Major Characters

Silas Marner: The protagonist of the novel, a linen-weaver. As a young man

in his hometown of Lantern Yard, Silas is accused of killing a town deacon by
not being by his side on his deathbed and accused of robbing the deacon's
money. When his knife, purposely placed by William Dane, his most trusted
friend, in the drawer of the money, is found instead of the money, William
wrongly accuses him of stealing the money and killing the deacon. Having
been hurt and betrayed by his faith in his religion, Silas leaves his hometown
and settles in Raveloe. For fifteen years, he is feared by the townspeople, as
he has a reputation of being connected with the devil. He is isolated from the
rest of the village, living at the edge of town, working as a weaver, and not
attending church. The money he earns from weaving fills him with happiness
and satisfaction that is lacking from his lack of human companionship and
communication. When his money is stolen, the villagers feel sorry for him.
What changes his life is the child that he finds sitting in front of his fireplace,
the child he believes is sent from above. Eppie brings him more happiness
and joy than he ever received from the gold. He finally experiences
reciprocated companionship and affection. Having the girl in his life makes
him love and trust. At the end, the villagers agree that he brought a blessing
to his life when he took Eppie in as his child. With Eppie in his life, Silas is
able to unite his old faith with his new one, and believe that there is
goodness and justice in this world.
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: 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. Macey also has a brother, Solomon, who is a fiddler and lives in
another village.
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.
Dr. Kimble: The town apothecary, although not a real doctor. He is
Godfrey's uncle.

Major Themes

Class
Silas Marner centers around two households, Marner's cottage by the
stone-pits and the Cass manor, the Red House. These two settings
represent class extremes, and the people of Raveloe know it. The
cottage is the ramshackle abode of the lowliest member of Raveloe
society; the manor is a sprawling home filled with gentry and a
location for dances. Rather than set an impermeable boundary
between these two worlds, Eliot stages many intersections between
the two households. Dunstan Cass, who is a member of the moneyed
class, enters Marner's home looking for money. Silas Marner, lowly and
miserable, raises a Squire's granddaughter as his own child. Godfrey
Cass, though he owns Marner's cottage at the end of the novel, is
actually in the weaver's debt. These are just a few instances of the
permeability of class boundaries in the novel.
In Raveloe, strict boundaries of class do not necessarily lead to greater
happiness among the higher classes. Indeed, those with money-or
those who are supposed to have money-tend to be the most harried
and corrupt characters, such as Dunstan, Godfrey, and even Silas
before Eppie. The person most oppressed by circumstances in Silas
Marner is perhaps Godfrey Cass, who finds himself at the mercy of a
lower-class wife, who fails to have children of his own, and who ends
up envying the bond of a lowly weaver and his daughter. Silas Marner
and Eppie, on the other hand, though they do not have status or
wealth, have power over the Casses and seem to enjoy unmitigated
happiness.
The Rainbow tavern and the church in Raveloe also serve as places
where class differences are evident. The Rainbow becomes quite a
different place when the "gentles" are having a dance; during these
times (in Chapter Six, for instance), the lesser villagers, like Mr. Macey,
reign over the Rainbow, telling stories all the while about the landed
members of society. At the church, the important members of society
sit in assigned seats at the front of the church while the rest of the
villagers sit behind them and watch. In both these places, although
everyone recognizes the status difference between the common
villagers and the gentry, this difference does not seem to be a problem
in Raveloe. The lower classes have not been fed the broth of revolt;
they seem quite content. Meanwhile, the upper classes are not
oppressive or cruel slave drivers like their factory-owning counterparts.
In fact, the gentry rely upon the villagers to sincerely appreciate their
importance and value in the town. It is Mr. Macey, not Mr. Lammeter,
who celebrates the history of the Warrens. And without the respectful,
watching eyes of the villagers, the front-row seats in church would
have less dignity.
Thus, Silas Marner tends to represent class differences with historical
accuracy. Eliot seems drawn to this pre-industrial era, when there was
an easygoing class hierarchy in country towns. Compare the relatively
class-indifferent respect that is shown in Raveloe to the horrible
factory in the manufacturing town that Marner and Eppie visit in
Chapter Twenty-One. The industrial world treats the lower classes as
inhuman cogs in the factory wheels. In Raveloe's trade-based society,
meanwhile, each villager can play an important role in the success of
the society. That is, the weaver is respected to some degree by the
Squire if he weaves his linens well. Even so, one might reasonably
argue that Eliot's idyllic depiction of happy peasants romanticizes the
difficulties of the class differences in nineteenth-century England.
Myth and Folklore
Many critics of the novel fault its unrealistic situations and conclusions.
They point out that Marner's conversion from a miserable old
misanthrope to a loving father happens too quickly, and they argue
that the end of the novel has too much poetic justice, with every
character getting a just reward. These critics hold the novel to a
standard of realism that others see as inappropriate to Eliot's goals in
Silas Marner. Defenders of the novel argue that is is more like a fable,
operating through the moral logic of a fairy tale in order to accomplish
goals beyond merely representing reality. In fables, ballads, myths and
fairy tales, sudden transformations, inexplicable coincidences and
other such unrealistic plot devices are part of the magic. Novels need
not read like documentaries. Silas Marner is a work of fantasy as much
as it represents a deeper reality.
While the plot reflects the novel's mythic character, there is also
explicit reference to myth and legend throughout the novel. Weaving
itself is a classic emblem of myths across cultures. Certainly Eliot was
well aware of this emblem when she chose her protagonist and the
activity of weaving.
The story also has a strong Biblical undercurrent, recalling especially
the stories of Job, King David, the expulsion from Eden, and Cain and
Abel. And the author of Silas Marner expects readers to understand its
many references to ancient mythology including the Fates and Arachne
(a weaver transformed into a spider--note the profusion of insect
imagery describing Marner). The hearth, where Eppie is suddenly
found, is an especially powerful image in Roman myth.
Myth and superstition are active patterns in the village. Mr. Macey tells
ghost stories about the Warrens and predicts the future. The villagers
look with curiosity on wanderers such as Marner, perceiving that such
persons belong to a separate, magical race with powers to heal or
harm. These patterns contribute to the folkloric character of the work.
Even while Silas Marner satirizes the superstitions of the villagers and
offers a fairly realistic explanation for every "miracle" in it, the novel
engages the mysteries of fate and love that characterize legendary
literature.
Memory
George Eliot and William Wordsworth have a special affinity. In Silas
Marner, more perhaps than in any of her other works, this affinity
provides the root of the novel. Eliot even facetiously wrote, in a letter
to her publisher, that she "should not have believed that any one
would have been interested in [the novel] but myself (since William
Wordsworth is dead)." Eliot uses poetry from Wordsworth as her
epigraph, she quotes and echoes his language throughout the work,
and she centers the redemption of her protagonist on one of
Wordsworth's favorite themes: memory.
For Eliot and for Wordsworth, memory is not simply about
"remembering" in the everyday sense; it is about the profound
experience of owning one's own history, of embodying one's past. For
example, in Silas Marner's redemption after finding Eppie, the first
thing he thinks about is his long-lost baby sister, someone he has not
thought about for at least fifteen years. In fact, Eppie's name was also
his mother's name and his sister's name. Eppie does not merely allow
Marner to move forward out of the meaningless cycle of weaving and
mourning in which he is trapped at the time of her arrival, but she also
allows Marner to recover elements of his own past.
Many other motives are connected with memory. Marner's herb
gathering, for instance, is something he learned from his mother,
which he had forgotten until Eppie arrived. His healing process
requires backward reaches into the positive, meaningful elements of
his past. In the presence of Eppie, Marner's memory propels him to a
richer future.
George Eliot's own memory contributed to key elements of the novel.
In a letter, Eliot writes that the novel unfolded "from the merest millet-
seed of thought." This little seed was her recollection of a stooped, old
weaver walking along in the Midlands whom she happened to see one
day long before she began the work. Eliot's enrichment of this scrap of
her memory is much like the process of remembering in the novel.
From a remembered gesture-such as gathering herbs with one's
mother-one can unfold an entire horizon of value pertinent to the
present. Memory, for both Eliot and her characters, is active and
creative, more than a passive "storehouse" of knowledge and
experience. In remembering we deepen our present life. One way to
create the new is to refashion and reinterpret what we have recovered
from old times and old meanings.
Nature vs. Industry
Almost every character in Silas Marner is described at least partly
through a natural context. Such depictions can be as simple as a
comparison of a character to an animal, as when Eliot writes that
Nancy Lammeter's clothing is as neat "as the body of a little bird."
Others can be as profound as representations of the rhythms of life
and death, marriage and birth, or seasonal changes. To cite one
example among many, Eppie's and Aaron's wedding at the end of the
novel is set intentionally in the context of a lazy summer afternoon,
when the rural economy is at its quietest and the blooming flowers are
at their prettiest. Overall, Raveloe reflects the natural world. Its
customs, its industries, and its values are somehow natural.
Many individual motifs and images have more extensive roles in the
book. The most important of these, probably, are Marner's likeness to
an insect or a spider, and Eppie's likeness to plant life. Marner's large,
blurry eyes, his solitary and antisocial lifestyle, and his very profession
all invite comparison with an insect or spider. Like a spider's, Marner's
life before Eppie is full of thoughtless repetition; he spins his linen and
counts his coins, but he does not remember why. It is only when he
recalls his place within the natural order--shown in his reclaiming of
the herb-gathering of his past, for instance--that he becomes fulfilled
and more human than animal. Eppie, with her nurturing father, does
not grow up alienated from the natural world. Like a plant, she is
organically connected to her father and to nature. This is the positive
meaning of Mrs. Winthrop's statement that Eppie will grow like grass,
and she expresses her natural integrated with sprigs in her wedding
gown. Whereas Marner's spidery behavior demonstrates his failure to
integrate, Eppie is attuned to the integration and interdependence of
nature and society.
In contrast, the Cass family members have destructive or thoughtless
relationships with nature. Dunstan hunts boisterously, a show-off,
without appreciating the lives of the animals he hunts. He remains
unfazed even after impaling his brother's excellent horse, Wildfire, on
a hedge-stake. Godfrey pays little attention to the love of his faithful
dog at the end of Chapter Three. The Casses, and by extension,
perhaps, their high society, are preoccupied with human concerns.
Trivial matters sometimes even distract them from fulfilling their
human natures. Whereas Marner was "too" natural in his dehumanized
state before the arrival of Eppie, the Casses cultivate a humanity that
tends to be separated from nature. The later Marner seems to strike
an ideal balance between the human and the rest of nature.
Another challenge to the natural order in Silas Marner is
industrialization. Like Thomas Hardy and other Romantics (George
Eliot, despite her historical location in the Victorian Age, shares many
concerns with the Romantics) such as William Blake and William
Wordsworth, Eliot presents the encroaching industrialization of England
as the death of a happier, more naturally integrated rural England. The
factory scene in Chapter Twenty-One, which understandably horrifies
Eppie, provides a clear depiction of this mechanized future, when
neither the forces of humanity nor those of nature can overcome the
amoral neutrality of mechanistic markets. Marner's loom, whirring with
its strange repetition, is an ancient symbol of civilization, and here it
may be a sort of microcosm of the coming age of industry. The loom
enslaves Marner until Eppie rescues him. For the most part, then, the
horror of industrialization is a specter in Silas Marner, while the
villagers remain relatively safe in the country. Eliot's Victorian readers,
many of them living in the big cities, would have automatically
recognized the reality of this specter. They already were living in the
age of industry, and they therefore may have looked upon Raveloe as
representative of an idyllic English alternative that they have lost.
Faith
George Eliot's relationship to Christianity was complex. She began her
life as a devout Protestant, gradually faced a crisis of faith (like many
in modern times), and ended up espousing a radical reinterpretation of
Christian ethics that did not necessarily include a God. In her first
novel, Adam Bede, this radicalism was central to the plot and themes.
In Silas Marner Eliot takes a more subtle approach. Suffice it to say
that she finds plenty of hypocrisy in both the Puritanism of Lantern
Yard and the lax Anglicanism of Raveloe. Yet, she does not directly
criticize Christianity itself, and indeed the message of Silas Marner
seems quite consistent with, and even contingent upon, a God-based
Christian morality. Certainly that perspective seems to be the outcome
of Dolly's and Silas's dialogues on questions of faith in Part Two of the
book.
Nevertheless, Silas and Dolly seem to see God as active in situations
where other explanations might generally suffice. Although there is
something of the miraculous in Eppie's entry into Marner's life, one
need not see a divine hand in their first encounter. Moreover, the
ensuing restoration that Silas and Dolly attribute to God, Eliot herself
might attribute to wholly human powers of sympathy, recognition,
nurturing and development. Meanwhile, Silas and Dolly themselves
also are just as impressed by the redemptive powers of society as by
presumed divine intervention. At any rate, in Silas Marner Eliot
addresses her deepest theological concerns through the hesitant
philosophizing of the lower classes. Her novel suggests that, whether
there is a God or not, society is the medium through which grace and
blessings are transmitted. In this world, God does not rescue Silas
Marner; his own love for Eppie does.
Perhaps this pattern is clearest in Lantern Yard. For Eliot, Christian
grace and truth are contingent on human interaction, not divine
intervention. But the crude, literalist Christianity of Lantern Yard,
which locates divine truth not in the medium of society but rather in
constant divine intervention, results in injustice. God is not really going
to reveal the truth through a drawing of lots; in Eliot's novel, God does
not work that way. The elders of Lantern Yard will not even discuss the
possibility of Marner's innocence after "God" has "spoken," and their
warped literalism crushes Marner's young soul. It is only through the
more complex, human-centered practice of community-mediated
spirituality that Marner finds solace. Lantern Yard, by the way, ends up
extinct. Its community cannot survive for long based on something
other than community life. At the novel's end a factory stands where
Lantern Yard once did; where Lantern Yard once reproduced a
mechanistic, unreflective, dehumanized faith, now a factory creates
mechanized, automatic, dehumanized products. The novel resists both
patterns of human life.
Chance
Who is lucky in Silas Marner? The question is not simple. Dunstan
Cass, who calls himself "such a lucky fellow," and who certainly seems
lucky as he avoids all of the awful repercussions of his sadism and
selfishness, plummets to the bottom of the Stone-pits just after his
luck allows him to steal Marner's gold. Godfrey Cass, who considers
himself the most miserable and unlucky fellow in the world, is by a
morbid stroke of fortune able to marry the woman he loves, Nancy,
after his secret first wife perishes on her way to expose his past. Even
that unlucky woman, Molly, was lucky enough at one time to marry a
Squire's firstborn son. And then there is the obvious case of Silas
Marner: not so lucky in the drawing of the lots that sent him out of
Lantern Yard disgraced and traumatized, but very lucky indeed that
Eppie toddled into his life as though by a miracle.
One of the main themes of Silas Marner is the nature of chance, and
perhaps the only definite judgment one can make about chance as
represented in the novel is that chance is not to be trusted. Everyone
has good turns and bad-and we do not always know which is which
until much later. Marner's losing his gold, which he takes to be the
worst thing that could possibly happen to him, is actually the best,
because it clears a space in his life for Eppie. The death of Godfrey's
first wife and Marner's subsequent adoption of his daughter, which
Godfrey believes to be a most amazing stroke of good fortune, turns
out horribly for him in the end. He ends up desiring Eppie in his life
more than he ever desired Nancy. The only thing that can sort good
luck from bad at the time it happens is a set of principles or hierarchy
of values. Godfrey realized it was wrong to pretend Eppie was not his
child; he did so anyway, calling it good luck, and paid in the end.
Marner realized it was right to consider Eppie's arrival a blessing where
others would have called it a burden. In this novel, the principle of
mutual human love and devotion may be at the top of the hierarchy of
values, which the random compass of chance cannot easily reach. This
principle may be the only trustworthy keystone in Eliot's unpredictable
world.
Outside of that world, we see that chance is not random after all, but
guided entirely by the author. The characters meet their poetic justice:
the good end up lucky or rewarded, while the bad are unlucky or
punished. If there is a God in the novel, Eliot plays the part. The
characters themselves see a providential hand guiding their fate, as in
Marner's and Dolly's theological conversations, and they have a sharp
nose for poetic justice. For instance, Godfrey Cass realizes that he
"passed for childless once" because he wanted to and, unfortunately,
he "shall pass for childless now against [his] wish." This moral tidiness
reflects the fairy-tale character of the novel.
Even so, the novel also reflects the messy complexity of reality, and
chance serves this purpose as well. Near the book's end, the wise
Marner says, despite his apparent perfect happiness, "things will
change, whether we like it or no; things won't go on for a long while
just as they are and no difference." Thus, chance will continue to
operate, for better or worse. Pain will come, joy will come, and one
can learn from each revolution of the wheel of fortune.
Community
None of the themes stands alone in Silas Marner. Faith is connected
with memory and chance, class is connected with nature and
community, myth is connected with chance. For example, Marner's big,
blurry insect-eyes not only draw on nature by likening him to an
unreflecting insect; they also denote his class in that his sight is poor
partly because he stares at the fibers in his loom all day; they also
have a metaphorical relationship to his faith when he cannot "see the
light"; they likewise have a metaphorical relationship to his memory,
which he cannot "see"; they resonate with folkloric and mythic images
(the Fates, for instance, as well as being weavers, shared one blurry
eye among the three of them); and they partake in chance when they
keep him from noticing Molly, dying in the snow, or from seeing
Dunstan's footprints after the robbery of his gold. Eliot's tapestry is so
richly textured that the same multivalency can be found in just about
every symbol and theme in the book. The collection of interwoven
themes and symbols establishes a narrative community that reflects
the pervasive importance of social community in the novel. Society
and community figure in practically every sentence of the novel.
Communities are constituted by human interaction. Marner and Eppie
are a two-person community, as are Marner and Mrs. Winthrop. Larger
communities include the socialites who gather at the Red House and
the men at the Rainbow tavern. Raveloe as a whole is a community as
well, of course, as is Lantern Yard. And each of these communities
expresses its own form of social interaction, sometimes just,
sometimes unjust. George Eliot's consistent point in Silas Marner is
that the most rewarding human lives are tied up in honest, caring and
evolving relationships with others.
Silas Marner is the most obvious example of this theme. His shattering
experience at Lantern Yard leaves him without a feeling of
connectedness to a community. Upon arriving at Raveloe, Marner is
treated with suspicion, and he lets himself become ostracized. For
fifteen years he lives a near-solitary life. But even in the midst of this
solitude Marner retains some tie to the community. Note that the
reason he initially finds gold ducats so attractive is that they prove his
usefulness to the people of Raveloe: they are cold, superficial, but real
links between others and himself. With the arrival of Eppie, however,
everything changes. His primary link to humankind becomes not a pile
of metal coins stamped with human faces but a living, growing,
communicating human being. Through the social process of loving and
caring for another, and receiving love in return, Marner is integrated
into the community. He finds friends; he finds his past; he finds faith-
all through the open bond of human to human.
The relationship of Godfrey and Nancy exemplifies the troubles that
can arise through a lack of healthy community. Although Godfrey
believes that all his cares and woes would disappear if he could only
marry Nancy, their marriage ends up coming short of both their
expectations. Eliot is very clear about the reason for this: Godfrey
does not cultivate an honest relationship with Nancy. He withholds the
troubling secret of his parentage of Eppie from her for sixteen years.
During this time he does everything he can to live as though he has no
secret, but he is disappointed again and again when he and Nancy are
unable to have a child. Their barrenness symbolizes their unfruitful,
deceptive relationship. When he later asks to adopt Eppie, he has
made himself unable to declare his reason. His innermost feelings are
intensely private, as all secrets must be, so he has become socially
maimed. Keeping so much of himself a secret has made his marriage
unhappy. When he finally does accept his responsibility to come clean
about his past, he does not meet the redemption that Silas Marner
did; the result is more disappointment. For him it is too late to
cultivate his ideal community, and he must resign himself to isolation--
ultimately he will have to move on to a new community or family and
start over, but even then, can there be another redemption like
Marner's? Godfrey's lack of connection with Nancy, who wants nothing
more than to love him, thus leaves him as isolated as Marner for about
as long as Marner is isolated.
Ideally, as in the case of Eppie and Marner, society is a locus of mutual
betterment and honest communication of social values. Eppie helps
Marner see himself at his best; he blooms as she blooms. Other times,
though, society reinforces one's prejudices and closes one's mind.
Despite its advantages, community can be unjust. Some of the
villagers of Raveloe are quite caring, quirky, likeable folks, but as a
whole they are suspicious, rather ignorant, xenophobic, and racist.
They blame a "swarthy, foreign-looking peddler"--on the scantiest of
evidence--for the theft of Marner's gold, when the true thief is in fact a
son of the "greatest man in Raveloe." Eliot does not strongly challenge
the dangerous tendency to prefer insiders to outsiders, but she does
emphasize it at times for our consideration. She suggests that human
meaning-making, for better or for worse, is caught up in interpersonal
relationships. Silas Marner reminds us of the dark underside of
community even while it generally focuses our attention on
community's advantages.