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Study Guide
Silas Marner by George Eliot LEXILE 1330

The Novel at a Glance

MORE ABOUT THE WRITER
George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) was born into a society in which women’s joys
and responsibilities were defined by the rigid social conventions of the time. She
grew up to become a woman who defied those conventions, both through her
lifestyle and through her career. Gifted with intelligence and imagination, she
would become one of the greatest and most influential of English novelists.
Moral and social problems form the backdrop of many of Eliot’s novels, but it is
the characters who matter most. She wrote about preachers, country squires,
working people, abandoned wives, social outcasts, misers, politicians, and
religious zealots. Where did she find these people, and how did she know them so
well? She found them in her memories of a childhood and youth spent in the
country, a life she left behind.
Eliot was brought up in a middle-class home in a rural part of England. She was
educated at home and in private schools. She left home at age thirty, traveling to
Europe and then settling in London at age thirty-two to earn a living. There, she
met many of the important intellectuals of her time. She also entered into a long-
term relationship with the writer and popular scientist George Henry Lewes, who
was separated from his wife. Lewes encouraged Eliot to write; during their years
together she produced her great novels Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas
Marner, Middlemarch, and Daniel Deronda, among others.

BACKGROUND
Silas Marner takes place in rural England around the beginning of the nineteenth
century, before the transformation of society by the Industrial Revolution. The
novel depicts a typical English village of that time, Raveloe, and shows the range
of its society, from the poor cottagers to the landed gentry. Silas, an itinerant
weaver residing in a town where he did not grow up, has a marginal place in this
society as the book begins.
The novel is a portrait of an isolated soul who, through the power of love, finds a
place in his community. By the end of the book, the story demonstrates the triumph
of love over money, power, and status.

MAJOR CHARACTERS
Silas Marner, the only weaver in Raveloe, has been living as a hermit for fifteen
years. His whole life is devoted to his work and to the pleasure of counting his
gold. Over the course of the novel, Silas suffers greatly but finds happiness
through his unselfish love.
Godfrey Cass, the upper-class son of the largest landowner in the village, lives in
fear that his secret marriage, to Molly Farren, will be revealed. When his wife dies,
Godfrey does not acknowledge her or their daughter. Though Godfrey then marries
the woman he loves and inherits his father’s wealth, he is unhappy because his
marriage is childless.

Original content Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.

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Silas Marner continued

Dunstan (Dunsey) Cass is Godfrey’s dissolute brother. When he steals Silas’s

gold, he triggers the first real action of the novel.
Nancy Lammeter is the daughter of a wealthy landowner. She marries Godfrey
but the marriage is childless.
Eppie is the daughter of Godfrey Cass from his secret marriage. She arrives on
Silas’s doorstep as a baby. It is her love for Silas (and his for her) that humanizes
Silas and brings him into the community.
Dolly Winthrop, the wheelwright’s wife, befriends Silas and gives him practical,
wise advice.

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT
Words in the English language can often be broken into parts. Prefixes are added
at the beginning of a word or word root to form a new word. Most prefixes come
from Greek, Latin, and Old English. Suffixes, which are added to the end of a
word or word root to form a new word, also come from Greek, Latin, and Old
English.

Chapters 1–5 Chapters 11–15

dexterity, p. 6 aberration, p. 101
metamorphosis, p. 10 contrivance, p. 105
constraint, p. 24 indolence, p. 119
compunction, p. 35 profligacy, p. 125
complacency, p. 46 prevarication, p. 131

Chapters 6–10 Chapters 16–Conclusion

conciliatory, p. 55 rectitude, p. 169
precedent, p. 56 forbearance, p. 169
countenance, p. 68 singular, p. 172
credulous, p. 84 indifferent, p. 195
exhortation, p. 92 renunciation, p. 198

Original content Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Additions and changes to the original content are the responsibility of the instructor.

2 Novel Study Guide