Silas Marner

The meaning of the novel and its symbolic values are completely bound up in the contrasts and comparisons between these two plots. The nature of a "blessing," the meaning of good and bad in relation to social conduct — these and other problems become involved in the working out of events. Nor are Godfrey and Silas the only persons involved. Their lives are connected most of all through the society in which they live. The community of Raveloe is an agent of their acts as well as a spectator and commentator. When Silas discovers the robbery, he reports it to the Rainbow, and Godfrey hears of it from there. A cross-section of the community is present to receive word of Molly's death. Eppie provides a connecting link not only between Godfrey and Silas, but between Silas and the community as well. Communal opinion is never the final authority in the novel; Eliot often treats it ironically; but it is an important factor in the lives of the major characters and in the functioning of the plot.