Literature / Silas Marner

Silas Marner is an 1861 novel written by George Eliot. Unlike other Eliot novels, Silas Marner is a very compact book with a straightforward narrative and very few subplots. It concerns Marner, a weaver unfairly forced out of his home village after being framed for robbery. Moving to the small town of Raveloe, he leads a quiet, lonely life where he hoards his money and is treated with suspicion by the townspeople until he is struck by tragedy, and then redemption, shortly thereafter.

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It is now in the public domain, and can be read in its entirety here.

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Contains examples of the following tropes:

• Blackmail: Dunstan to Godfrey.
• Character Title
• Daddy's Girl: Eppie
• Et Tu, Brute?: Silas's backstory involves being framed by his best friend.
• Evil Stole My Faith: Silas's mistreatment by his church in his backstory causes him to lose his belief in religion, but he recovers some faith as the novel progresses.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Eppie, symbolizing the gold Silas lost.
• Happily Adopted: Silas and Eppie
• Karmic Death: Dunstan
• Loners Are Freaks: This is kind of the point of the novel, but it's also the general attitude of the townspeople.
• Miscarriage of Justice: What forces Marner out of his hometown.
• Nurture over Nature
• Riddle for the Ages: Silas himself lampshades that he'll never know whether or not he was ever proved innocent of theft.

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• Textile Work Is Feminine: Inverted with Silas.
• The Scrooge: Silas in the first part of the book.
• You Can't Fight Fate

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