Silas Marner by George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)

1. Silas Marner is about a weaver who moves into the town of Raveloe, where he is an outcast, because of his early life in a large city.  He is distant from the peasants around him, as their culture is unlike the one he came from.  He becomes more and more distant from them, but makes more and more money from them, due to his knowledge from the city, and his monopoly in weaving. He loves his small fortune, and counts it in his free time.  One night, the town squire’s son steals the money to pay off a debt, and vanishes.  Marner’s loss of money causes him to mourn, as it is his one love in the world, but his poorness brings the villagers closer to him.  A while later, a young child comes to Marner’s house, which is Goldfry’s (the squire’s other son’s) daughter, but this remains unknown to most, as Goldfry’s marriage is secret.  Molly, the mother, is found dead, so Silas adopts the child.  16 years later, Silas has shifted his love of money and the material world to the love of Eppie, the adopted girl, and people in general.  He spends a lot of time with his friend Dolly, who’s son, Aaron is a suitor for Eppie.  One day Silas’s money is found in his dried well with the body of Goldfry’s brother, and, though Silas is happy, he does not care about the money nearly as much as 16 years prior.  Goldfry confesses to being Eppie’s parent, and asks to adopt her, but Eppie decides to stay with Silas, because, despite being poorer than Goldfry, Silas cared about her.  Eppie and Aaron marry, and Silas and Eppie are truly happier than anybody else in the story, because, despite being poor, they have good relations and happiness because of it.
2. The theme of the novel is that true happiness comes from relationships and honesty, not materials and deceit.  
3. Eliot’s tone is different in the first and second half of the book.  The first half, marked by Silas’s life without Eppie, is rather sad and secluded, shown by Silas’s prejudices when guessing who stole his money.  In the second half of the book, the tone is easy going, and uplifting, as shown by Silas’s talks with Dolly, about his life in the city, and his talks with Eppie, about happiness and marriage.
4. Ethos is used heavily through the novel, due to common references to god and religion, as the people are very superstitious and god-fearing.  Foreshadowing occurs when the money is found, as it foreshadows that Goldfry will confess his past to his wife, Eppie and Silas.  Symbolism is used in the novel to show that Eppie was the replacement to gold in Silas’s life, as shown by her gold hair.  Irony is used, as when Silas cures Mrs Oates, he becomes more of an outcast to the town.  Flashback is used in the novel to show Silas’s life before he moved to Raveloe.  The narration being in third person, omniscient allows for many things, such as dramatic irony in the fact that we know how Silas thinks, and how Goldfry thinks, causing us to know about Eppie’s origin before Silas does.  Pathos is used and evoked by Silas’s backstory to get us to feel for him.  The reoccurring ailments caused by Silas’s work symbolizes that the past haunts him.  Metaphor is used in the novel in comparing Silas to a spider, showing his reclusiveness, and the “web” he created to guard his money.  Parallel structure is also used in the novel, by building up Silas’s story and Goldfry’s story to have a more meaningful ending.

1. Direct characterization was used in the novel to discuss Silas and Eppie.  Silas was is shown as an old man, looking much older than his age at 55, with grey hair, and Eppie is constantly noted as being beautiful with large eyes.  Indirect characterization is used to discuss Silas and Goldfry.  This is used on Silas in the opening chapter of the book, with his interactions with the people of the city, so that we become sympathetic towards him.  With Goldfry, it is used to show that his has many problems, most of which have come from him trying to keep up his reputation.
2. When Eliot focused on characters like Eppie, Dolly and Aaron, her words had more positive connotations, but when she focused on Goldfry and other rich people, she used a much more negatively connotated vocabulary.  With Silas, the connotations of the words started out as sad and negative, growing to very positive at the end of the novel.
3. Silas is a dynamic, round character.  The novel solely focuses on his change from a sad recluse, to a happy family man.  This change is dynamic, is it not?  He is round, because his thoughts and wishes are very complex, as if they weren't, it would not take so long to change his ways.
4. Yes, I felt that I met a person by the end of this novel, because his change I have seen in myself over the past couple of years, making him more believable.  As a child, I was very into material things like toys and money, but now, although I still enjoy material things, knowledge and people mean infinitely more to me.