User:Pmlineditor/Silas

Plot summary

The novel is set in the early years of the 19th century. This is when the Napoleonic Wars, and the Industrial Revolution was starting. Silas Marner is a member of a small Calvinist religious group in a place called Lantern Yard. Lantern Yard is a street in an unnamed industrial city in Northern England. Marner is falsely accused of stealing the money of the group. This is when he is taking care of an ill senior deacon. A pocket-knife belonging to Silas is shown to him by his friend William Dane. Dane discovers the bag that contained the money in Silas' house. Silas says that he last used the knife to cut some string for his friend William. He also says he never put the knife back. Silas is declared guilty and the woman, Sarah, he was to marry does not marry him. She marries William instead. Silas loses his faith in "man and God" and leaves Lantern Yard.

Marner heads south to the Midlands. He settles near the village of Raveloe. There, he does not mix with the villagers, and leaves alone. He only works to earn money and hoard it. His money is stolen by Dunstan ('Dunsey') Cass, the younger son of Squire Cass, the town's most rich landowner. Silas becomes very sad, although the villagers try to help him. Dunsey disappears, but no one suspects anything, and people do not think he stole the money.

Godfrey Cass, Dunsey's elder brother had secretly married Molly, an opium-addicted barmaid. He is afraid it will destroy his relation with Nancy, a young woman of higher social and moral status. On a winter's night, Molly tries to make her way into town with her two-year-old child to prove that she is Godfrey's wife and ruin him. But she takes opium. So, she dies and her child wanders of. The infant enters Silas' house. Silas follows her tracks in the snow and finds out the woman dead. Godfrey also arrives at the scene. He decides to tell no one that Molly was his wife.

Silas decides to keep the child and names her Eppie. Eppie changes Silas' life completely. Silas had lost his gold. But, this gold was replaced by Eppie, the girl with golden hair. Godfrey Cass is now free to marry Nancy, but continues to conceal the existence of his first marriage - and child - from her. But he helps Marner in caring for Eppie giving them gifts.

Sixteen years pass, and Eppie grows up to be the pride of the town with a very strong bond with Silas, who through her has found inclusion and purpose in life. Meanwhile, Godfrey and Nancy mourn their own childless state. Eventually, the skeleton of Dunstan Cass - still clutching Silas' gold - is found at the bottom of the stone quarry he lives nearby, and the money is duly returned to Silas. Shocked by this revelation, and coming to the realization of his own conscience, Godfrey confesses to Nancy that Molly was his first wife and that Eppie is his child. They hope to raise her as a gentleman's daughter, which for Eppie would mean forsaking Silas.

The mystery of the robbery that caused Silas' exile from Lantern Yard is never solved, as Silas' old neighbourhood has been "swept away" and replaced by a large factory and no one seems to know what happened to Lantern Yard's inhabitants. However, Silas contentedly resigns himself to the fact that he now leads a happier existence among his family and friends. In the end, Eppie marries a local boy, Aaron, son of Dolly Winthrop, and both of them move into Silas' new house, courtesy of Godfrey. Silas' actions through the years in caring for Eppie have provided joy for everyone and the extended family celebrates their happiness.

Characters

• Silas Marner – a weaver and miser who is cast out of Lantern Yard by his treacherous friend William Dane, and accumulates a small fortune only to have it stolen by Dunstan Cass. Despite these misfortunes, he finds his faith and virtue restored by the arrival of young Eppie. (protagonist)
• Godfrey Cass – eldest son of the local squire, who is being constantly blackmailed by his dissolute brother Dunstan over his secret marriage to Molly. When Molly dies, he feels relief, but in time realises he must account for his deceit to those he has wronged.
• Dunstan Cass – Godfrey's greedy brother with a penchant for alcohol and manipulation, and the real culprit in the theft of Silas's bag of gold.
• Molly Farren – Godfrey's first (and secret) wife, who has a child by him. She dies in the attempt to reveal their relationship and ruin Godfrey, leaving the child, Eppie, to wander into Silas' life.
• Eppie – child of Molly and Godfrey, who is cared for by Silas after the death of her mother. Mischievous in her early years, she grows into a radiant young girl devoted to her adoptive father.
• Nancy Lammeter – Godfrey Cass' second wife, a morally and socially respectable young woman.
• Aaron Winthrop – son of Dolly, who marries Eppie at the end of the novel.
• Dolly Winthrop – mother to Aaron; godmother to Eppie. Sympathetic to Silas.
• William Dane – William Dane is Silas’ former best friend, who looked after and respected Silas in Lantern Yard. William ultimately betrays Silas by framing him for theft and marrying Silas’ fiancée Sarah after Silas is exiled from Lantern Yard.
• Sarah – Silas' fiancée in Lantern Yard, who subsequently marries his treacherous friend William Dane.

Major themes

In Silas Marner, Eliot combines humour, jealousy and rich symbolism with a historically precise setting to create an extraordinary tale of love and hope. This novel explores the issues of redemptive love, the notion of community, the role of religion, and the status of the gentry and family. While religion and religious devotion play a strong part in this text, Eliot concerns herself, as always, with matters of ethics, and it is clear that for her, ethics exist apart from religion. On the surface, the book has a strong moral tract; the bad characters like Dunstan Cass get their just deserts, while the good, pitiable characters like Silas Marner are ultimately richly rewarded. Although it seems like a simple moral story with a happy ending, George Eliot's text includes several pointed criticisms of organized religion, the role of the gentry, and the negative impacts of industrialisation. It was written during the Industrial Revolution and may be a reaction to it.

Allusions

The tale was set in "the South Midlands," and the fictional Raveloe was based on the Warwickshire village of Bulkington. There are also correlations between locations in the book and the village of Inkberrow, Worcestershire. It is not known whether the relation is genuine, a coincidence, or deliberate naming by the locals. To the west of the village is Stone-Pits, and at the east side, a tree-lined drive leads to the entrance of the Red House.