Analysis of George Eliots written style: an extract from Silas

Marner

Task 1.
The main clauses are always near the start of the sentences. This causes us to
pay more attention to the ideas that the author is trying to convey. The rest of the
sentence is used to explain the main clause by listing examples or with long
winding, overdone descriptions, which are written to provide us with imagery for
the scene George Eliot is trying to create in our minds. For example, the white-
washed walls the little pews where well-known figures entered with a subdued
rustling provide a very lengthy description describing the alter-place which
Silas once worshipped in Lantern Yard. The complexity of these sentences
suggest that the audience to whom Eliot is addressing are older adults who have
experienced many different things in their lifetimes.

Task 2.
The lists which follows the main clauses are descriptions and explanations used
to help us imagine the scene in our heads that George Eliot wants us to see or to
help us make more sense out of the story. For example, on the sense that their
past joys and sorrows are a real experience, when they are suddenly transported
to a new land, where the beings around them know nothing of their history, and
share none of their ideas provide more information for us so we can fully
understand what Silas Marner is going through by moving from Lantern Yard to
Raveloe. It also tells us some of the contrasts between the two places.

Task 3.
There are less complex sentences which use less complicated wording. These
provide a break for the reader from the endless, intricate descriptions
beforehand. This makes us pay more attention to the shorter sentences so they
provide a larger impact, which also help us create the image that George Eliot is
trying to give us. An example is There were no lips in Raveloe from which a
word could fall that would stir Silas Marners benumbed faith to a sense of pain.

Task 4.
- unquestioned doctrine (no minds of our own, robots)
- little child knows nothing of parental love, but only knows one face and
one lap towards which it stretches its arm for refuge and nurture. (no such
thing as love?)
- bridge over the loveless chasms of his life. (faith created these chasms)
- fledin fear or in sullenness, from the face of an unpropitious deity. (we
do things in fear of the deity, not because it is right)
- Powervainly trusted (no minds of our own, robots)
- from pure impulse, without reflection. (as if we have no minds of our
own)
- men lived in careless abundance, knowing and needing nothing of that
trustturned to bitterness (better to live without religion?)
- affection seemed to have died under the bruise that had fallen on its
keenest nerves. (having faith and the losing it created the bruise)

Task 5.
Made various could be written as positive or negative. If it was positive, in which
Invisible
Unseen Love
Make you think without making it obvious


Task 6.
Words which are connected to discontinuity of consciousness and identity
connecting to Silas Marner:
- unhinged deranged
- Lethean unaware, like a dream
- pure impulse, without reflection
- The little light he possessed spread its beams so narrowly, that frustrated
belief was a curtain broad enough to create for him the blackness of
night.

Task 7.
Words that communicate Silass feelings at this stage of the novel:
- hidden
- pain
- vainly trusted regret to trust the Power
- bitterness
- frustrated
- shock
- loveless does not want to love or be loved
- affection seemed to have died does not want to love or be loved
Significant because you cannot see anything about his emotions from his actions
as described by the author. He appears to be emotionless and cold.

Task 8.
Eliot uses phrases such as from pure impulse, without reflection and
unquestioning activity to describe Silass life before he lost his gold and Eppie
came into his life. These descriptions are significant because they show how
Silass life was as superficial and shallow as that of a spider. Being like a spider
also suggests that Silas did not socialize with many people or explore things
outside his realm of knowledge and experience, merely spinning day after day,
as if his life had no meaning.

Task 9.
Eliot feels sympathetic towards Silas but only to the point where she still is
believable and realistic. An example of this is But even their experience may
hardly enable them thoroughly to imagine what was the effect on a simple
weaver like Silas Marner, which shows that she thinks that no matter how
unfamiliar our situation was to ourselves, Silass was even more so.