'Silas Marner' by George Eliot

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how in George Eliot's book, 'Silas Marner', a miser finds the meaning of true wealth and his own worth. According to the paper, Eliot uses the literary device of symbolism to show how the young, blond, abandoned child Eppie softens the heart of the embittered miser Silas Marner. The paper concludes with the powerful message that the most meaningful morality of all, the truest gold beyond creed and coinage, is loving another person.

From the Paper:

"In Virginia Woolf's words, even before Eliot became a novelist "we see her rising herself with groans and struggles from the intolerable boredom of petty provincial society (her father had risen in the world and become more middle class, but less picturesque) to be the assistant editor of a highly intellectual London review." (Woolf, 1919) Partly as a result of her frustrations with some of the novels she had to review, she decided to begin writing fiction. Born Mary Ann Evans, Eliot took the pen name of George Eliot so that her works would be taken seriously in terms of the ideas they addressed. (Uglow, 2002) Despite the fact that Eliot became a Londoner, as an artist, "much of her fiction reflects the middle-class rural background of her childhood and youth," feeling that these locations were better able to touch upon the "moral and social problems" that were her main concern. (Basset, 2006) Eliot was prominent in the scientific and literary debates of the time, standing squarely on the side of Darwinism and humanism rather than the faith she had been reared in as a child."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Allingham, Phillip V. "George Eliot's Fiction, 1857-1876: An Introductory Survey." Lakehead University (Canada) Lecture. 1996. Available on The Victorian Web. [25 May 2006] http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/eliot/pva96.html
• Bassett, Sharon. "Eliot, George." World Book Online Reference Center. 2006. [25 May 2006.] <http://www.aolsvc.worldbook.aol.com/wb/Article?id=ar178220>.
• Dawson, Terence "Light Enough to Trusten By': Structure and Experience in Silas Marner." Modern Language Review 88 (1993): 26-45. Available on The Victorian Web. [25 May 2006] http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/eliot/dawson1.html
• De Laura, David J. "Hebrew and Hellene in Victorian England: Newman, Arnold, and Pater." Austin: U of Texas P, 1969. Available in full text on The Victorian Web. [25 May 2006] http://www.victorianweb.org/religion/delaura4.html
• Eliot, George. Silas Marner. Available at The Free Library in full text. [25 May 2006] http://eliot.thefreelibrary.com/Silas-Marner

More papers on 'Silas Marner' by George Eliot:

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• Book Review # 108288 : "Middlemarch - George Eliot"

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