George Eliot's Silas Marner as a Fairy Tale

George Eliot's Silas Marner as a Fairy Tale

In the novel Silas Marner by George Elliot, there are realistic and

fairytale characters. It always ends in a happy ending. Fairytales

always represent good over evil and have a timeless quality and a

universal quality. Moreover they contain magic and it is as if in the

story that Silas's transformation seems magical. In the novel there is

a superior power operating in the book. Also fairytales have stock

characters (e.g. evil/hero). In addition to this, in the novel there

are partly realistic and fairytale characters.

In the book there are fairytale characters. These consist of Eppie,

Aaron, William Dane and Dunsey. They have the same qualities. Eppie we

only know one thing about her. Aaron is a 'rustic prince', we don't

know much about him.

Eppie is a fairytale character. She is described as a 'rustic

princess' like 'Perdita' in 'A Winter's Tale'. She is meant to be

symbolic. She shows warmth, ideal filial love, innocence and gives

Silas a reason to live. She is perfect in everyway possible but she is

not real so it doesn't matter if she talks like a princess or is

perfect. She functions as a beautiful symbol. Aaron is also an entire

fairytale character but we don't know much about him.

Dunsey and William Dane are also fairytale characters. However, they

are the villain characters. They are the fairytale villains. William

Dane is a similar villain to Dunsey even though he is hardly in the

book and speaks much. We can't say that Godfrey is a villain because

he helps Silas to look after Eppie by providing him with money.

However even though there are fairytale characters, Silas a...

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...racter.

Molly also is a realistic character. She isn't mentioned much in the

book but we do know a little about her. She is a drunkard who always

used to drink. She has a child called Eppie. She is always very

depressed and addicted to drinking. All these qualities tell us that

she is a real character as she has emotions and would behave like any

other person would in this situation.

The thesis of fairytale and realism is continued throughout the book.

We could say there is pattern in the book where the characters are

balanced between fairytale and reality. It is similar like ' A

Winter's Tale' where there is loss, evil and deceit in the first part

and gain and good in the second part. However this is not the case for

Nancy as she is good throughout the book and is still punished by

having a childless marriage.