Silas Marner is the weaver of Raveloe, a small English village. A flashback recounts his past, fifteen years before he came to Raveloe, where he was part of a fundamentalist Christian sect. He is wrongly accused of a crime and loses his strong faith in God.



         Marner's new life in Raveloe is of solitary days spent weaving away for long hours. Soon he becomes enchanted by the gold he earns from his work.



         One day the gold is stolen by a son of the village squire. Marner's world crashes and he becomes devastated. His desolation evokes sympathy in the community of Raveloe and gradually he comes into contact with people after many years.



         The turning point for Marner is when the little child, Eppie, (the illegitimate daughter of Godfrey Cass - Squire's other son) crawls into his cottage one night. The child replaces the gold he once treasured and thus his character takes on a new development.

         The characterisation of Marner was excellent. He is a very honest and hard-working man who has been wronged by his best friend when he was part of a Christian sect. Eliot portrays his simplicity (and confusion sometimes) very well in his appearance and behaviour.



         As a reader, you are left feeling sympathy for this character. The injustices are very clear, but even still, there is a broader message: everybody's behaviour has a logical reason. Eliot seemed to stress that people were not inherently bad. There are other characters in the novel, such as Godfrey Cass, who have been dishonest but the reader still empathises with them because their motivation is known and understood.



         Perhaps this is due to Eliot's intrusive narration. She tells us what the characters feel, think etc.



I think she does this to make her ideas very clear. She supported logic and simple humanity over what religions preached.



The journey and changes of Silas Marner's life, reflect this. He loses his faith, becomes captivated by gold, loses that, and then finds another human being to treasure - one that will return his love, loyally.

         At times, I didn't like the intrusive style, mentioned above. There is little that the reader has to interpret, regarding how the characters feel.



However, the overall message that the author was highlighting, is more subtle.



         Some readers may find the language a little difficult or tiring. I read it because it was set for class and at first the style was a little irritating.



         The story was written in 1861, after the industrial revolution, but is set five decades before. It's a book you have to be patient with, but once you get into the first few chapters it's very good.

Well, when I finished it I wrote an essay for school! Besides that, I watched the film where Silas Marner was played by the actor Ben Kingsley. It was pretty good, even funny sometimes, I remember.



This book has some very tender, tear-jerking moments and the film certainly did.

         It made me think of the importance of faith. This is a major theme in the book and it's great if you can pick up on it totally.



Also, it felt good after reading it - sometimes you dismiss classics or older novels as boring and long-winded, but Silas Marner is book with a point that applies to life today.

If you were wondering why I kept referring to the author as 'she':

George Eliot is the pseudonym of the British writer, Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880).



She was a Victorian writer and know as a humane freethinker, whose insightful psychological novels paved the way to modern character portrayals. She was a contemporary of Dostoevsky (1821-1881), who at the same time in Russia, developed similar narrative techniques.





Eliot has written other major novels, including 'The Mill on the Floss' (1860), which I do want to read some day.

It's got a good storyline and very interesting characters. After reading this novel you feel like you've learnt a thing or two about human nature.

I don't recommend it if you are easily bored. There's a certain amount of effort required to get into it, if you're a teen like me -(maybe that's just me!). It's not written as briefly as your everyday language. I don't know if that's a bad thing. Personally, I think it's fine.

The essay I wrote on Silar Marner was for school. It does explain his journey and can be found here: "Invalid Item" 

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Created Jul 14, 2003 at 11:57am • Submit your own review...