‘Light enough to trusten by’: Structure and Experience in Silas Marner

Abstract

Silas Marner (1861), always a favourite with readers, was until recently considered too obvious and too lightweight to merit serious critical discussion. In 1949, F. R. Leavis echoed the views of many when he described it as ‘that charming minor masterpiece’, an evident ‘moral fable’.¹ In only one respect was the work seen as unusual: it appeared to have no direct bearing on its author’s life.² Ever since the mid-1950s, however, it has gradually gathered advocates who have shown that it is not only as rich in ideas but also as firmly rooted in George Eliot’s personal concerns as any of her other works and, somewhat surprisingly, these two issues have been increasingly seen as one.³ In 1975, Ruby Redinger explored the theme of hoarding and concluded that ‘the transformation of gold into Eppie justified George Eliot seeking and accepting money for her writing’.⁴ Lawrence Jay Dessner looked at a wide range of parallels between the events of the novel and the author’s circumstances at the time of writing, and noted that ‘fear of being abandoned, fear of having one’s secret revealed, antagonism towards a brother, love for a lost sister, concern for moral reputation [are all] common to the fact and the fiction’.⁵