Characters in Silas Marner
Silas Marner – a weaver, miser protagonist
Godfrey Cass – son of the local squire.
Dunstan Cass – Godfrey's greedy brother with a penchant for alcohol and manipulation.
Molly Farren – Godfrey's first wife who has a child by him. She dies leaving the child.
Eppie – child of Molly and Godfrey who is cared for by Marner.
Nancy Lammeter – Godfrey Cass's second wife.
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’s former best friend, who looked after Silas and respected Silas in Lantern Yard. William Dane ultimately betrayed Silas by framing him for theft and married Silas’s fiancée after Silas exiled himself from Lantern Yard. He did this following the death of his mother.
Sarah – fiancée to Silas while in Lantern Yard. Married William Dane.
Major themes
In Silas Marner, Eliot combines humour 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 desserts, while the good, pitiable characters like Silas Marner are richly rewarded. Although it seems like a simple moral story with a happy ending, George Eliot's text includes several pointed criticisms on organized religion, the role of the gentry, and the impact of industrialization. It was written in the period during Industrial Revolution and may be a reaction to it.[
Literary significance & criticism
This book has traditionally been part of the curriculum of secondary schools in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and Ireland. Recently, it has been studied in some secondary schools in Costa Rica and West Africa (Ghana). It is also a part of the Cambridge A Levels syllabus in Singaporean junior colleges offering Literature courses. In India, notably in Calcutta, it is offered as part of the Advanced English course
[edit] Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science
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.
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