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

would be if he lost her. Though he is only a simple
linen-weaver, she feels his story is worth telling.

^^^^^^^^^^
SILAS MARNER: GODFREY CASS

Godfrey is in many ways the direct opposite of Silas. He's
young, handsome, well-off, and charming. The villagers admire
him, even when they suspect he isn't acting right. Unlike
Silas, who's alone in the world, Godfrey has too much family--a
gruff father, a troublesome brother, a wife and child he doesn't
want, and a sweetheart anxiously waiting for him to propose.
Silas works hard, but Godfrey has no particular work to do.
While Silas endures his exile from society, Godfrey is impatient
and a moral coward. Whereas Silas is unjustly punished, time
and again Godfrey manages to escape punishment, even for sins he
has committed.

Some readers, therefore, see Godfrey as the villain of this
novel. His weakness sets Dunstan on a path that ends with
Dunstan robbing Silas. While Silas is grieving over his lost
gold, Godfrey is relieved because Dunstan has disappeared. He
is relieved, too, when his wife Molly is found dead in the snow,
because it clears the way for him to marry Nancy Lammeter. At
the end of the book, Godfrey selfishly tries to take Eppie away
from Silas. But he's finally punished, by Eppie's rejection,
for having lied to the world for so many years.

Yet other readers look beyond this formal structure, in which
Godfrey plays a villain's role, to judge whether he is really a
villainous person. In his first scene, they point out, he
appears with his callous brother Dunstan, who makes Godfrey look
sensitive and conscientious by comparison. Godfrey seems to
know what is right, though he's often too weak to do it. When
you see his home environment, you can understand Godfrey's lack
of moral fiber. When Eliot traces the tiny mental steps by
which he talks himself out of doing the right thing, the process
is somehow easy to understand--hasn't everyone rationalized like
this at times? His love for Nancy is genuine, and her love for
him testifies to something good in his nature. Once they're
married, he makes a fine husband, except for his disappointment
over their childlessness (which he tries to hide from her). He
does have fatherly feelings for Eppie, and he watches her grow
up with a constant sense of regret. To these readers, Godfrey
is a good but weak man whose fate embodies the moral of the
novel.

As you read, for example, the scene on New Year's Eve when
Silas appears with the infant Eppie, imagine how other
characters judge Godfrey. Just as Eliot gives you special