Silas Marner Characters

Silas Marner is the title of the book, so you'd expect him to be a major player—and he is. But just how important is he?When the book opens, our narrator introduces us not to Silas but to a whole...

As our runner-up for protagonist, Godfrey has a lot going on. In some ways, he's the most interesting character in the book, because, more than any other character, he has the potential to become e...

Nancy is a good country girl. Like her sister (see Priscilla's "Character Analysis"), she's been brought up to be useful. The citified Miss Gunns sneer at her hands, which "bore the traces of butte...

Dunstan is a bad, bad boy—and not the sexy kind. He's just bad. He's a liar, a blackmailer, and a thief, and we breathed a sigh of relief when he turned up dead. So why is Dunstan this way? The n...

For such an important character, we don't know much about Eppie. But we do know that we love her. Even as a little girl, she's adorable. She affectionate and trusting—she latches on to Silas righ...

Squire Cass is a contender for the narrator's Least Favorite Character. Sure, Dunstan is bad—but look at who he's got for a dad. He's bad-tempered, neglectful, slovenly, and arrogant. The only po...

When we meet Priscilla, Nancy Lammeter's sister, she's labeled an "excellent housewife" (1.5.1), and then later "cheerful-looking" and "blowsy" (1.11.10), with attitude that some in the neighborhoo...

Aaron is Dolly Winthrop's son. We don't see much of him, but we do learn that he's "very sober and industrious" as a young man (2.20.10), and we already know that he's got a good mom. He loves Eppi...

Poor Molly—we know almost nothing about her expect that she's a drunk and an opium addict, and there's just a little "lingering mother's tenderness" left in her soul (1.12.2). She blames Godfrey...

Mr. Macey Mr. Macey is the parish clerk and tailor. He's got "an air of complacency, slightly seasoned with criticism" (1.6.17).Mr. TookeyThe deputy-clerk, young and insecure. When people don't tak...

SarahAll we know about Sarah (but what more do we need to know?) is that she breaks off her engagement to marry Silas and marries William Dane instead. William DaneSilas's best friend, William Dane...