"Silas Marner is nothing more than a fairy story." Do you think this is a fair assessment of George Elliot's novel?

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Kunal Sapat         Fairy Tale essay        10/05/2007

Silas Marner & Fairy Tale

“Silas Marner is nothing more than a fairy story.” Do you think this is a fair assessment of George Elliot’s novel?

In this novel, by George Eliot, ‘Silas Marner’, there are many fairy tales like aspects.  Silas Marner is indeed a fairy tale, but it isn’t purely a fairy tale.  It also has realistic aspects.  Fairy tales always have happy endings and they always represent the power of good over evil.  They also have a timeless and universal quality towards them and they often contain some form of magic.  In the novel there are many characters that like characters that you would expect in fair tales.  However, although there are fairy tale like characters in this novel, there are also those that are more realistic characters.  Therefore, it can be said that the characters in this novel are divided into those that are fairy tale characters, and those that are realistic characters. Also, in this novel there are a few characters that are partially fairy tale like characters, and partially realistic.  The novel, in that case is divided into three types of characters; fairy tale characters, mixed characters, and realistic characters.  Between the three different types of characters, they are also divided into some heroes and some villains.      

There are quite a few fairy tale characters in this novel.  In most fairy tales, there are similar characteristics.  In this particular novel, there are many good characters that end up heroes in the end of the book.  The fairy tale characters in this novel include Eppie, Aaron, William Dane and Dunsey.  These are the two-dimensional characters and we do not know much about them.  These are all characters that have similar qualities about them that you would never find in real life people.  These few characters are people that are typical fairy tale characters.

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Eppie is a fairytale character in this novel.  Eppie is an idealised character.  She is a good example of a fairy tale character.  She is perfect and an ideal character; she is too perfect to be real, and is therefore a fairy tale character.  She can be described as a ‘rustic princess’ like ‘Perdita’ in ‘A Winter’s Tale’.  Eppie is quite a symbolic character.  She is like a fairy tale princess and she gives her father Silas a reason for living.  She is very innocent and good, she shows ideal filial love and warmth, and she is a very ...

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