New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired

Silas Marner

Silas Marner

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About the Author

George Eliot

George Eliot (1819-1880)

George Eliot, pseudonym of Mary Ann, or Marian, Cross, née Evans, (born November 22, 1819, Chilvers Coton, Warwickshire, England—died December 22, 1880, London), English Victorian novelist who developed the method of psychological analysis characteristic of modern fiction. Her major works include Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Middlemarch (1871–72), and Daniel Deronda (1876). (From Biography.com)

Silas Marner (1861)

In this heartwarming classic by George Eliot, a gentle linen weaver named Silas Marner is wrongly accused of a heinous theft actually committed by his best friend. Exiling himself to the rustic village of Raveloe, he becomes a lonely recluse. Ultimately, Marner finds redemption and spiritual rebirth through his unselfish love for an abandoned child who mysteriously appears one day in his isolated cottage.

Somber, yet hopeful, Eliot’s realistic depiction of an irretrievable past, tempered with the magical elements of myth and fairy tale, remains timeless in its understanding of human nature and has been beloved for generations.

(From Amazon.com)

Questions for Silas Marner

What is the purpose of Eliot's use of Biblical allusions? What is their function in the novel?

Compare and contrast the charaters of Silas and Mr. Macey.

No man can begin to mould himself on a faith or an idea without rising to a higher order of experience." How does this statement by Eliot apply to Silas Marner?

Can Silas' final view of life be reconciled with life as Godfrey experiences it?

Do you think Silas Marner was written to make a philosophical point? If so, what was it?

Easy Reader

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