Although Raveloe is a close community, where everyone knows and speaks to everyone else Silas has never been part of it. There is the idea that the simple life she knows allows her to grow up with a pure heart and solid character. Silas Marner The title character, Silas is a solitary weaver who, at the time we meet him, is about thirty-nine years old and has been living in the English countryside village of Raveloe for fifteen years. She is unable to have children. He allows his sons to do pretty much whatever they please, because he does not care what happens to them as long as his tenants are not involved.
Bryce and Keating Two members of the landed class in Raveloe's vicinity, and friends of the Cass boys. Then one of Godfrey's friends tells him about the death of his horse, Wildfire. But Eppie firmly declines their offer, stating that she just has one father, Silas Marner, who she will always claim as her own. Godfrey is shaken and decides to finally tell Nancy that Eppie is his child. Betrayal, Blackmail, and Lies Many characters will are lied to, blackmailed, or betrayed. He works for and loves gold, which he keeps in an iron pot and counts nightly. Dunstan makes Godfrey pay him, or he will tell the Squire about Molly.
Silas and the townspeople think she has been sent to Silas from Him above. Eppie brings him more happiness and joy than he ever received from the gold. Major Inciting Conflict Silas has been hurt badly, so he has become a reclusive miser, full of anger and despair. He is isolated from the rest of the village, living at the edge of town, working as a weaver, and not attending church. He is courting a lovely woman, Nancy Lammeter. The sound of his spindle causes his simple neighbors to suspect that he is under the influence of the Devil.
She is practical and smart, for she manages their father's farm and dairy. An old and venerable figure, one usually finds him sitting thoughtfully at the Rainbow or speaking about old times that only he can now remember. He offers to help her and Silas make a garden. Dunstan panics and, upon entering Silas Marner's cottage and, finding him gone, steals his gold. When he arrives, Godfrey recognizes the child as his from his secret marriage to a woman named Molly, a fact which Dunstan was using as blackmail. They come from higher society and are dressed in the height of fashion.
But Dunstan foolishly kills Wildfire by jumping a fence which pierces the horse. Silas is betrayed by William in Lantern Yard, as well as by those who cast him out of town. Aaron Winthrop The son of Ben and Dolly Winthrop. Dunstan, the Squire's son, had been in the business of blackmailing his older brother Godfrey. Dunstan Cass The middle child of the Cass family.
Silas Marner by George Eliot: Summary, Analysis & Characters
Forsaken and feeling the deepest despair of his life, Silas is forced to suppress his past when he finds a mysterious gift on his hearth. When she attempts to walk to the Red House to confront Godfrey during the New Years party, she dies from exhaustion, leaving Eppie to walk by chance ino the home of Silas Marner. He fixates on the gold coins because, unlike people, they cannot betray him, leave him, or forsake him. What changes his life is the child that he finds sitting in front of his fireplace, the child he believes is sent from above. Godfrey and Nancy have been unable to have any children, except for one who died, and Nancy sees this as the will of God.
The character of Silas Marner in Silas Marner from LitCharts
He is a less-than-admirable character and a poor father. His loss and subsequent rediscovery of faith demonstrate both the difficulty and the solace that religious belief can bring. Marner is the quintessential miser in English literature, collecting and hoarding the gold he earns at his loom. His hopes are realized; Molly overdosed and died in the snow. William Dane Silas' best friend in Lantern Yard, who frames Silas for theft and steals Sarah from him. Lammeter of the Warrens, he was a tailor who has aspired to joining the gentry.
