By Zhu Xiangjun

Bible

Unit 8 Silas Marner

Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe is a novel by George Eliot. Her third novel, it was first published in 1861. An outwardly simple tale of a reclusive weaver, in its strong realism it represents one of Eliot's most sophisticated treatments of her attitude to religion.

Mary Anne (alternatively Mary Ann or Marian) Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She is the author of seven novels, including Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner(1861), Middlemarch (1871–72), and Daniel Deronda (1876), most of them set in provincial England and known for their realism and psychological insight.

She used a male pen name, she said, to ensure her works would be taken seriously. Female authors were published under their own names during Eliot's life, but she wanted to escape the stereotype of women only writing lighthearted romances. An additional factor in her use of a pen name may have been a desire to shield her private life from public scrutiny and to prevent scandals attending her relationship with the married George Henry Lewes, with whom she lived for over 20 years.

Her 1872 work, Middlemarch, has been described as the greatest novel in the English.

In Silas Marner, Eliot combines symbolism with a historically precise setting to create a 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 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 character, Dunstan Cass, gets his just deserts, while the pitiable character, Silas Marner, is ultimately richly rewarded, and his miserliness corrected. 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.

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.

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 realizes he must account for his deceit to those he has wronged.

Dunstan Cass – Godfrey‘s greedy brother with a habit for alcohol and manipulation, and the real thief 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 charming young girl devoted to her adoptive father.

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.

The novel is set in the early years of the 19th century. Silas Marner, a weaver, is a member of a small Calvinist community in Lantern Yard, a slum street in an unnamed city in Northern England. He is falsely accused of stealing the community's funds while watching over the very ill deacon of the group. Two clues are given against Silas: a pocket-knife and the discovery of the bag formerly containing the money in his own house. There is a strong suggestion that Silas's best friend, William Dane, has framed him, since Silas had lent the pocket-knife to William a short while before. Silas is proclaimed guilty. The woman he was to marry casts him off, and later marries William Dane. With his life shattered and his heart broken, he leaves Lantern Yard and the city.

Marner heads south to the Midlands and settles near the village of Raveloe, where he lives as a recluse, falling into bouts of catalepsy, and existing only for work and the gold he has gathered from his earnings. The gold is stolen by Dunstan ('Dunsey') Cass, the dissolute younger son of Squire Cass, the town's leading landowner. Silas sinks into a deep gloom, despite the villagers' attempts to aid him. Dunsey disappears, but little is made of this not unusual behaviour, and no association is made between him and the theft.

Godfrey Cass, Dunsey's elder brother, also hides a secret. He is married to, but estranged from, Molly Farren, an opium-addicted woman of low birth. This secret threatens to destroy Godfrey's blooming relationship with Nancy, a young woman of higher social and moral standing. 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. On the way she takes opium, becomes lost and sits down to rest in the snow, child in arm. The child wanders from her mother's still body into Silas' house. Upon discovering the child, Silas follows her tracks in the snow and discovers the woman dead. Godfrey also arrives at the scene, but resolves to tell no one that she was his wife.

Sixteen years pass, and Eppie grows up to be the pride of the town. She has a 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 holding Silas' gold—is found at the bottom of the stone quarry near Silas' home, and the money is returned to Silas. Shocked by this truth, 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 giving up Silas. Eppie politely refuses, saying, "I can't think o' no happiness without him."

Silas is never able to clear up the details of the robbery that caused his exile from Lantern Yard, as his old neighbourhood has been "swept away" and replaced by a large factory. No one seems to know what happened to Lantern Yard's inhabitants. However, Silas contentedly yields 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 Marner's kind neighbour Dolly. Aaron and Eppie move into Silas' new house, kindness of Godfrey. Silas' actions through the years in caring for Eppie have provided joy for everyone and the extended family celebrates its happiness.