Essay/Term paper: The outcast weaver

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Book Reports

The story of Silas Marner is a beautiful, eloquently told story which gives the

reader a vived depiction of the period in which it takes place in a rustic village

in England in the 1800s. The story evokes many emotions from the reader

as well as teaches some moral lessons about life which are timeless. The

author's overall theme is a powerful demonstration of the importance of

friendship and love to one's life and the devatating, dehumanizing effect the

lack of friendship and love causes.

Silas Marner, The Weaver of Raveloe, by George Eliot, is a fictional novel

of what becomes of this once respected and esteemed young man, a weaver

by trade, after he is framed for a thft by his best friend who them marries his

fiancee. It is a poignant story which vividly demostrates the impact the lack

of love and friendship has on one's life, and what becomes of Silas as a

result of the injustices done to him.

Silas Marner, by George Eliot, is a fictional account of a frinedless,

reclusive weaver whose only purpose in life is to weave and hoard gold. O

once his hold is stolen, he feels totally lost without it. Then mysteriously,

this beautiful golden haired baby girl comes into his life in its (the gold

guineas) place which marks the "rebirth", the journely of Silas Marner back

to humanity. This single event redeems his life through his love for the baby

and his willingness to care for and take her as his own.

The story evokes a lot of emotion from the reader in response to the total

injustice of what happened to Silas. First, complete anger as well as

sympathy, for the betrayal by his best frined by framing him for a theft and

framing him to get his fiancee. As is this was not bad enough, he is deemed

huilty by his town, so feels forced to leave. This event nearly destroyed Silas.

He moves to a nearby village called Raveloe, where he isnot accepted

because he is an outsider, therefore is not to be trusted.

"and even a settler, if he came from distant parts hardly ever ceased to be

viewed with a remnant of distrust," (p.2)

One night after his gold had been stolen, Silas mistakes the golden-

haired baby girl that crawled into his cottage for his stolen gold guines but

soon realizes it is a baby girl. He decides to take care of her as his own

child. Things begin to change in Silas' life, and this is the turning point of his

life.

The plot of the story is that Silas Marner, a weaver of linen by trade, is

betrayed by his supposed best friend William Dane. He framed Silas for a

theft which caused him to basically be driven out of his hometown, losing all

that he loved. He was betrayed by his best friend, his friends, his church and

his fiancee. He had lost everything including his hometown. He moves to a

nearby town called Raveloe where he is looked upon as a strange man with

peculiar "fits" and unusual powers to heal and is basically feared as someone

who is of the occult. He becomes a lonely, reclusive miser who lives to work

on his loom...his entire life beomes an endless pursuit to just weave and

hoard his gold guineas, it ws all he had. He spent his days just weaving his

linen like he was machine.

"Strangely, Marner's face and figure shrank and bent themselves into a

constant mechanical relation to the objects of his life," (p.18)

"So this pattern would continue and for all the linen he would sell, he

would keep hoarding the gold and spend almost nothing." (p.18)

The gold became the only special thing in his life. Until one night when

his gold mysteriously disapperared. What could have happened but a robbery?

And who was the thief? Dunstan Cass, the son of Squire Cass, the most

important, respected and wealthy man in Raveloe. But Silas has no idea who

it was and neither does anyone else. On New Years Eve, he finds himseld at

home that night away from the festivities at the Red House. He goes into one

of his "fits" and awakens to catch this gold out of the corner of his eye.

He turned towards the hearth and notices an "uncertain glimmer",

thinking it is his gold, he reaches for the gold, only to find the gold he sees is

the golden curly hair of a baby girl. After finding the mother dead outside, he

decides to claim the child as his own. But, Godfrey Cass, another son of

Squire Cass, Dunstan's brother, is the father of the baby. This is a turning

point in Silas Marner's Life. He turns from the crazed, workaholic existence

to become a caring, attentive and loving father to this baby girl, whom he

names Hepzipah after his mother and sister. The addition of Eppie into his

life changes Silas completely, and he becomes accepted and looked upon

favorably by the townspeople for his kindness of taking in the orphan baby

girl.

The other characters in the book, most especially Squire Cass, Dunstan

Cass and Godfey Cass, are used by the author to demostrate the injustices

of society. The Cass family is the most prominent, wealthy and respected in

town. Yet, Dunstan Cass is a thief and blackmailer. He is the thief who stole

Silas' gold but is killed the same night when he falls in the Stone Pits and

drowns with the gold.

Godfrey Cass is a liar and a coward, who has married this lowly woman

Molly, has a child with her, but has kept is secret form his fatherand

everyone else but his brother Dunstan (which is how Dunstan was

blackmailing him, to keep his secret). He then abandons Molly, and after she

died still told no one of his relationship to the mother and child. Years later,

after marrying Nancy Lammeter, and tey ar eunable to have children and

Nancy wants them so badly, Godfrey finallydecides to claim Eppie.

The author demostrated with her depiction of these characters, how

society judges people by what they do and how much money they have and

not by character. This is another underlying theme in this story, that your

station in life and how much money one has, should not be the basis of how

people are judged or viewed.

In the end, Silas is rewarded for taking in Eppie when his stolen gold is

found and returned to hi m. Also, he is rewarded with Eppie's decisio to

reject Godfrey Cass, who finally comes forward to claim Eppie as his

daughter.He wants he rto come live with him and Nancy in the rich and

prestigious part of town and she rejects him. Silas is her father, the man who

has cared and loved her all her life.

In conclusion, the main theme of the book demostrated that without love,

friendship, relationships in life, you are just existing. It shows the extreme

powerof love has in life. Silas was so obsessed with his work, his only

relationship was with his loom. The analogy made by the author depicts

Silas as becoming like a machine. Machines do not have emotions and Silas

for al lthe prior injustices that befell him. It succeeds in its demonstration of

the importance of love in life. It also succeeds in showing the reader the

wrongs of judging people based on stupid reasons, such as "don't judge a

book by its cover." It also shows the reader the importance of getting to

know someone, not making assumptions based on what they do, their

appearance or what they have.

The failure would be the author was overly verbose in the tellling of the

story. A large portion of the book was really kind of boring and unneccessary

to the story. But I owuld recommend the book. At first, it is kind of difficult to

read dut to the language of the period and hte lengthy, detailed style of the

author in her telling the story. But overall, it was enjoyable and I loved the

happy ending.