Silas Marner by George Eliot (Characters)

 

Silas Marner

by George Eliot

(Characters) 

Silas Marner

The hero of the novel, Silas is not a heroic character. He is not particularly sharp, daring or generous. He is in fact, an artifact of Eliot’s desire to provoke compassion for ordinary deficient humanity going about its day-to-day business. The common man, as a reader, finds it easy to relate himself to the characters who are close to his own life.

The character of Silas changes greatly as the events in the story of the novel progress, yet part of him always remains “the same Silas Marner who had once loved his fellow with tender love and trusted in an unseen goodness.” Silas has inbuilt goodness in him, which is crushed by the evils which befall him, but they come back with even greater potency, and it seems natural that they should do so. The changes in Silas’ character are never illogical. They are deeply rooted in the circumstances in which he is entangled; they develop as you would expect from his past. The unfaithfulness by William Dane costs Silas his faith in men, and the betrayal of the drawing of the lots takes his faith in a just God. The occurrence of the second robbery sets in place of the just God a hallucination of a “cruel power.” Yet because he does believe in a power, Silas is able to believe that Eppie is sent for his deliverance, and through Eppie’s influence he finds new conviction in the goodness of other people.

The static part of Silas’ character is that which requires some support on which he can lean, something to support his courage to face life. We find him taking strength to sustain his existence from one source or the other. When he loses his religion, he turns to his work, and then to his gold. When he is deprived of his gold, he finds a better support in a child, which leads eventually to his faith in his fellow men and in his own power.

Silas is always truthful, both with himself and with others. He is not capable to question the appropriateness of church doctrine, and he will not straightforwardly believe that William would betray him. Further in the story, he cannot oblige himself to imagine anything distrustful about the strange peddler even when he needs to believe that the man might have been the robber. But while he retains some good qualities, he loses his consideration for men, and then all his affections are in risk of diminishing away. He becomes stone-hearted to the people around him. But when he emerges in the concluding part of the novel as a man with new faith, he has not been merely restored to his original position, rather he has gained maturity and inner strength. He has the courage to give up his daughter, his treasure, for her good. His faith is not based on unquestioned set of guidelines; rather, it survives in spite of doubts. His is no awe-inspiring accomplishment, but a believable, human one, very near to the real life of the common man.

Nancy Lammeter

The character of Nancy, like Silas, is a round character as it changes during the course of the story. Her change is not the obvious consequence of the force of events. But to a certain extent, it is the consciousness of something that was inborn in her, which can also be interpreted as a simple process of maturing. It is all authentic and spontaneous.

Nancy as a young girl is charismatic and elegant. The author highlights these qualities by disclosure, by description of her actions, by the authentication of other characters, and by her own narration. We find that Nancy is a lady who has high and strict principles: she does not care to unite with any man of poor moral fiber but at the same time, her love for Godfrey continues to survive It is also evident that Nancy’s youthful “principle” is girlish self-dramatization.

When this disappears with her ripeness, it leaves a base of real principle, but it is sweetened by a love that can become sympathy. Nancy’s principle refrains her from adopting a child, but her love for Godfrey makes her try to make it up to him in other ways. When it comes to her notice that Eppie is Godfrey’s own daughter, she is no more governed by her principle as Godfrey had feared, but is overtaken by love and sympathy. The insight into her character that has been given through the scenes presented from her point of view has prepared for this improvement.

Eppie

Among all the major characters in the novel, Eppie is the least developed. This is so because hers is a well-designed role, and it hardly requires a fully characterized individual to fulfill it if we read the role of this character intently. During half the time she is in the story, she is a small child. There is no endeavor to make her a special sort of child, except in Silas’ affectionate eyes. All her habits are like that of a normal child and she also shows childish cuteness. This is all that is required in her role, which is only to bring Silas into contact with his neighbours, because she is supposed to recreate the goodness in the hero through the nobility of her persona.

When she is shown as a young woman, Eppie has a more difficult part to play in the novel. In order to show the sort of life Silas has achieved, it is necessary for Eppie to have some semblance of an individuality. Her character has been given very little time in which to achieve any complexity. Eliot takes some pains to give Eppie depth by showing incidents that are emblematic of her character rather than by providing a full background of her life. Eppie’s fondness for animals stands for all of her affectionate nature towards all living beings. Eliot very dramatically puts her in the dilemma of having to choose between her two “fathers”. This interesting situation demonstrates that her affection has depth and she solves the purpose of the novelist by deciding to stay with Silas.

 A small touch of complexity is introduced in her character by her wish to have one slight advantage over Aaron. In the end, Eppie is most significant for the consequence her presence has on the lives of the two important characters, i.e., Silas and Godfrey. The character she is given is suited to her functional role, but it does not go far beyond that, yet, there is no denying the fact that she plays the pivotal role in the novel.

Godfrey Cass

Godfrey Cass is considered to be one of the major characters in the sense that his correlation to all the other characters directly affects the course of events. He is Eppie’s father. He had secretly married a lady of not so sound a character and social reputation. She begot him a lovely daughter, but he regrets his secret marriage and wishes to marry Nancy Lammeter whom he had always loved secretly. He lacks the moral courage to try to find any solution to his problems. He prefers to wait on chance. He is afraid of disclosing his secret marriage to Molly to his father and is blackmailed by his brother, Dunstan for this reason. Later, he decides to admit his marriage but Molly dies and his daughter dramatically enters the barren life of Silas. His marriage to Nancy, his not being able to have a child of his own, his realization of doing wrong in not accepting the fatherhood of Eppie and later his determination to do all that he can for his daughter who has refused to leave Silas to whom she is deeply attached, all these events make his character readable.

Dunstan Cass

Dunstan is set as a direct contrast to Godfrey. Godfrey is a man who is merely weak, but Dunstan is completely bad. He is worthless, haughty, and self-seeking, as well as fraudulent. Much like his brother Godfrey, he is interested in fulfilling his selfish motives, but he lacks any saving virtues. Dunstan suspects his own worthlessness: while he thinks what a fine person he is, he fears the opinions of others on that subject. This tendency of self-absorption or narcissism is put symbolically by George Eliot, by having Dunstan take Godfrey’s whip, as it has a better outward show than his own.

Technically, Dunstan’s character is similar to that of Eppie because he is just the sort of person needed to fulfill his role and serves no other purpose. He no doubt stands as a contrast to Godfrey, as a means of relieving Silas of his gold, and as a reminder to Godfrey that truth will sooner or later disclose itself. When not needed, he can be easily removed from the story without being missed. He is an example of static characterization because he shows no growth in the course of the story and comes on the scene in a full-blown state. However, he has a certain complexity: his reticent understanding of his faults gives him a psychological interest that Eppie lacks to the reader.

Dolly Winthrop

Although Dolly is one of the minor characters of the novel, she plays a very important role through her attempts to change his heart. She has a natural faith that contrasts with Silas’ initial distrust of Heaven. She represents the best of Raveloe, the community spirit and real interest and concern for others. She is She is not the typical stereotype; because through her discussions with Silas, she reveals a full personality, slow in thought but steady in faith and strong in her compassion. She is considered as her godmother by Eppie and later-on her son Aaron marries Eppie.

The Choral Characters

Macey, Dowlas, Snell, Lundy, Tookey, Winthrop

This is a group of those characters who exist as a cementing factor in the story but do not carry any individual significance. These characters represent the variety of Raveloe character and opinion, from Macey, the self-admiring respected old-timer, to Tookey, the defensively vague newcomer. Dowlas is the “negative spirit” of the group, almost a nonconformist. Snell, the property-owner, is the arbitrator, and Ben Winthrop is simply an average well-established inhabitant of Raveloe. None of the group is developed to any depth, but they are different individuals. Some of them, Macey and Dowlas, especially, are among the more influential characters of the story. As a group, they give information about the backdrop of the story, comment on the action, and are a source of broad comedy. They weave the events in a harmonious whole and cannot be eliminated from the basic fabric.