...Silas Marner Essay Fulfill duties or neglect them Concept of duty Statements of “duty” in Silas * Silas had a duty as a future husband to Sarah that he could not fulfill - betray * Sarah had a duty to stand by Silas however she didn’t think twice about the false information she obtained and turned her back on silas - betray * William had a duty as a best friend to fulfill however he didn’t believe Silas and even worse, he turned on him and took away the love of his life - betray * Silas’ community in Lantern yard had a duty of support to fulfill in silas’ life but they turned on him - betray * Silas had a duty to fulfill in ravelo, try to engage – self * Godfrey had a duty as a strong man to fulfill but he gave in and didn’t stand up for himself and married Molly- strength * Godfrey had a duty as a husband - strength * Duty as a father - strength * Molly had duty as mother – self absorption * Godfrey had a duty as husband self * Even though Silas did not need to take care of Eppie he took initiative - love * Fulfilled his duty above and beyond – love * Dunsey did not fulfill they duty he had as a family member – self absorption * Nancy fulfilled hers as a wife, she did not need to stand by Godfrey – love * Dolly and aaron helped when they ddint need to – love * Eppie had no obligation to stay with Silas she fulfilled her duty as a daughter, while , rightfully so, neglecting her duties to her true father...
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...the character of Silas in the novel and what happens to him? Discuss the importance of money in Eliot’s novel, being sure to concentrate in detail on a number of important passages in order to build your argument. Money is a very important theme throughout this novel. The conclusion explains money doesn't necessarily make people happy. The author, George Eliot teaches this point through its characters: The Cass family have money but they never seem satisfied. Dolly Winthrop is poor, but happy in a fatalistic way and Silas Marner in his days at lantern yard saw faith as more important than money. The novel appears to argue that some things such as happiness, trust and faith are more valuable than money and wealth. The story of Silas Marner starts with Silas being a good, honest man. He is a very religious man, who in Lantern Yard was involved in a religious community. His little savings amounted to "three pounds five of my own" and "a large proportion of his weekly earnings had gone to piety and charity." This suggests that Silas was more concerned with faith in his God, than in money. Silas was accused of stealing money, which belonged to the church. Silas was astonished but unafraid, "God will clear me," and invited the church to search his home. His friend William Dane found the empty moneybag in Silas's room but still he trusted in God "God will clear me." Silas suddenly realises that William Dane has betrayed him but he still puts his trust in god, Silas says for the third...
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...Summary of Silas Marner by George Eliot Silas Marner, a weaver, is an eager and promising young member of a Puritan religious community, Lantern Yard. Marner's supposed best friend, Willam Dane, frames him for the theft of a pouch of coins. Marner suffers from cataleptic fits which leave him as insensible as stone and vulnerable to Dane's frame-up. The community of Lantern Yard draws lots to determine Marner's guilt or innocence in the crime. After the lots proclaim Marner guilty, he flees from Lantern Yard, utterly crushed, leaving behind his faith in God and in humankind. Marner eventually settles at the outskirts of Raveloe, a provincial village in the English Midlands. The villagers appreciate Marner's trade but find him strange and unapproachable. Marner seems to have supernatural powers--he is able to heal a local woman using herbal arts he learned from his mother--but the villagers of Raveloe do not know his background and thus find his knowledge diabolical and threatening. Marner, for his part, is content to live a life of almost total solitude in his simple cottage beside the Stone-pits. Marner has one joy in life: gold. The gold coins that he earns at his loom represent for him all the meaning that he has lost, and the faces printed on the coins serve as his only company. He spends as little as he can in order to save more coins, which he hides in two leather bags in a hole in his cottage floor. Meanwhile, Raveloe is the home of other wealthy citizens. Its...
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...character of Godfrey Cass in ‘Silas Marner’ in comparison with characters from a range of short stories? Eliot presents the character of Godfrey as a total moral coward and shows he has a lack of resolution. He is ironically described as ‘fine, open-faced, good natured’ by the approving villagers when he already has much to hide. He goes through life acting on impulses and hoping luck will save him from the results of his actions. In this way he has secretly married Molly Farren and fathered a child, been blackmailed to misuse money due to his father - and yet still somehow hopes to wriggle out of everything and marry Nancy Lammeter. Godfrey is insensitive, weak and deceitful: We are told he has an easy disposition and prefers good. Eliot conveys her opinions about Victorian society in her novel. With Godfrey, she is able to explore the issue of social class. Eliot disagreed with the commonly held belief of society at the time that the upper class were morally superior to the lower class. Through Godfrey is morally questionable character she is able to promote instead the integrity and values of the working class. For a while fortune favours him: Molly dies, Silas takes Eppie and Nancy agrees to marry him. With all his privileges and his loving wife, in the end Godfrey is unhappy because, ironically, he has to appear childless, his only child apparently having died. He had a child whom he disowned - he did not deserve to be a father. Silas adopted the child and was...
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...embodiment of the sinful. First they were devilish creatures filled with an inherent sin (Garliz 647) then they became objects of piety where the child resembled something of a prophetic, all knowing creature due to their proximity with a creator. (Garlitz 640) I aim to argue that it is religion that shadows childhood with generalisations of purity and sin. Eliot and Dickens use the supernatural as a contrasting element to expunge stereotypes in order to permeate the dimension of child characters. Lucie Manette from Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities both captures the image of the child as “pure” while subverting this dichotomy when exploring Dickens’ metaphor of echoes. Silas Marner interprets Eppie as a spiritual guide but to place her as a product in his own Folklore tale situates her as a one dimensional character. Eppie and Lucie may seem like similar characters but when explored through multiple gazes are exposed as dimensional characters. Firstly, Lucie is a caricature of the angelic; this is not due to her own actions but is formed from the various observations of other characters. In the eyes of acquaintances she is epitomised as a true representation of purity and kindness – an assumption that relies heavily on her youth. As Barbara Garlitz explores in The Ode of Immortality: the Cultural Progeny when referring to the Victorian family they often saw the purity and kindness in children as spiritual knowledge handed down directly as a lesson from god (640). We see this when Dickens...
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...I enjoyed the novel and I found the story line intriguing. While I was reading the story it was hard for me to not want to learn more about the two boys’ personality and coping methods. It was definitely amusing to see how ignorant the small prince was and how he knew nothing about the real world before the switch. One of my favorite lines was when Edward and Tom were talking about the people who took care of the prince. When Edward found out that Tom didn’t have a servant to care for him he asked simply, “And prithee, why not? Who helpeth them undress at night? Who attireth them when they rise?” The way Twain portrayed the different boys really brought forward the point of understanding and brought a whole new meaning to the saying “to walk a day in someone else’s shoes.” This book was fun to read and as a reader I go t very emotionally connected to the two boys. I’m sure any one else who would read this novel, will love the plot line and the author’s style, and if not for those reasons at least they would enjoy the message the book gives. It is hard to relate the story to my own life because I am and will always be so different than the two boys. I have never had an uncomfortable living condition or an over exorbitant one. If I were in Tom’s position of having to take the role of the prince, I understand how it were hard for him to deal with but I think I would have been more proactive and less naive. Same with Edward as a pauper, I’m sure it was hard for him to deal with...
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...How does George Eliot present money and wealth in Silas Marner? George Eliot presents money and wealth in Silas Marner as something which is a prized possession and as if there is nothing better. There are many situations throughout the novel where this is revealed. However closer to the end of the novel there comes a turning point on the point about wealth and money when they realise it’s not all about money. One of the ways George shows the importance of money is when he says “And [he] had lost his money too, so as he had nothing but what he worked for week by week, and when the weaving was going down too—for there was less and less flax spun—and Master Marner was none so young.” This quote is an example of George Eliot's historical precision. That throw-away line, "there was less and less flax spun," keys into a big historical change: the Industrial Revolution, which is basically outsourcing Silas's job. In the cities, factories are churning out cheap fabric that makes his loom irrelevant. Another point about wealth mentioned in the novel is when they are trying to get Eppie (Godfrey’s child) but in this case it is not an obsession of wealth at hand or its importance. “It's natural he should be disappointed at not having any children: every man likes to have somebody to work for and lay by for, and he always counted so on making a fuss with 'em when they were little.” From this we can understand Nancy excuses Godfrey's disappointment in not having children because, she...
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...The title of the novel is Silas Marner and the author is Mrs. Mary Anne Evans, better known as her pen name, George Eliot. The character analyzed in this essay is Mr. Godfrey Cass. Firstly, it should be known Godfrey is the eldest son of the most powerful man in all of Raveloe, Squire Cass. He is usually a good-natured man, with a very likeable personality. As easy going as Godfrey is, he has made a few mistakes in his life which he is willing to come forward and admit later. If any three words could be used to describe Mr. Godfrey Cass, it would be honest, caring and in stark contrast to the two previous descriptions, Godfrey could even be described as strong-willed. Caring is an adjective describing someone who is kind or empathetic of others. Godfrey Cass showed great care when he provided for his daughter, Eppie, even though she did not want to live with him, and continued to live with Silas. He furnished her needs from when she was a small child until her latter teenage years. “The oaken table and three-cornered oaken chair were hardly what was likely to be seen in so poor a cottage: they had come, with the beds and other things, from the Red House; for Mr. Godfrey Cass, as everyone said in the village, did very kindly by the weaver; and it was nothing but right a man should be looked on and helped by those who could afford it, when he had brought up an orphan child, and been father and mother to her—and had lost his money too, so as he had nothing but what he worked for...
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...GCSE English Literature Specimen Assessment Materials 1 For assessment from 2013 GCSE ENGLISH LITERATURE SPECIMEN ASSESSMENT MATERIALS GCSE English Literature Specimen Assessment Materials 3 Contents Page Question Papers English Literature Unit 1 (H.T.) English Literature Unit 2 a and b (H.T.) English Literature Unit 1 (F.T.) English Literature Unit 2 a and b (F.T.) 5 Mark Schemes English Literature Unit 1 (H.T.) English Literature Unit 2 a and b (H.T.) English Literature Unit 1 (F.T.) English Literature Unit 2 a and b (F.T.) 93 GCSE ENGLISH LITERATURE Higher Tier UNIT 1 Specimen Assessment Materials 2 hours SECTION A Question 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Of Mice and Men Anita and Me To Kill a Mockingbird I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Chanda’s Secrets SECTION B 6. Poetry 12 Pages 2-3 4-5 6-7 8-9 10 - 11 ADDITIONAL MATERIALS Twelve page answer booklet. INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES Answer both Section A and Section B. Answer one question in Section A and the question in Section B. INFORMATION FOR CANDIDATES The number of marks is given in brackets after each question or part-question. You are reminded that assessment will take into account the quality of written communication used in your answers. JD*(S-2011 Higher) Turn over. 2 SECTION A 1. Of Mice and Men Answer part (a) and either part (b) or part (c). You are advised to spend about 20 minutes on part (a), and about 40 minutes on part (b) or part (c). (a) Read the extract on the opposite...
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