Silas MarnerAUTOR / Context
George Eliot, christened Mary Anne Evans, was born on November 22, 1819. Mary Anne was the third child of Robert Evans and Christiana Pearson, after Chrissey and Isaac, and before the boy twins, who died in infancy. Mary Anne spent her childhood and adolescence between her family's farm, Griff House, in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, and the two boarding schools she was sent to. Mary Anne idolized her older brother, Isaac, and despaired when he began to distance himself from her. Turning to books and reading for comfort, Mary Anne also found solace in the Evangelical preachings of her teacher, Miss Maria Lewis. Miss Lewis's teachings provided Mary Anne with the religious devotion that permeated most of her adolescence.
After her mother died of breast cancer on February 3, 1836 and her older sister, Chrissey, married in 1837, Mary Anne took charge of her father's household. Mary Anne and her father moved to a house near Coventry. It was during this time that Mary Anne changed her name to 'Mary Ann' and became known as 'Miss Evans.' Mary Ann nursed her father during his last years, especially when he fell sick with kidney disease. She was very much devastated when her father finally died on May 30, 1849. Mary Ann changed her name yet again, this time to 'Marian' in 1851. She travelled to London, where she embarked on an adulterous affair with the married Mr. John Chapman. Her residence at 142 Strand gave her access to the literary and artistic circles in London at the time - most importantly, she began to associate with the men from the Westminster Review. Chapman bought the Westminster Review and gave the editorship to Marian Evans. Chapman's wife, Susanna, and mistress, Elisabeth Tilley, were jealous of Chapman's attention to Marian and made her leave London. However, Marian returned to London later that year, with her dear friend Cara Bray at her side. They met G.H. (George Henry) Lewes, the charming, intelligent writer and philosopher. Lewes was married, but his wife had left him, and a divorce was impossible. Although Cara Bray and Marian's other friends severely disliked Lewes, Marian became fond of him and even began to love him, but she could not tell her friends of her growing affection for him. She loved his knowledge of literature, his fluency of languages, his confidence, and his intelligence; they both shared a love for literature, especially German literature, religion, and philosophy. In 1854, they prepared to live together openly in Germany, settling in Weimar and then Berlin. News of their relationship shocked many of their friends and their family back home in England and they shunned Marian and Lewes. However, both Marian and Lewes made it clear that their relationship was no ordinary affair and that they intended to be with each other. In 1855, they returned to England, where Marian was anxious how society would receive them. Marian had stopped editing for the Westminster Review because the job was unpaid, but continued to write articles. As Marian and Lewes continued to live together as man and wife, people generally began to accept them as a married couple. Lewes encouraged Marian to write fiction. She sent off her first work, "Amos Barton," to the English publisher John Blackwood in 1856 under the pseudonym 'George Eliot.' She wanted critics to judge her on merit alone and not by her relationship with Lewes, taking the name 'George Eliot,' as George was Lewes's first name. Later that year, George Eliot worked on Scenes of Clerical Life, published in 1858. Not even her close friends, John Chapman, the Brays, and Bessie Parkes, knew what Marian was doing for a living. In 1858, Lewes and Marian set off for Munich and Dresden, where Marian focused her energy on her fiction. Adam Bede (1859) was based on Marian's memories of her childhood and youth in Nuneaton and became an immediate success. The Mill on the Floss (1860), Eliot's first great novel, was by far Eliot's most autobiographical, focusing on her relationship with her beloved brother, Isaac, in Maggie and Tom Tulliver. Published in 1861, Silas Marner soon followed the success of The Mill on the Floss, also based on Marian's childhood in Warwickshire as a young girl. Eliot's other works include Romola (1862-1863), Felix Holt (1866), The spanish Gypsy (1868), and The Legend of Jubal and other Poems (1874). Her greatest masterpiece, Middlemarch, was published in 1871. Lewes's death in 1878 left Marian more devastated than she had ever been in her life, losing a friend, a companion, and a lover. Marian married J.W. Cross, a friend of hers and an American banker twenty years her junior. Soon after she married Cross, George Eliot died on December 22, 1880. Adam Bede, Silas Marner, and The Mill on the Floss focus especially on Marian's childhood memories of the rural countryside in Warwickshire: the landscape and its inhabitants. She also recalled her religious views and integrated them into the stories. "She shocked family and friends more than once with her actions - losing her faith and refusing to attend church, persuing a journalistic career in London, living with a married man, and finally marrying a man so much younger than herself - but her desire was always to please, to conciliate to conform if she could. In her novels she dramatized these and similar paradoxes in a variety of ways, skilfully and sympathetically putting difficult choices before her characters and showing their human frailty and the sometimes disastrous consequences of dubious actions undertaken out of mixed and confused motives." (Ashton 381). Ashton, Rosemary. George Eliot: A Life. Allen Lane. New York: 1996. Eliot, George. Silas Marner. The Zodiac Press. London: 1978. Hughes, Kathryn. George Eliot: The Last Victorian. Farrah, Strauss and Giroux. New York: 1999. Laski, Marghanita. George Eliot and Her World. Thames and Hudson. London: 1973. SUMMARY In Chapter's Chapter 1 Eliot begins chapter one with an overview of the society in which her story takes place. She describes the hermit-like lifestyle of those like Silas Marner, who she jokes, "looked like remnants of a disinherited race." Eliot also addresses the suspicion surrounding these solitary weavers and collectors of herbs, saying,"all cleverness...was in itself suspicious." Silas, too, a linen-weaver who had emigrated to Raveloe fifteen years ago, is similarly thought to possess quasi-demonic powers due to his solitary nature and ability to cure others with herbs. To further support the townspeople’s claims that Silas is possessed, the author describes sudden times when the weaver would have "cataleptic fits," in which it seemed his soul had left his body. Yet Marner’s whole life hasn’t been spent in this manner. Before he fled to Raveloe, he was a quite normal person, active in his church in Lantern Yard and eagerly awaiting his wedding day. Soon, however, Silas is suspected of having the devil’s influence when he has his cataleptic fits during the church service prayers. Eventually he is set up by William Dane (who he thought was his best friend) and is said to have stolen money from the dying deacon whom he was suppose to watch. Soon his wife-to-be is married to William and Silas is found guilty by the church council following a drawing of lots. Silas decides to isolate himself from his inner pain, taking up weaving as a means of escape. Chapter 2 Eliot begins chapter two with the same retrospective writing with which she began the first chapter. Again, describing those people alienated from society after a traumatic event, like Silas Marner, she asserts, "the past becomes dreamy because its symbols have all vanished, and the present too is dreamy because it is linked with no memories." Later she addresses the reasons Silas fled to another region of England. She follows, "In the early ages of the world, we know, it was believed that each territory was inhabited and ruled by its own divinities, so that a man could cross the bordering heights and be out of the reach of his native gods, whose presence was confined to the streams and the groves and the hills among which he had lived from his birth. And poor Silas was vaguely conscious of something not unlike the feeling of primitive men, when they fled thus, in dear or in sullenness, from the face of an unpropitious deity." The trust which Silas had previously had in his faith and in the church had now been turned to bitterness. No longer was his faith or personal relations important to him since they had betrayed him. Gold now became the object of his work, and nothing else but weaving his loom day and night in order to get more of this gold mattered. Eliot admits, "money had stood to him as the symbol of earthly good, and the immediate object of toil... His life had reduced itself to the mere functions of weaving and hoarding, without any contemplation of an end towards which the functions tended." Chapter 3 Eliot’s third chapter discusses the Cass family, a very prominent and wealthy family of nobles headed by Squire Cass. The Squire has four sons, including Godfrey and Dunstan. While the author says that Dunstan is commonly thought of as the mischievous one, lately Godfrey has been following in his brother’s footsteps. The two brothers hate each other deeply, but realize they need each other in order to advance their own selfish desires. It soon becomes evident that Godfrey is hiding a very dark secret. It seems he has married "a drunken woman," Molly Farren, without consulting his father, who thinks he should marry Nancy Lammeter. Godfrey now wishes he was in fact married to Nancy, but realizes that he will have to decline since he’s already married. Furthermore it seems the first-born son is in financial trouble, having borrowed heavily from a friend of his father. Dunstan uses all of this to his own advantage, threatening to tell the truth of Godfrey’s marriage to their father is his brother refuses to do him favors. Finally in order to raise money to pay their father, Godfrey reluctantly allows Dunstan to sell Wildfire, his prized horse. The scene ends with the following description of Godfrey: "The yoke a man creates for himself by wrong-doing will breed hate in the kindliest nature; and the good-humoured, affectionate-hearted Godfrey Cass, was fast becoming a bitter man, visited by cruel wishes, that seemed to enter and depart, and enter again, like demons who had found in him a ready-garnished home." Chapter 4 This chapter begins the last adventurous day in the life of Dunstan Cass. On his way to auction-off Wildfire, he begins to contemplate the prospect of persuading Silas to lend him the pile of money which he must have been hoarding over the years. Later, on his journey, he gets a generous offer for the horse from a friend of the family, and says that he will return later to make the deal. Inside his mind, Dunstan thinks that he could also win even more money by entering a hunt with dogs, citing his own "unusual good luck." Unfortunately tragedy strikes during the hunt— Wildfire falls into a pit, leading to the horse’s immediate death. Dunstan ditches the prized horse, deciding to walk home. On the way he paces Silas’s house, planning to persuade the old, lonely weaver to loan him some of his gold. When Dunstan knocks, he notices that no one is home and soon invites himself in. Suddenly he realizes that nothing is preventing him from just stealing Marner’s money, so he uncovers the sandy bricks and hauls away two bags of Silas’s gold guineas. The scene ends with Dunstan stepping forward into the darkness; he will not be heard from again until his body is found near the end of the story. Chapter 5 Chapter five gives some background on Silas’s decision to leave his home unattended and unlocked. He was simply doing a routine errand, briefly leaving the cabin. He didn’t lock the door because after fifteen years of this pattern of living, any alteration, such as a robbery, seemed almost incomprehensible to the weaver hermit. Upon Silas’s return, he checks under the bricks where his gold is kept and to his shock and horror sees that it has been stolen. Silas immediately descends into a mode of panic, thinking that the "cruel power" of God has made him "a second time desolate." He rushes into town, determined to see the constable and put an end to this sudden misery. Eliot describes a positive side effect to this whole situation, saying that Silas, due to his need to communicate with the others in order to get his gold returned, is forced to grow socially. She follows, "This strangely novel situation of opening his trouble to his Raveloe neighbors, of sitting in the warmth of a hearth not his own, and feeling the presence of faces and voices which were his nearest promise of help, had doubtless its influence on Marner, in spite of his passionate preoccupation with his loss. Our consciousness rarely registers the beginning of a growth within us any more than without us: there have been many circulations of the sap before we detect the smallest sign of the bud." After pondering for a few moments what to do, several of the men realize that Justice Malam is unavailable and that one of them must be appointed deputy-constable to take the place of the judge. Although there is a "hot debate" over this, eventually the men decide that two men will go with Silas to the scene of the crime: Mr. Dowlas and the landlord. Eliot’s eighth chapter details Godfrey’s state of mind upon his return from the Osgood party. She admits that he is so busy thinking about the beauty of Nancy Lammeter that he doesn’t give much thought to the fact that Dunstan hasn’t returned. He figures his brother has spent the night somewhere else. The nest day Bryce, the man with whom Dunstan made the deal with Wildfire, visits Godfrey and tells him about the deal for the horse, the horse’s death, and the disappearance of Dunstan. This outrages Godfrey, who swears revenge. This leaves Godfrey in a difficult situation, since now he has no money to pay off his debts. Though the eldest brother considers lying to the Squire about what happened, eventually he determines that this act would simply get them both into more trouble with their father, so he decides just to speak the truth to the Squire tomorrow. As far as the robbery investigation in concerned, the only "evidence" found by the deputy constables is a tinder box near Silas’s home, known to be owned by a foreign peddler. Soon many of the townspeople consider this peddler the robber, though they have no real proof. After the others had eaten, Godfrey finds his father starting his own breakfast, and quickly confronts him about what has happened with Dunstan and the horse. Although the Squire is angry with Godfrey about the debts he owes, the old man saves most of his criticism for Dunstan, saying, "Let him turn ostler, and keep himself. He shan’t hang on me any more." Thus, Godfrey has maintained (though barely) his place in the family while Dunstan is forever exiled. Eliot describes Silas as a man more confused and desolate than ever, spending most of his time bent over in a chair, holding his head in his hands. She continues, "The loom was there, and the weaving, and the growing pattern in the cloth; but the bright treasure in the hole under his feet was gone; the prospect of handling and counting it was gone: the evening had no phantasm of delight to still the poor soul’s craving." Silas is now seen by his neighbors as more crazy than ever. Despite the urging of Mr. Macey and Dolly Winthrop to go to church and seek refuge in his faith, Silas ignores these ideas, already disillusioned with the religion he formerly trusted in. Eliot continues, "And so, notwithstanding the honest persuasions of Mr. Macey and Dolly Winthrop, Silas spent his Christmas-day in loneliness..." On New Year’s Eve, the Cass family is having a huge annual party at the Red House, so Godfrey nervously awaits the arrival of Nancy. The rest of the chapter is devoted to boring scenes in which the ladies dress themselves and gossip about each others’ appearance. Soon the party begins with a dinner, in which Godfrey, acting very awkward, almost melts in Nancy’s presence. Molly decides to make the long trip in the bitter cold by foot. Suddenly she becomes very tired and decides to take a rest in a snow bank; she never wakes. Her two-year-old daughter silently crawls out of her dying arms and ventures into the home of Silas Marner where the door is open and a warm fire is crackling. Eliot describes Silas’s shock, saying, "He leaned forward at last, and stretched forth his hand; but instead of the hard coin with the familiar resisting outline, his fingers encountered soft warm curls...he had a dreamy feeling that this child was somehow a message come to him from the far-off life." Quickly Silas comforts the girl by offering her warm porridge. Soon he looks outside to try to find the place from which she came. It’s at this time he sees her mother’s dead body frozen in the snow. As the evening progresses it soon becomes obvious that Silas has become attached to his newly found treasure. When the women of the household ask to hold her, Silas protests, saying, "I can’t part with it, I can’t let it go." Soon a search party is organized to locate the body; Godfrey eagerly goes along to make sure his wife is silenced permanently. He returns home a few hours later, exuberant that Molly is gone for good. Now, he thinks, he will be free to marry Nancy. He’s even glad that he won’t have to be father to his child, though he tells himself he’ll see that she is well cared for. Soon Dolly Winthrop becomes Silas’s child-raising helper and eventual godmother to Eppie. Dolly and her son, Aaron, become the closest contact Silas has with the outside world. Silas’s eyes seem to open more widely with each passing day. The sick obsession he formerly had with his gold has now been replaced with the healthy obsession for his new daughter, Eppie. Eliot narrates, "Unlike the gold which needed nothing, and must be worshiped in close-locked solitude— which was hidden away from the daylight, was deaf to the song of birds, and started to no human tones— Eppie was a creature of endless claims and ever-growing desires, seeking and loving sunshine, and living sounds, and living movements; making trial of everything, with trust in new joy, and stirring the human kindness in all eyes that looked on her." She was "warming him into joy because she had joy." Eventually Silas and Eppie even attend church in Raveloe, something Silas had never had any interest in before, following the bad experience he had with religion in Lantern’s Yard. Soon Eppie is baptized. Eliot narrates, "As the child’s mind was growing into knowledge, his mind was growing into memory: as her life unfolded, his soul, long stupefied in a cold narrow prison, was unfolding too, and trembling gradually into full consciousness." One ironic note: it’s interesting how one member of the Cass family took Silas’s gold while the other gave Silas his daughter. It seems that now the Cass family will live in financial luxury while Silas experiences true fulfillment by raising a daughter. As Silas and Eppie walk out of church, Aaron Winthrop approaches them, saying he is willing to help them build the garden they are planning. It soon becomes evident that Aaron and Eppie have a special relationship, and the two are hoping to get married soon. There are changes to Silas’s lonely stone cottage. There are plenty of pets, both in and out of doors, and more furniture given them by Godfrey. In fact, the Red House has helped Silas and his daughter considerably in the last few years. Eliot explains, "Godfrey Cass, as everyone said in the village, did very kindly by the weaver; and it was nothing but right a man should be looked on and helped by those who could afford it." By this time, Silas has come to terms with his past, even being willing to share the story of his supposed guilt in Lantern Yard with Dolly. Eliot narrates, "...with reawakening sensibilities, memory also reawakened, he had begun to ponder over the elements of his old faith, and blend them with his new impressions, till he recovered a consciousness of unity between his past and present. The sense of presiding goodness and the human trust which come with all pure peace and joy, had given him a dim impression that there had been some error, some mistake, which had thrown the dark shadow over the days of his best years." This find inspires Godfrey to reveal his secret to Nancy once and for all. "Nancy," said Godfrey, slowly, "when I married you, I hid something from you— something I ought to have told you. That woman Marner found dead in the snow— Eppie’s mother— that wretched woman— was my wife: Eppie is my child." This powerful statement overwhelms Nancy, yet she doesn’t seem at all bitter about it. She only regrets the fact that Godfrey kept this from her so long. Otherwise, she admits, she would have been more than willing to adopt Eppie as their own. Yet the Cass couple still has hope. This night they plan to visit Silas and tell him the news about Eppie’s father. This, they hope, will convince him to give the eighteen-year-old Eppie to them as their child. Soon Godfrey gets to the point. He tells Silas and Eppie, "But I have a claim on you Eppie— the strongest of all claims. It is my duty, Marner, to own Eppie as my child, and provide for her. She is my own child— her mother was my wife. I have a natural claim on her that must stand before every other." Silas responds, "God gave her to me because you turned your back upon her, and He looks upon her as mine: you’ve no right to her! When a man turns a blessing from his door, it falls to them as take it in." Following this, Eppie is asked whom she would rather stay with, and of course she chooses Silas, the only father she’s ever known. Godfrey feels insulted and storms away without a polite farewell. Nancy does her best to cover for her husband’s rude departure by saying that both of them wish Eppie the best no matter with whom she lives. Finally both decide that it’s best that this secret isn’t revealed to the rest of the town. Yet Silas still believes in a power above looking over him. He admits that he has "light enough to trusten by." Now that Silas has confronted his past, he realizes that his future with Eppie is all that matters now. Eliot’s last chapter details the marriage of Eppie and Aaron. It’s a wonderful time of celebration and jubilation. Eppie tells her father, "I think nobody could be happier than we are." Silas doesn’t feel that he’s losing a daughter, but instead he knows that he’s gaining a son. In Text
Before Silas Marner had settled in the village of Raveloe, he had lived in Lantern Yard. Silas had left Lantern Yard because he had been falsely accused of stealing - and because his friend, William Dane, had betrayed his trust by accusing him and marrying Silas's fiancee, Sarah. When Silas settles in Raveloe, he is isolated from the village. That he is a weaver and that his cottage is on the edge of town, next to the Stone-pits, make Silas very different from the rest of the village. Also, the townspeople believe that Silas is connected with the devil because they think he can set curses and charms. The townspeople generally stay away from him, except for the curious children who are interested in the unusual sound of the loom and are frightened by Silas's glaring face. Deprived of human companionship and love, Silas only has love for the gold that he hoards. Silas remains alone and cold for fifteen years. Dunsey Cass, Squire Cass's younger and reckless son, does not pay back the rent money that Godfrey has given him. Dunsey threatens that if Godfrey does not pay the money himself, then he will reveal Godfrey's dark secret that he was married to a drunk named Molly Farren. Godfrey is forced to sell his beloved horse, Wildfire, and against his better judgement, allows Dunsey to take the horse to the hunt and sell it. He would rather pay the money than have Dunsey expose his marriage to their father, for he wants to win Nancy Lammeter's love. News of his marriage would surely jeopardize any chance of marrying Nancy. Dunsey takes the horse and finds a buyer, but he accidentally kills the horse when he enters the horse hunt and jumps over a stake, stabbing the horse. Dunsey manages to sneak away without anyone seeing him and walks home. As he nears Silas Marner's cottage, he thinks about the money problem and remembers that Silas supposedly has a pile of gold stocked in his home. Without a conscience in his soul, Dunsey sneaks into Silas's home, finds the gold in its hiding place, and runs off into the night. When Silas returns home, he finds that his gold is stolen. Devastated and horrified, Silas is shocked at the thought that someone had robbed him and runs to town to report the robbery, although he does not wish for anyone to be punished. Silas runs into the Rainbow and tells the townspeople there about the robbery. After Silas accuses Jem Rodney of stealing his gold, the villagers demand that Silas tell them how he found the gold missing. Because Silas is so distraught and serious, the villagers believe his story to be true. The next day, Godfrey goes to the Stone-pits area, as with other villagers, to discuss the robbery. Nearby Silas's cottage, they find a tinderbox, which makes a townsman recall that a peddler who'd come to town recently carried a tinderbox. The townspeople are divided on the subject of Silas's stolen gold. However, Dunsey's name does not come up as a suspect because he is known to disappear for a long period of time. When Godfrey learns that Dunsey has killed the horse, he realizes that he must tell their father about the missing rent money and the horse. Squire Cass is enraged about the money and tells Godfrey that he is as spineless and weak-minded as his mother was. Dolly Winthrop visits Silas and begs him to join the church festivities on Christmas Day. She tries to make him see the connection between the town church ceremonies and the Christmas holidays, but Silas fails to recognize that the church is associated with Christmas. The Lantern Yard services he learned are not the same as the Raveloe customs. Instead, Silas spends the holidays by himself, as he had every year for the past fifteen years. The Christmas and New Year's holidays are spent with joyous festivities for the townspeople. Squire Cass throws a lavish New Year's party for Raveloe high society. Nancy Lammeter is chagrined that Godfrey still wants her for his wife, for she has made it clear that she does not want to marry. The villagers remark at how wonderful Godfrey and Nancy look as a couple. Nancy is cold to Godfrey when he asks for her forgiveness. On her way to the Squire's party, a drunken Molly Farren, Godfrey's wife, walks with their baby girl in her arms. She plans to crash the party and reveal that she is Godfrey's wife so that she can avenge Godfrey's desertion. Before she can make it to the Squire's, Molly falls asleep from the opium and falls onto the snow, the little girl escaping Molly's arms. The child follows the path of a bright light, all the way to Silas Marner's cottage and through the open door. Silas does not see the child enter because he has an unconscious fit. When he regains consciousness, he sees something gold on the floor and thinks that his gold has returned to him. However, he finds that the gold on his floor is not money, but the golden hair of a sleeping child. Silas manages to think beyond the beautiful sight of the little girl to go outside and see the dead body of Molly Farren. Silas brings the child with him to Squire Cass's house to fetch the doctor. Godfrey recognizes the child in Silas's arms as his own. He fears that Molly is alive, but when he and the doctor rush to Silas's cottage and finds Molly's body, he sees that the woman Silas had found is indeed his wife, and that she is dead. The villagers are surprised by Silas's statement that he wants to keep the child, but they feel warmer toward him. Dolly Winthrop gives Silas old clothes of her youngest son Aaron and advises him on how to care for the little girl. Vowing that he will make sure that she is taken care of, Godfrey is happy to see that his child is content with Silas, and gives Silas money for the girl. Silas names the girl Hephzibah, after his mother and sister, and calls her Eppie for short. Raising Eppie brings Silas more joy and happiness than he could ever imagine. For the first time, Silas feels a reciprocated love, a love that is deeper and more affectionate than his love for gold. She teaches him that there is goodness in this world, and Silas couldn't be more happy than he is now. Silas is kind to the villagers, who are kind and warm in return. Sixteen years have passed since Eppie entered Silas's life. Eppie is now a beautiful, sweet girl, who loves nature and animals. She and Silas have a very happy life together in Raveloe; Eppie has loved Silas as her father and cannot bear the thought of being separated from him. Eppie tells her father that she would like to marry Aaron Winthrop, who has proposed to her, but only if Silas lives with them as well. Also watching Eppie's welfare is Godfrey Cass, who is now married to Nancy Lammeter. He and Nancy are childless; their one child died in infancy. Godfrey is especially giving and considerate to Eppie and Silas. Godfrey had suggesting adopting Eppie before, but Nancy had refused, on her belief that adopting would be against Providence. When the Stone-pits are drained, Dunsey's skeleton is found with the gold he had stolen from Silas Marner. Godfrey finally confesses to Nancy that he had been married and that Eppie is his child. When he learns that Dunsey's body has been found, he knows the truth will always reveal itself eventually. A disappointed Nancy, fearful that she has been a horrid wife, tells him that he should have told her earlier, so that they might have had a child to raise. They agree to ask Eppie if she would like to live with them as their daughter. Godfrey and Nancy visit Silas's cottage, where they ask Eppie if she wants to become their daughter, learn how to be a lady, and live with them at the Red House. Godfrey intends to save Eppie from the hard life as a working-class girl, but Eppie replies that she does not want to be rich and that she would rather remain in the countryside. When Godfrey angrily tells Eppie and Silas that Eppie is his daughter, both Eppie and Silas declare to Godfrey that Eppie's true paternity does not change the fact that Godfrey did not acknowledge her as his daughter sixteen years ago. Repeating firmly that she wants to marry a workingman and that she will not part from Silas, Eppie refuses the Casses' proposal to Godfrey, who, when thinking about Eppie's refusal, decides sadly that it is punishment for deserting her. He decides to do all that he can for Eppie. Silas decides to return to Lantern Yard, to see the minister and try to clear his accused name. With Eppie accompanying him, Silas finds a horrid, grim-looking town in place of the Lantern Yard he knew. To his horror, in place of the chapel is a factory, and no one knows what happened to the chapel or the minister. Silas talks to Dolly about the disappointment of not finding the chapel and the minister and fears that his dark past might never be cleared. However, Silas agrees with Dolly in that there is goodness and right in this world, as long as he trusts. Eppie and Aaron are married on a beautiful day with their family present. Nancy's sister and father accompany her to the wedding, for Godfrey is suddenly out of town. The villagers agree that Silas has brought a blessing to himself by taking in a lone, abandoned child. Eppie and Aaron live with Silas on his property, which has been enlarged by Godfrey. Characters
Main Characters William Dane: Silas's so-called dear friend in Lantern Yard whom he admired and revered so much. William frames Silas for a robbery he did not commit and is the reason the drawing lots declared Silas guilty of all charges. William deliberately places Silas's knife in the drawer when he steals the money. When Silas is accused of killing the ill deacon for not being by his side on his deathbed, Silas is framed for stealing the money. When Silas leaves Lantern Yard, William marries Silas's former fiancée, Sarah. Sarah: Silas's fiancée who breaks off their engagement when Silas is declared guilty. She later marries William Dane. Squire Cass: The most respected and wealthiest man in Raveloe, but a selfish, self-centered man. Known for his temper and his condescending attitude, the Squire does not seem to care very much for his sons, only for his money. He allows his sons to do pretty much whatever they please, because he does not care what happens to them as long as his tenants are not involved. Dunstan (Dunsey) Cass: The Squire's younger son, a reckless, manipulative man who will do anything or say anything to get what he wants. He is attracted to greed and wealth, and has no conscience whatsoever. Dunsey blackmails Godfrey with the secret of Godfrey's marriage to the drunk Molly and steals poor Silas Marner's money. He is thought to have disappeared somewhere, but his dead body is found drowned in the Stone-pits when drained. Dunsey is found with Silas's money. Godfrey Cass: The Squire's eldest son, a weak, spineless man. He is Molly's husband and Eppie's father, but refuses to acknowledge them, lest he lose the love of Nancy Lammeter, the woman he truly loves. Only does Godfrey confess his past marriage to Nancy when Dunsey's dead body is found sixteen years later. He and Nancy ask Eppie if she wants to be their daughter and live with them as a lady. Godfrey angrily tells Silas and Eppie that he has a natural claim to Eppie as her father. Eppie's refusal to leave Silas makes Godfrey very angry, but he realizes that her refusal to be with him is his punishment for not taking Eppie in as his daughter sixteen years before. On Eppie's wedding day, Godfrey is conveniently out of town on business. He gives Silas and Eppie more land for Eppie's garden. Nancy Lammeter: The beautiful younger daughter of Mr. Lammeter and niece to Mrs. Osgood. Godfrey Cass loves her, but she will not marry him until he can prove that he is the man she wants him to be. Nancy is unlike Raveloe women - she actually does chores herself. She tries to make him happy when they are married, but she feels that she somehow is lacking in her duties as a wife. She had adamantly refused to adopt a child after their one child dies in infancy. When Godfrey tells her that Eppie is his child, Nancy willingly agrees to take Eppie in as their own. Nancy tries to persuade Eppie to come live with them at the Red House, but Eppie does not care to be a lady. Nancy buys Eppie her wedding gown. Molly Farren: The miserable, vengeful wife of Godfrey Cass, who is addicted to opium. Molly is determined to reveal herself to the Squire with her and Godfrey's child in her arms, but she freezes to death before she can expose herself to all of Raveloe high society. The wedding ring she wears is kept by Silas and given to Eppie. Priscilla Lammeter: Nancy's older sister, a cheerful and wise spinster. She is practical and smart, for she manages their father's farm and dairy. At the end of the novel, Priscilla wishes that Nancy might have had a child to raise as Silas had raised Eppie. Dolly Winthrop: The kind, patient woman who aids Silas greatly. She first visits him, bringing him a plate of cakes with the initials I.H.S. on them and begging him to at least give up weaving on Sunday. When Silas starts caring for Eppie, Dolly advises him how to care for a child. Later, she is Eppie's godmother and Silas's trusted advisor in religion and life. Silas goes to seek her advice whenever he has a problem, whether it concerns Eppie's welfare or his past. Dolly makes him see that he should trust the world. Aaron Winthrop: The Winthrops' youngest son. At age seven, he visits Silas Marner with his mother and sings a Christmas carol for him at his mother's request. Later, as a twenty-four-year-old, Aaron is Eppie's suitor. He offers to help her and Silas make a garden. He and Eppie marry. Eppie:The biological daughter of Molly Farren and Godfrey Cass, but raised as Silas Marner's daughter. She enters Silas's life when she follows a bright light to the door of his cottage and straight in front of the fireplace. Silas and the townspeople think she has been sent to Silas from Him above. Her full name is 'Hephzibah,' after Silas's mother and sister. She is very beautiful, with blond hair and fair skin. Eppie brings so much goodness, warmth, and joy to Silas's life that he finally sees what Dolly has been telling him all along - to trust and to love. Eppie dearly loves Silas, the only family she has ever known, and will not leave him when Godfrey and Nancy ask her to live with them. Eppie does not care to be a lady; she tells them that she wants to live with Silas and marry a workingman, Aaron Winthrop. A married Eppie declares that she is perfectly happy with Silas at her side. Minor Characters
Jem Rodney: The Raveloe poacher. Silas at first suspects him of stealing his gold. Sally Oates: The wife of the town cobbler. Silas passes by their house and sees that Sally is suffering from heart-ache and dropsy. He gives her medicine made from herbs. Silas's knowledge of herbs lead to the villagers' suspicion that he knows charms and curses. Bryce: Dursey sells Wildfire to him. Bryce tells Godfrey of the news that Dunsey killed the horse before he paid for it. Mrs. Osgood: The sister of Mr. Lammeter and aunt to Nancy and Priscilla. Mr. Lammeter: Nancy and Priscilla's father. Mr. Macey: The town fiddler, a respected working-class man. He visits Silas soon after the gold is stolen and tells him that his money will turn up. Later, an elderly Mr. Macey witnesses the bridal party and is glad to see that his words came true. Mr. Snell: The landlord of the Rainbow. He recalls that a peddler had come to Raveloe carrying a tinderbox like the one found outside Silas's cottage. The peddler: A suspect in the mystery of the stolen gold because of his tinderbox. Fowler: Squire Cass's tenant. He had paid his dues to Godfrey, who'd given the money to Dunsey. Ben Winthrop: The town wheelwright. He is husband to Dolly, and father to Aaron. He is a jovial, happy man. The Gunn sisters: The unmarried, plain Gunn sisters find Nancy to be very pretty and charming despite her rough hands. They are offended by Priscilla's blunt words that they are ugly. Mr. Crackenthorp: The town minister.
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