Chapter 7- SILAS MARINER Summary Notes and Extra Questions

CHAPTER 7: Summary

When Silas entered, everyone was surprised. Silas could not hold back that he had been robbed. The landlord thought he had become crazy, especially when he started flinging accusations at Jem Rodney. Jem was annoyed at being falsely accused of theft. The landlord forced Silas to settle down and narrate his story. As the villagers come round to his side, Silas started with the narrative. The strange circumstances of the robber intrigued the audience. How did the villain know precisely the moment to rob him? The culprit did not leave any traces. Some even felt that the culprit must have been supernatural. It certainly wasn’t Jem, since he’d been sitting in the tavern all night. When Silas realised that Jem was innocent, he apologised. He remembered how it felt to be falsely accused. The farrier offers to help Silas examine his cottage, but the deputy parish clerk objected to it since a doctor could not be an investigator and the father is something of a doctor. The landlord stepped in again to sort things out: Mr Macey went as a constable, and Mr Dowlas, the farrier, went as a backup. They head out into the dark, rainy night.

Q1. “The slight suspicion with which his hearers at first listened to him, gradually melted away before the convincing simplicity of his distress”. Comment.

Ans. While Marner is perceived as a suspicious character, the villagers begin to trust him because of his obvious emotional distress. Silas did not interact with anyone and he was looked upon with suspicion. He had cured Sally Oaths but refused to do it for others and would shout at children. This distanced him from the others in his community.

 The earnestness and simplicity with which he narrated his misfortune dispelled all suspicion. They did not suppose anyone could fake such emotions and trust they were genuine. Matter’s behaviour has been erratic, as he wildly accused Jem Rodney of being the robber. The community wanted to help him.

 Q2. How did the two robberies impact Silas Marner?

Ans. The two thefts in Silas Marner hold a lot of significance to the novel. Each of the thefts helped propel Silas’s life, transform it, and then re-mould it for good. It is as if each theft is actually a blessing in disguise. Each theft took away different negative aspects of Silas’s life, whether he knew it or not.

The first theft occurs in chapter 1, and it happens in Lantern Yard. Here, Silas is framed. The impact of this false accusation and the treachery of his friend William is, of course, the trigger that sends him away from Lantern Yard and to Raveloe. He has lost such faith in humanity and in religion that he spends the rest of his life, up until the second robbery he experiences, in isolation and quietly. He stubbornly decided to isolate himself, to dedicate himself to his job and to make as much money as he could. He used gold as a way to mitigate the sadness of the incident at Lantern Yard. Hence, it took another theft to bring Silas back into the reality of things again. Silas Marner had lived in this solitude, his guineas rising in the iron pot, and his life narrowing and hardening itself more and more into a mere pulsation of desire and satisfaction that had no relation to any other being.

The second robbery was that of Silas’s oh, so cherished gold. The shock of being robbed send Silas into a shock that left him completely dependent on the very people whom he snubbed and isolated himself from people in Raveloe. These very people embraced Silas, kept him safe and warm, and watched out for his health. They took him in, regardless of his estranged behaviour which is exactly the opposite of what happened at Lantern Yard, where he was rejected and thrown away. From the second theft also came the entrance of baby Eppie into the scene; she would eventually become Silas’s most important person on earth, and his main reason to live.

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