Silas Marner by George Eliot

Silas Marner's Life in Raveloe

• Silas Marner, a weaver, lives in Raveloe, an English countryside village, in the early 19th century.
• He is an outsider, suspected by the villagers due to his special skills and because he comes from elsewhere.
• Silas suffers from cataleptic fits, which makes the villagers see him as especially odd.
• He was falsely accused of theft and excommunicated from his religious sect in Lantern Yard, leading him to move to Raveloe.

Silas's Isolation and Hoarding

• Silas becomes infatuated with the money he earns and hoards it, living off as little as possible.
• He counts his gold every night, which he keeps hidden beneath his floorboards.
• Silas lives in this way for 15 years, with little else to live for.

The Cass Family

• Squire Cass is the wealthiest man in Raveloe, with two sons, Godfrey and Dunstan (Dunsey).
• Dunsey is greedy and cruel, while Godfrey is good-natured but weak-willed.
• Dunsey blackmails Godfrey over his secret marriage to Molly Farren, an opium addict.

The Theft and its Aftermath

• Dunsey steals Silas's hoarded money, leaving him devastated.
• The theft becomes the talk of the village, with some suspecting a peddler who came through the village earlier.
• Godfrey tells his father about the stolen money but not about his marriage.

The Arrival of Eppie

• Molly, with her toddler daughter, arrives at the Casses' house to reveal her secret marriage but passes out by the road due to opium.
• The little girl, drawn by the light of Silas's fire, enters his cottage and falls asleep at his hearth.
• Silas finds the girl and later discovers Molly's body in the snow.
• Silas adopts the girl, naming her Eppie after his mother and sister.

Silas's Redemption

• Eppie serves as a bridge between Silas and the villagers, who come to think of him as an exemplary person.
• With Dolly Winthrop's help, Silas raises Eppie lovingly, and she brings him out of his benumbed state.
• Eppie's presence helps Silas to explore his repressed memories and find happiness.

The Years That Follow

• The novel jumps ahead 16 years, with Godfrey married to Nancy and Squire Cass deceased.
• Godfrey has inherited his father's house but has no children.
• Eppie grows into a pretty and spirited young woman, and Silas becomes a contented father.

The Discovery and Confession

• Dunsey's skeleton is found at the bottom of the drained stone-pit, along with Silas's gold.
• Godfrey confesses to Nancy about his marriage to Molly and fathering of Eppie.
• Godfrey and Nancy decide to visit Silas's cottage to claim Eppie as their daughter, but Eppie chooses to stay with Silas.

Characters in Silas Marner

• Silas Marner: a simple, honest, and kindhearted weaver who lives as a solitary miser for 15 years after losing faith in God and his fellow man.
• Godfrey Cass: the eldest son of Squire Cass, good-natured but selfish and weak-willed, who knows what is right but is unwilling to pay the price for obeying his conscience.
• Eppie: a girl adopted by Silas Marner, biological child of Godfrey Cass and Molly Farren, who is pretty and spirited, and loves Silas unquestioningly.
• Nancy Lammeter: the object of Godfrey’s affection and his eventual wife, who is pretty, caring, and stubborn, and lives her life by a code of rules that sometimes seems arbitrary and uncompromising.
• Dunstan Cass: Godfrey’s younger brother, who is cruel, lazy, and unscrupulous, and loves gambling and drinking.
• Squire Cass: the wealthiest man in Raveloe, who is lazy, self-satisfied, and short-tempered.
• Dolly Winthrop: the wheelwright’s wife who helps Silas with Eppie, and later becomes Eppie’s godmother and mother-in-law, who is kind, patient, and devout.
• Molly Farren: Godfrey’s secret wife and Eppie’s mother, who was once pretty but has been destroyed by her addictions to opium and alcohol.
• William Dane: Silas’s proud and priggish best friend from his childhood in Lantern Yard, who frames Silas for theft to bring disgrace upon him, and then marries Silas’s fiancée, Sarah.
• Mr. Macey: Raveloe’s parish clerk, who is opinionated and smug but means well.
• Aaron Winthrop: Dolly’s son and Eppie’s eventual husband.
• Priscilla Lammeter: Nancy’s homely and plainspoken sister, who talks endlessly but is extremely competent at everything she does.
• Sarah: Silas’s fiancée in Lantern Yard, who is put off by Silas’s strange fit and ends up marrying William Dane after Silas is disgraced.
• Mr. Lammeter: Nancy’s and Priscilla’s father, who is a proud and morally uncompromising man.
• Jem Rodney: a somewhat disreputable character and a poacher, who sees Silas in the midst of one of Silas’s fits, and is later accused of stealing his gold.
• Mr. Kimble: Godfrey’s uncle and Raveloe’s doctor, who is usually an animated conversationalist and joker, but becomes irritable when he plays cards, and has no medical degree.
• Mr. Dowlas: the town farrier, who shoes horses and tends to general livestock diseases, and is a fiercely contrarian person, much taken with his own opinions.
• Mr. Snell: the landlord of the Rainbow, a local tavern, who is a conciliatory person and always tries to settle arguments.
• The peddler: an anonymous peddler who comes through Raveloe some time before the theft of Silas’s gold, and is a suspect in the theft because of his gypsylike appearance—and for lack of a better candidate.
• Bryce: a friend of both Godfrey and Dunsey, who arranges to buy Wildfire, Dunsey’s horse.
• Miss Gunns: sisters from a larger nearby town who come to the Squire’s New Year’s dance, who are disdainful of Raveloe’s rustic ways, but are impressed by Nancy Lammeter’s beauty.
• Sally Oates: Silas’s neighbor and the wheelwright’s wife, who is eased by Silas with a concoction he makes out of foxglove to alleviate her heart disease and dropsy.

Silas Marner, a weaver, is an outsider in the English countryside village of Raveloe in the 19th century due to his unique skills and mysterious past. Explore the world of Raveloe and its characters in this classic novel.