British Literature
Silas Marner
Silas Marner, was written by George Eliot in the year 1861. George Eliot is a pseudonym, the actual author's name is Mary Anne Evans. She did not like the reputation and stereotypes for women writers of that time, so she wrote under a pen name. She was deeply religious in her childhood, but later she became a Rationalist. A lot of her books display religious , political, and philosophical themes, and most of the characters in her books contain grey areas morally in their lives.
Silas Marner follows the story of a man named Silas Marner. He works as a linen weaver in the village, with only his gold as compainionship. His life consists of work and nothing else, and it possesess no real meaning. That all changes when a little girl wanders into his cottage, after her mother passes out and dies in the snow. The mother was attempting to reveal herself and her child to the village, because her husband being so ashamed of them hid them from everyone. Silas names the little orphan girl, Eppie, and he raises her as his own. Eppie gives him a hope and a life purpose. In the end, Eppie gets married and they all live a happy life together. In addition, it is considered a work of Realstic fiction.
Three of the major themes in the novel are as follows:
1. Faith - ". 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" (Eliot 115).
2. Morality - "Thought and feeling were so confused within him, that if he had tried to give them utterance, he could only have said that the child was come instead of gold - that the gold had turned into the child" (Eliot 84).
3. The Individual And Society - "...the little child had come to link him once more with the whole world" (Eliot 90).