Excerpt
from Terence Dawson’s article "'Light Enough to Trusten By': Structure and
Experience in 'Silas Marner.'" The Modern Language Review, Vol. 88, No. 1 (Jan.
1993), pp. 26-45
"Silas Marner (I86I), always a favourite with readers, was until
recently considered too obvious and too lightweight to merit serious critical
discussion. In I949, F. R. Leavis echoed the views of many when he described it
as 'that charming minor masterpiece', an evident 'moral fable'. In only one
respect was the work seen as unusual: it appeared to have no direct bearing on
its author's life. Ever since the mid- 950s, however, it has gradually gathered
advocates who have shown that it is not only as rich in ideas but also as firmly
rooted in George Eliot's personal concerns as any of her other works and,
somewhat surprisingly, these two issues have been increasingly seen as one.
[…]
"On the surface, the
main plot would seem to be about the regeneration of a middle-aged weaver through
love and his reintegration into the community in which he lives. Interlinked
with this 'story' is another, generally described as the story of Godfrey Cass,
the local squire's eldest son, who turns over something of a new leaf in the
course of the events described. Faced by a novel in which there are two
distinct plots, the critic's first task is to discover the connexion between
them. The most frequent definition of the relation between the two stories in
Silas Marner is that they are parallel, but move in opposite directions. Not only is this view too vague to be helpful,
it is also misleading, for there is no similarity whatsoever between Silas's
situation at the beginning and Godfrey's at the end, or vice versa.
Nevertheless, the two plots are unquestionably related: indeed, I shall argue
that they show many more similarities than have been identified to date."
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