Like most novelists of her day, Eliot uses an omniscient point of view — that is, she views the action from any point she finds convenient, whether from the narrator's standpoint, as a disinterested spectator might see it, or as seen or felt by any character. This viewpoint has many advantages, and it is well suited to Eliot's strengths as a novelist. It allows her to show what any character thinks or feels and to show an act and its consequences with great comprehensiveness. Eliot uses this technique to increase the reader's sympathy and understanding of characters and of the situations they find themselves in. It also allows better control of the reader's awareness, which is the main source of the irony so important in Eliot's novels. The reader generally knows more than any single character (for example, about Godfrey's marriage and that Dunstan is the thief), and this superior knowledge lends ironic humor to the things the characters think and do in their ignorance. However, the reader is not told everything. The news of Dunstan's death is perhaps less of a surprise than to Godfrey, but it has never been a certainty. This allows the reader to feel something of the shock that Godfrey must feel at that moment.
The excellence of Eliot's characterization depends partly on this omniscience, but the most important factor is Eliot's deep understanding of human psychology. Her major characters are portrayed in great depth. Their reactions are varied: they are capable of surprising, yet they never seem arbitrary. On reflection, that which seemed surprising in them is seen to be consistent with their previous actions. They do not remain static, but their development builds on the past. A prime example of this is Silas. His belief in God goes through a series of developments that are directly related to the things that have happened to him. Throughout all these changes, however, he clings to some support — his church, his work, his gold, or his daughter. His character displays both change and constancy, and this makes him recognizably the same person even as he changes. His character does not merely change — it develops.
