders through the open door and
falls asleep at Silas’s hearth.




Silas
is having one of his fits at the time and does not notice the little girl enter
his cottage. When he comes to, he sees her already asleep on his hearth, and is
as stunned by her appearance as he was by the disappearance of his money. A
while later, Silas traces the girl’s footsteps outside and finds Molly’s body
lying in the snow. Silas goes to the Squire’s house to find the doctor, and
causes a stir at the dance when he arrives with the baby girl in his arms.
Godfrey, recognizing his daughter, accompanies the doctor to Silas’s cottage.
When the doctor declares that Molly is dead, Godfrey realizes that his secret
is safe. He does not claim his daughter, and Silas adopts her.
Silas
grows increasingly attached to the child and names her Eppie, after his mother
and sister. With Dolly Winthrop’s help, Silas raises the child lovingly. Eppie
begins to serve as a bridge between Silas and the rest of the villagers, who
offer him help and advice and have come to think of him as an exemplary person
because of what he has done. Eppie also brings Silas out of the benumbed state
he fell into after the loss of his gold. In his newfound happiness, Silas
begins to explore the memories of his past that he has long repressed.


The
novel jumps ahead sixteen years. Godfrey has married Nancy and Squire Cass has died. Godfrey has
inherited his father’s house, but he and Nancy have no children. Their one
daughter died at birth, and Nancy
has refused to adopt. Eppie has grown into a pretty and spirited young woman,
and Silas a contented father. The stone-pit behind Silas’s cottage is drained
to water neighboring fields, and Dunsey’s skeleton is found at the bottom,
along with Silas’s gold. The discovery frightens Godfrey, who becomes convinced
that his own secrets are destined to be uncovered as well. He confesses the
truth to Nancy
about his marriage to Molly and fathering of Eppie. Nancy is not angry but regretful, saying that
they could have adopted Eppie legitimately if Godfrey had told her earlier.


That
evening, Godfrey and Nancy decide to visit Silas’s cottage to confess the truth
of Eppie’s lineage and claim her as their daughter. However, after hearing
Godfrey and Nancy’s
story, Eppie tells them she would rather stay with Silas than live with her
biological father. Godfrey and Nancy leave, resigning themselves to helping
Eppie from afar. The next day Silas decides to visit Lantern Yard to see if he
was ever cleared of the theft of which he was accused years before. The town
has changed almost beyond recognition, though, and Silas’s old chapel has been
torn down to make way for a new factory. Silas realizes that his questions will
never be answered, but he is content with the sense of faith he has regained
through his life with Eppie. That summer Eppie is married to Aaron Winthrop,
Dolly’s son. Aaron comes to live in Silas’s cottage, which has been expanded
and refurbished at Godfrey’s expense.








Dolly
Winthrop - The
wheelwright’s wife who helps Silas with Eppie. Dolly later becomes Eppie’s
godmother and mother-in-law. She is kind, patient, and devout.


Molly
Farren - Godfrey’s secret
wife and Eppie’s mother. Once pretty, Molly has been destroyed by her
addictions to opium and alcohol.


William
Dane - Silas’s proud and
priggish best friend from his childhood in Lantern Yard. William Dane frames
Silas for theft in order to bring disgrace upon him, then marries Silas’s
fiancée, Sarah.


Mr.
Macey - Raveloe’s parish
clerk. Mr. Macey is opinionated and smug but means well.


Aaron
Winthrop - Dolly’s son and
Eppie’s eventual husband.


Priscilla
Lammeter - Nancy’s homely and
plainspoken sister. Priscilla talks endlessly but is extremely competent at
everything she does.


Sarah - Silas’s fiancée in Lantern Yard. Sarah
is put off by Silas’s strange fit and ends up marrying William Dane after Silas
is disgraced.


Mr.
Lammeter - Nancy’s and
Priscilla’s father. Mr. Lammeter is a proud and morally uncompromising man.


Jem
Rodney - A somewhat
disreputable character and a poacher. Jem sees Silas in the midst of one of
Silas’s fits. Silas later accuses Jem of stealing his gold.


Mr.
Kimble - Godfrey’s uncle
and Raveloe’s doctor. Mr. Kimble is usually an animated conversationalist and
joker, but becomes irritable when he plays cards. He has no medical degree and
inherited the position of village physician from his father.


Mr.
Dowlas - The town farrier,
who shoes horses and tends to general livestock diseases. Mr. Dowlas is a
fiercely contrarian person, much taken with his own opinions.


Mr.
Snell - The landlord of
the Rainbow, a local tavern. By nature a conciliatory person, Mr. Snell always
tries to settle arguments.


The
peddler - An anonymous peddler
who comes through Raveloe some time before the theft of Silas’s gold. The
peddler is a suspect in the theft because of his gypsylike appearance—and for
lack of a better candidate.


Bryce - A friend of both Godfrey and Dunsey.
Bryce arranges to buy Wildfire, Dunsey’s horse.


Miss
Gunns - Sisters from a
larger nearby town who come to the Squire’s New Year’s dance. The Misses Gunn
are disdainful of Raveloe’s rustic ways, but are nonetheless impressed by Nancy
Lammeter’s beauty.


Sally
Oates - Silas’s neighbor
and the wheelwright’s wife. Silas eases the pain of Sally’s heart disease and
dropsy with a concoction he makes out of foxglove.



Themes, Motifs & Symbols
Themes



Themes are the
fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

• The Individual Versus the Community
  
• Character as Destiny
  
• The Interdependence of Faith and
  Community
  

Motifs




Motifs are recurring
structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform
the text’s major themes.

• The Natural World
  
• Domesticity
  
• Class
  

Symbols






Symbols are objects,
characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

• Silas’s Loom
  
• Lantern Yard
  
• The Hearth
  

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