Silas Marner
In the book Silas marner, George Elliot uses many themes to bring the book alive and also to grasp the reader’s attention. Silas marner is written by a woman who named herself George Elliot as a mean to publish her novels. Themes are used in this novel to portray what George Elliot was trying to show the readers.
One of the themes in Silas marner is class; being centered on two households, marner’s cottage by the stone pit and the Cass marner, the red house, these two settings represent class extremes. The cottage is showed as the ramshackle abode of the lowest member of raveloe society; the manor is a beautiful home filled with gentry and a location for dances.
Elliot shows many intersections between the two households. Dunstan Cass, who is a member of the upper class, enters marner’s home looking for money. Silas marner who is from the lowest class and miserable, raises a squire’s granddaughter as his own child, despise the fact that she is from an upper class family. The rainbow tavern and the church in raveloe are also places where class differences are present. The rainbow is a different place when the “gentles” are having a dance (ch.six). In these times, the lesser villagers like mr.Macey, reign over the rainbow, telling stories.
Secondly, at the church, the higher members of society sit in assigned seats at the front of the church while the rest of the villagers sit in the back and watch. In both these places, although everyone recognizes the status differences between the lower and higher class, this doesn’t not seem to be a problem in raveloe.
In raveloe, strict boundaries of class do not necessarily lead to greater happiness among the higher classes. Those with money or those who have a little money tend to be the most harned and corrupt characters, such as Dunstan, Godfrey and even silas, before he found Eppie. The person in silas Marner who is most oppressed by circumstances, is Godfrey Cass, who finds himself at the mercy of a lower class
One of the themes in Silas marner is class; being centered on two households, marner’s cottage by the stone pit and the Cass marner, the red house, these two settings represent class extremes. The cottage is showed as the ramshackle abode of the lowest member of raveloe society; the manor is a beautiful home filled with gentry and a location for dances.
Elliot shows many intersections between the two households. Dunstan Cass, who is a member of the upper class, enters marner’s home looking for money. Silas marner who is from the lowest class and miserable, raises a squire’s granddaughter as his own child, despise the fact that she is from an upper class family. The rainbow tavern and the church in raveloe are also places where class differences are present. The rainbow is a different place when the “gentles” are having a dance (ch.six). In these times, the lesser villagers like mr.Macey, reign over the rainbow, telling stories.
Secondly, at the church, the higher members of society sit in assigned seats at the front of the church while the rest of the villagers sit in the back and watch. In both these places, although everyone recognizes the status differences between the lower and higher class, this doesn’t not seem to be a problem in raveloe.
In raveloe, strict boundaries of class do not necessarily lead to greater happiness among the higher classes. Those with money or those who have a little money tend to be the most harned and corrupt characters, such as Dunstan, Godfrey and even silas, before he found Eppie. The person in silas Marner who is most oppressed by circumstances, is Godfrey Cass, who finds himself at the mercy of a lower class