SILAS MARNER George Eliot was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire in 1819. Her mother and sister died in 1837 and she took over her fathers home. She was very envolved with her religion, but later stops attending church and her father kicks her out of the home because he doesn't like it, so she goes and stays with her brother. After 3 weeks she agrees to attend church and goes back to living with her father. Her father died in 1849 . After his death she went and worked for the Westminster Review, where she met a man named George Henry Hues, who she later married. In 1878 George died and 2 years later she married an old friend. Not too soon after George Eliot died, December 22, 1880. The main setting of this book is in the town of Raveloe where Silas lives through most of the story. At the beginning the story takes us back to Silas's experience of the Lantern Yard and how he was eventually driven out of the town. He settles in Raveloe and remains there for the rest of the story. At one point he goes back to the Lantern Yard to resolve the problems of the past, but when he gets there he finds out everything has changed and there is no need for him to stay there. So with that he returns home. At the begging it seems Silas is happy in the Lantern Yard but when he is driven out he lives mainly by himself and talks to hardly anyone. When he moves to Raveloe he is so lonely and the only thing he has to comfort him is his gold. When he gets all of his money stolen he is even more lonely than he was before. People try to get him to come out and people start feeling sorry for him but they have no luck. When Eppie comes into Silas's live she takes the place of his gold that was stolen from him. So basically its saying that you can't just live off money, you have to have something that can mean more than just money. When Eppie comes in his life it brings Silas's closer to his neighbors and gives something for Silas to live for. His neighbor even becomes Eppie's Godmother. The main character of the story is Silas Marner. He is a weaver and an older man. His original home was at that Lantern yard where he was accused of stealing money from the sick deacon. After he was accused guilty Sarah, the girl he was engaged to, left him and later married Silas's best friend, William Dane. This is when Silas left and came to Raveloe to settle. He lived all by himself and only had his money to comfort him, just to count his money he made from weaving would make him happy. A man named Dunstan Cass decides to steal from Silas in order to make a payment of rent, when this is stolen Silas becomes more alone than he ever was. When the town hears of this they start to feel sorry for him and try to get him to come out of his home and go to church or anything to get him out of his home. When a little girl named Eppie is found at his doorstep he takes very good care of her and is determined to keep her for ever. This makes the townspeople become even more close to him, neighbors give him advice and Dolly Winthrop becomes her Godmother. He loves his little girl with all of his heart and did anything for her. For the rest of the story Silas is very envolved with his new daughter, and eventually she marries Aaron, her Godmother's son. His new found daughter brings his own live out of the lowest he could be and makes him a happy man again and leads him onto a good life. Eppie is another important character in the story she is the little girl who comes into Silas's live and changes his hole live around. She is the daughter of Godfrey and Molly's secret marriage. She comes to Silas after her mother dies outside in the snow of an opium overdose and an account of the coldness. She crawls to Silas's home where he takes her in. Eppie grows very close to Silas and when Godfrey comes back to reclaim her she will not leave Silas. Eppie is asked by Aaron, her Godmother's son, if she will marry him. They do get married and go to live with Silas for the rest of their live. The story starts if with Silas Marner's present life in the town of Raveloe, then it goes off onto the story of how he got there. He was from a town called the Lantern Yard, here he lived a good live very envolved in church and some other activities. On one day it was his turn to watch over the sick deacon and during his watch a bag of money was reported stolen from the deacon's room. Silas is said to be guilty and the town draws lots, when the lots have been drawn he is found guilty. He was engaged to a girl named Sarah who decided to leave him because of this and married Silas's is best and closest friend William Dane. After this Silas leaves the Lantern Yard and settles in Raveloe. Silas lives all alone in Raveloe and rarely talks to anyone. He finds his comfort by counting his money that he makes from his weaving. One day the squire cass's son , Dunstan, goes out to sell their horse, wildfire, in order to make some money to pay for the rent. When he gets out to the hunt where he is to sell the horse, Dunstan ends up staking it and having to walk home. On the way home he passes Silas's home and sees the door open. He walks in and finds no one home. He finds Silas's gold and steals it, he never returns home. When Silas returns he finds out that someone or something has stolen his money, this makes Silas more alone than he ever was before. He goes into town to the Rainbow and tells the people that someone has taken his money, everyone seems to have sympathy for him and they try to find out who might have taken it. Some of the neighbors try to get him to come out of his home and go to church and they invite him to church on Christmas and to attend a party on new years, but as usual he sits at home all by himself. Dunstan also hasn't been seen since the disappearance of his money. When Godfrey's secret wife was out to seek revenge on the way Godfrey had treated her, she losses her way in all the snow. She has her daughter, Eppie, with her; Molly has an addiction to opium and when she is in the freezing snow outside decides to take some, this weakens her already week body. Molly collapses in the snow and Eppie begins crawling toward Silas's home. Silas discovers this child and takes her right to the hospital. This new girl changes Silas's hole live and gives him something to live for and he gives this child all the love that he has. His neighbors give him advice on how to take care of the child and one of his neighbors, Dolly, becomes her Godmother. He names the child Hepzibeth, after his mother and little sister. After Dolly's son Aaron has asked Eppie to marry him, she agrees but wants Silas to live with them. Silas and Eppie have lived a very close land happy live together and now Silas is respected in the village. Godfrey and Nancy finally get married. They have no child and at one point Godfrey wants to adopt Eppie but Nancy refuses. She is totally unaware that Eppie Godfrey's daughter and that he was ever married to Molly. One day the stone pits but Silas's cottage are being drained and they find Dunstan's dead body with Silas's stolen gold. This makes Godfrey tell everything to his wife about who he was once married to Molly and how Eppie was his daughter. When they go to Silas's home and try to proclaim Eppie back, Eppie does not want to leave Silas and doesn't. After a long time of arguing Godfrey leaves disappointed that he could not get back his daughter. Silas now feels that he can go back to the Lantern Yard and settle all the problems of the past. When he arrives there he finds everything changed and decides to return home. When Eppie and Silas return home, the marriage of Eppie and Aaron takes place. Even though Godfrey cant have back his child he wants to do something for her, so he has the wedding at his own expense. In the end the new couple come to live in Silas's cottage to live a happy life.