Silas Marner

 George Elliot wrote this book in 1861.  George Elliot is actually the pen name for Mary Anne Evans, but she will be referred to as George Elliot. See the books page for a brief overview of the plot if you are not familiar with this book. 

Silas Marner has two important themes as well as two plots. The first and main theme is that of love for the wrong things. The second is sin will always be punished. These two themes are shown throughout the book in the two coincidental plots.

Theme 2

This theme is less important, so I will address it first. The second theme is that your sins will find you out. George Elliot shows this in a multitude of ways throughout the book, but the three most important ones concern Dunstan (Godfrey’s brother), the church that wrongly excommunicated Silas, and Godfrey himself.

Dunstan is punished for stealing Silas’s gold by drowning. Silas’s church is also punished in similar manner. It is demolished and a factory is built in its place. This poetic justice overturns its injustice. 

On the other side, Godfrey finds forgiveness from his sins. He had gone into a secret marriage and despised his wife. He was courting another woman when his wife died of a drug overdose with his daughter in her arms. Instead of being downcast he was elated. However, he is haunted by his sins and secretly supports Silas who has become his daughter’s father. He also confesses to his wife and tries to adopt his daughter.

The moral of this theme is your sins will find you out.

Theme 1

This is the main theme of Silas Marner and the most controversial for the Christian. The theme is misplaced and appropriate love. The theme itself is not controversial, but what the author considers misplaced and appropriate is. 

George Elliot demonstrates this theme by stripping Silas of every form of misplaced and replacing it with a new love. This happens again and again until Silas reaches a pure, worthy love.

This theme is appropriate in one situation–when Silas is forced to forsake his love of gold and finds love for a child. However, when the full context of the book is taken into account, the theme becomes antithetical to a Christian worldview. The problem is the first love Silas must forsake is the love of God! 

The church Silas was excommunicated from was likely a dissenting puritan church. These churches were for the most part doctrinally sound and practically godly. George Elliot puts the love of a child over and above a love for God. This view may be debatable except for two things. The first being the church was destroyed by the end of the book. Second, Elliot himself left such a church. A little bit of research shows that George Elliot grew up in a Christian home, held these beliefs to be true in his younger years, and abandoned them later in life. He became immoral and denied the truths of the Bible.

The moral of the story is love for people is the highest form of human love and experience.