Revision Questions
71 REVISION QUESTIONS
I. In what ways is Silas Marner more than a fable? 2. Examine in some detail George Eliot's use of her own voice in the novel, saying in what ways it contributes to our appreciation of Silas Marner. 3. In a letter George Eliot referred to Silas Marner as 'rather sombre'. Write an appreciation of the novel, saying how far you agree with her estimate of it. 4. What do you take to be the main theme or themes of Silas Marner? You should refer closely to the text in your answer. 5. 'Her real strength consists in drawing convincing minor characters.' Discuss. 6. In what ways do you find Silas an interesting or uninteresting character?
7. Examine the part played by either (a) Godfrey Cass or (b) Dolly Winthrop in SilasMarner. 8. Indicate, by close reference to particular scenes or incidents, the main qualities of George Eliot's humour in Silas Marner. 9. Compare and contrast Part I and Part 2 of the novel.
10. Indicate the part played in the novel by either (a) hypocrisy or (b) rumour or (c) money or (d) religion. II. Examine in some detail George Eliot's use of retrospect in Silas Marner. 12. 'A fairy-tale with realistic elements.' Examine this comment on Silas Marner, indicating what you consider to be realistic in George Eliot's treatment of her subject. 72
13. Examine George Eliot's use of dialect in the novel and say what it contributes to our appreciation of Silas Marner. 14. 'Eppie is too idealised to be real'. How far do you agree or disagree with this statement? 15. Compare and contrast either (a) Priscilla and Nancy or (b) Mr Macey and the farrier (Dowlas) or (c) Squire Cass and Dunsey. 16. Write an essay on the use of image and symbol in Silas Marner. 17. Write an appreciation of either (a) George Eliot's descriptive powers or (b) her use of dramatic incident in Silas Marner. 73 FURTHER READING
Reading other novels by George Eliot is a major help to the student of Silas Marner. The third of the Scenes ofClerical Life 'Janet's Repentance' - is related to Silas Marner both in terms of the psychological realism I have stressed throughout this commentary, and also because of its fine sense of the past. Adam Bede and The Mill on the Floss, which precede Silas Marner, have the same qualities of a loving affection for the past, superb geographical and historical actuality, humour of an individual and proverbial quality: witness Mrs Poyser in Adam Bede and Mrs Glegg and the other Dodson aunts in The Mill on the Floss. In The Mill on the Floss, because of the author's strong autobiographical identification with Maggie Tulliver, the psychological realism is even more intense and integrated than it is in Silas Marner. Sexual passion in Silas Marner hardly exists; it is absent from the relationship between Eppie and Aaron, in the past with the marriage of Godfrey and Molly, fleetingly present when Nancy tears her dress at the New Year's Eve party and Godfrey displays 'a reckless determination to get as much of this joy as he could tonight'. In Adam Bede it is markedly present in the relationship of Arthur Donnithorne and Hetty Sorrel, and in the looks and 'drifting away' of Maggie and Stephen Guest in The Mill on The Floss. A reading of either or both of these novels will therefore give the student an indication of the width of George Eliot's realism. Of the later novels, Middlemarch is unquestionably the best, and the student who wishes to see the direction taken by George Eliot after the early novels of recollection would do well to look closely at Middlemarch. Apart from the psychology and humour (here largely among a more sophisticated class) there is a sense of history in political and medical terms, a pattern of unity through image and symbol and an even more telling focus on the incompatibilities in marriage. The egoist Godfrey Cass has been expanded into the frightening and invulnerable Rosamond Viney; the hypocrite Godfrey Cass becomes the hypocritical banker Bulstrode, 74
whose exposure brings out the finest qualities in his brave and loyal wife. These are the merest indications of the quality of Middlemarch, with the failed idealists, Dorothea and Lydgate , each reduced by marriage to a life of hindrances rather than progression. Daniel Deronda is also worth a close look ; it shows no falling off in technical and imaginative ability, but the movement towards Judaism embodied in Daniel, Mordecai and Mirah carries an inevitable penalty in reduced realism. This is more than compensated for by the superb struc tural coherence and by the character of Gwendolen Harleth , seen in its petty egoism, intense neurosis and growing moral awareness. I referred to J. W. Cross's George Eliot's Life as related in her Letters and Journals at the beginning of this book . Despite Gladstone's strictures, it commands some respect , and indeed has some narrative force, because of its chronological order ofevents . But it has been edited by a too scrupu lous and sensitive husband intent on preserving the image of the grand lady of letters; omissions and alterations of emphasis help the picture but not the truth. There is an industry in George Eliot biography which shows little signs of going out of business; from William Mottram's The True Story of George Eliot (I905) through Simon Dewes's Marian (1939) to Ruby Redinger's intelligent George Eliot: The Emergent Self(I 975) there has been a tendency, whether sensational or scholarly, to speculate and then write about the woman who lived in sin but who became the greatest moral law-giver of her time . It remains to be said that there is only one reliable, thoroughly researched biography and that is by Gordon S. Haight ; its title is simply George Eliot: A Biography (1968) but it embodies the wisdom and closeness of a life spent in scholarly work on George Eliot. Gordon Haight is also the editor of The George Eliot Letters (9 volumes, 1954-78), and the student of Silas Marner is particularly directed to volume III, pages 377-98, for references to the writing of the novel. Criticism of George Eliot's work tended to be laudatory until the end of the nineteenth century but thereafter it was not until F. R. Leavis's The Great Tradition (I948), referred to in section 6.2 of this study, that George Eliot was rediscovered and elevated to the status of a major novelist. Leavis should be read as pointing the way and Barbara Hardy as establish ing the reasons for George Eliot's greatness in detail and with sure insight. The Novels ofGeorge Eliot (I 959) is Mrs Hardy's major contribution to George Eliot studies and since then others have followed and tried to extend her investigations; none has reached her fine analysis of form . Other critical works worth studying are W. J. Harvey's The Art of George Eliot (1960) which has an intelligent chapter on George Eliot's use of her own voice, and Neil Roberts' George Eliot: Her Beliefs and her Art (I975), with an interesting if rather one-sided interpretation of Silas Marner. 75
Read the critics. but remember that the main ways of understanding and evaluating a great writer are to read the works with discipline and imagina tion before turning to any critical commentary. including this one.