Silas Flashcards
(6 cards)
What ideas of Elliot’s does the character of Silas illustrate?
- victim of a terrible injustice
-suffering caused by social isolation: repetitiveness of Marner’s occupation, along with his isolation, dehumanises him - negative impacts it can have on a person’s worldview as Marner begins to have a growing obsession with hoarding his gold
- redemptive power of love, connection and growth as Marner adopts Eppie who has a positive effect on Marner as he has a healthy development reconnecting him to life and growth
- trip back to Lantern Yard shows he feels fulfilled
Silas Marner quotes that show he is a victim of terrible injustice
“drawing of lots”
“God will clear me”
“shaken trust in God and man”
What quotes show suffering caused by social isolation: repetitiveness of Marner’s occupation, along with his isolation, dehumanises him
“hidden even from the heavens”
“the little light he possessed spread its beams so narrowly that frustrated belief was a curtain broad enough to create the blackness of light”
“weave like a spider from impulse”
“to reduce his life to the unquestioning activity of a spinning insect”
“to bridge over the loveless chasm of his life”
What quotes show
the negative impacts it can have on a person’s worldview as Marner begins to have a growing obsession with hoarding his gold?
“bright faces”
“thought it was brighter in the gathering gloom”
“narrowing”, “hardening”, “shrank”, “bent”, “withered”, myopic. “His eyes bent down”, “shrunk away” language of his life being reduced and empty. Imagery.
“enjoyed their companionship”
“his familiars”
“cut off from faith and love
“as if they had been unborn children”
“Begotten by his labour”
“He bathed his hands in them”
“making him second time desolate”
“He lifted the latch and turned into the bright bar”
What quotes show redemptive power of love, connection and growth as Marner adopts Eppie who has a positive effect on Marner as he has a healthy development?
“a new-hatched gosling”
“little golden head”
“he had contract the habit of opening his door”
“instead of the hard coin with the familiar resisting outline, his fingers encountered soft warm curls
“some Power presiding over his life”
“Silas pressed it to him and almost unconsciously uttered sounds of hushing tenderness”
“the porridge sweetened by some dry brown sugar from an old store he had refrained from using himself
“He raised the child in his arms”
both “lone things”
“knowledge that will help him satisfy the wants of the searching roots, or to guard leaf and bud from invading harm
There’s good i’ this world — I’ve a feeling o’ that now
He wants her to be “sure” that she won’t regret choosing to “stay among poor folks”
What quotes show Marner feels fulfilled after his visit to Lantern Yard?
Marner’s trip back to his old home in Lantern Yard in Chapter 21 confirms that he has “no home but this now”:
Since Eppie was “sent” to him he has “light enough to trusten by”:
This links his devotion to his daughter with his faith in God
