"Cliff Notes - Silas Marner" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

her simple emotions and her strong attachments, Eppie is like
her adoptive father, Silas. But she also has unique qualities,
associated throughout the novel with animals, flowers, and
nature. In the Wordsworth quotation, a child is said to be a
gift of Earth--and Eppie is part of that natural bounty.

If Silas is like the poor old woodcutter in a fairy tale,
then Eppie is like the woodcutter's daughter--a beautiful,
golden-haired girl who's really a princess in disguise. George
Eliot turns the fairy tale on its head, though, because this
princess doesn't meet a handsome prince. When her real father
shows up to offer her a life of riches, she rejects him in favor
of the poor old woodcutter. The man she marries is simply a
brawny young gardener, Aaron Winthrop, whom she loves more like
a brother than a lover. But in this novel's scheme of things,
that means she will live happily ever after.

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SILAS MARNER: DUNSTAN CASS

If Godfrey is not the villain of this novel, perhaps his
younger brother Dunstan is. Godfrey's sins are all passive--he
decides not to do something--whereas Dunstan actually commits
bad deeds. He squanders the money Godfrey lends him, then he
destroys Godfrey's horse while hunting. Finally, he steals
Silas' money. What motivates Dunstan? Eliot shows you the
twists and turns of his reasoning, just as she does Godfrey's.
Both think selfishly, but while Godfrey is aware of moral
considerations, Dunstan just calculates what he can get away
with. Eliot shows him mostly in upperclass settings, so his
vices seem a product of his class. Yet even his own family and
friends don't seem to care when Dunstan disappears.

His nickname, Dunsey, sounds like "dunce," and Dunstan
doesn't seem very bright. He allows himself to be propelled by
circumstances, which he thinks of as "luck." He doesn't plot to
rob Silas, but when the opportunity comes his way, he takes it.
Soon after, however, he falls into the stone-pit and is drowned.
Is this bad luck--or a fitting punishment for his crime?

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SILAS MARNER: SQUIRE CASS

In Squire Cass, Eliot embodies what she sees as the worst
characteristics of the English gentry--the upper class of
country society. He bullies his sons and he patronizes the
common people of Raveloe. He's dull-witted and narrow-minded.
He isn't hard-working and his pleasures are crude--eating red
meat, swilling ale, and making lewd jokes. (Note that his last
name sounds like the word "crass.") Squire Cass is a great man