53 pages • 1 hour read
George EliotSilas Marner
George EliotFiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1861A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
Silas is betrayed by his friend and sent away from Lantern Yard. How does this betrayal affect his personality? Chart the course of this betrayal throughout Silas’s character growth at each stage of the novel. To what degree does this betrayal affect Silas throughout his life?
Why does Silas become obsessed with accumulating gold? What does the gold mean to him? What does it replace, and is it enough?
The Cass brothers both commit various crimes and sins. Which brother is guilty of the greater transgression and why?
Describe the ways in which social class is defined and reinforced in Raveloe. What positive and negative effects does the social hierarchy present?
In what ways does Silas’s attitude toward the importance of community change throughout the novel? What factors influence this?
How does the stone pit symbolize the changing nature of life in Raveloe? How does this interplay within the larger context of 19th-century England at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution?
In what ways does Silas Marner explore the idea of impending modernity in early 19th-century England? Further, how does it explore the idea of class as it intersects with modernity?
Silas’s return to religion is part of his integration into the Raveloe community. What inspires Silas’s return to faith? Why is it effective? How does religion differ in Raveloe and Lantern Yard?
Silas’s return to religion is part of his integration into the Raveloe community. What inspires Silas’s return to faith? Why is it effective? How does religion differ in Raveloe and Lantern Yard?
At the end of the novel, Silas returns to Lantern Yard to discover that his old chapel has disappeared. How does this journey allow him to recover?
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By George Eliot
