Silas Marner

Coincidence, or chance, is a key driver of the plot in this novel. Some instances of chance are outlined below: It is chance that sends the good-hearted Silas into exile from his religious...

The action in George Eliot’s realistic novel Silas Marner takes place early in the nineteenth century. Protagonist Silas is a linen weaver by trade. He is a simple and religious person. The...

One element of Romanticism present throughout the novel Silas Marner concerns the idealization of children and the state of childhood in general. Romantics tended to believe that children embodied...

While there may be various types of irony in Elliot's Silas Marner, Elliot emphasizes situational irony. Situational irony is defined as situations in which events occur that seem oddly appropriate...

Raveloe is described directly and indirectly in chapter 1. It is first depicted as a place "where many of the old echoes lingered, undrowned by new voices" This is an indication that the town has...

Upon finding out that his gold was missing, Silas had a series of reactions that became a chain of events which led to Silas's ultimate breakdown. Interestingly, this horrible moment was also the...

The Rainbow Inn, a village inn and tavern, is the social center for both the more affluent residents of Raveloe as well as for others. After he discovers that his gold is missing, Silas Marner...

In George Eliot's novel Silas Marner, Eppie is the child of Godfrey Cass and Molly Farren. Already, just by looking at her parents, we see how Eppie fits a specific role. Remember, Molly is poor,...

Certainly, in Eliot's work, there is a life-likeness to the tale of Silas Marner that is not mitigated by the symbols; rather, as in real life, they underscore the true values in life. Lantern...

Silas Marner moves to Raveloe in shame after being falsely accused of stealing from his church. When Silas moves to Raveloe, he leaves behind a full life in Lantern Yard and a community who once...

Gold means everything to Silas Marner. He loves acquiring it, touching it, and hoarding it. It has become a substitute for the meaningful human relationships his life so patently lacks. So we can...

Silas went to the Red House to get a doctor for the woman and baby he found. In chapter 13, Silas discovers Molly and her baby. He goes to the Red House to find a doctor, because Molly is dying....

According to one description, Victorian literature is typified by “idealized portraits of difficult lives in which hard work, perseverance, love and luck” prevail over hardship and struggle. The...

Silas was an active member of the town of Lantern Yard. His life, as part 1 of the novel states, had “movement, mental activity, and close fellowship”. This is important to point out because...

The Cass family is one of the most prominent, wealthy families in Raveloe and are revered throughout their society. Squire Cass is the head of the household and is considered Raveloe's greatest...

One lesson in Silas Marner is that people are often accused unfairly simply because they are different. For example, Silas Marner has a "cataleptic fit" during church, and his friend William says,...

In a dynamic move that surprises everyone at Raveloe, Silas Marner gives more importance to the discovery of Eppie than to the loss of the money. To Silas, the gold went " to I don't know where",...

Dunstan Cass is depicted as a drunken, selfish man, who has spent a significant amount of money that belongs to his father. When Godfrey insists that Dunstan come up with money to avoid their...

The New Year's party at the Red House is hosted by the Squire Cass. His son Godfrey Cass helps Nancy Lammeter down from her carriage (much to her dismay, as she is trying to avoid his advances)....

When Dunstan takes Wildfire to sell it, wildfire is killed and Dunstan decides to rob Silas. Dunstan is a selfish brat. He takes the horse Wildfire to sell because the family needs money. He...

The Industrial Revolution did of course have widespread ramifications on class in English society, as the position of the working class became much more difficult and trying than before and it also...

We are told in Chapter 14 about the attempts of Silas to discipline Eppie as she grows up and gets into the kind of mischief that all children do. When she first wanders off and gets all dirty, he...

Godfrey is a push-over, basically. He got involved with a woman for a brief instance and ended up getting her pregnant, marrying her, and hence destroying his possibilities with the person whom he...

After the passage of sixteen years, Eppie is an eighteen-year-old beauty. She feels a little self-conscious about her seemingly unruly hair but is otherwise sanguine in temperament. The teenage...

Silas's life in Lantern Yard before he came to the outskirts of Raveloe is described as being full of "movement" and "mental activity." Silas Marner was a faithful man, and he had many friends and...

You might want to approach this question by thinking about what themes the novel tries to communicate. Certainly this story operates as a kind of fable about the redemptive power of love as we see...

I would agree with you that Godfrey and Eppie are both static characters. While some may argue for Godfrey to be dynamic since he does, in the end, claim Eppie, I feel that that situation is...

Previously in Chapter 4 of Silas Marner, the dissolute Dunstan Cass has rashly ruined his brother's horse that he was sent to sell, and having already considered robbing Marner, he sets off on his...

In writing about Nancy Lammeter, you might want to think about what role she plays in the novel. We know she is beautiful and morally conventional, and also that Godfrey wishes to marry her and...

Silas is regarded with a mixture of awe, suspicion, and curiosity by the people of Raveloe. He isn't the kind of person you see every day in this neck of the woods. Raveloe is the kind of place...

Having moved from the lovely countryside of England to London, where she encountered rejection by Victorian society because of her living openly with a married man, George Eliot, née Mary Anne...

In chapter 4, Wildfire is supposed to be sold. Dunstan knows that his brother Godfrey is secretly married, so he tries to blackmail him. As a result, Godfrey agrees to let Dunstan sell Wildfire....

George Eliot's use of flashback in Part I of Silas Marner allows the reader valuable insight into Silas Marner's history. This flashback is shown, or illustrated, by Eliot's use of phrases like...

Though Silas Marner might come across as a bit of an antisocial oddball to his neighbors in Raveloe, in actual fact, he's a kind, decent man who's been wronged by society. Falsely accused of theft...

When Eppie comes into his life, Silas Marner is saved from total despair and given purpose to his life. Before the pretty little Eppie crawled into his dismal cottage, Silas Marner was a man who...

This short chapter accurately describes the change in fortune that Godfrey has experienced. With the death of his wife, and the removal of his brother, Dunstan, his secret is truly a secret and the...

George Eliot made this comment in a letter she wrote at the same time she was composing Silas Marner. It is a typical Eliot sentiment, as she believed her whole life that people could not get reach...

When Silas Marner returns to Lantern Yard with Eppie, he is shocked to discover that the town as he remembers it is gone. Silas is "bewildered by the changes thirty years had brought over his...

After stealing from Silas Marner, the loathsome, spoiled squire's son Dunstan, or Dunsey Cass, has gone missing. Even so, he's not the prime suspect; the finger of suspicion points at a peddler. As...

I assume you are referring to the changes in the Red House in Book II, once Godfrey Cass has married Nancy Lammeter and sixteen years have passed. Of course, Book II details some of the series of...

The epigraph at the beginning of Silas Marner, written by Wordsworth, reads as follows: A child, more than all other gifts That earth can offer to declining man, Brings hope with it, and...

George Eliot's novel Silas Marner is a somewhat sad tale of a lonely man and a pair of brothers who share some dark secrets, yet Eliot interweaves both irony and humor into the story. Let's look at...

The most important internal conflict Silas Marner faces at the beginning of the novel stems from several external conflicts. First, consider the background story given in Chapter 1 about Silas'...

It is important to remember that this novel is written in a very different time when people held (by our standards) very traditional religious views that shaped their outlook on life and on many...

From the first moment when Silas discovered Eppie on his hearth, and he confused her with his gold, it is clear that Eppie becomes as important (if not more) to Silas as his gold had been. Note how...

Squire Cass acts as a foil to Silas Marner in the novel. While Silas is an outcast who is gradually rebuilding his life after being falsely accused of theft, Squire Cass is a member of the gentry,...