Silas Marner is nothing more than a fairytale? Do you think this is a reasonable assessment of George Eliot's novel?

The first 200 words of this essay...

Silas Marner is nothing more than a fairytale? Do you think this is a reasonable assessment of George Eliot's novel?

In the novel Silas Marner by George Elliot, there are realistic and fairytale characters. It always ends in a happy ending. Fairytales always represent good over evil and have a timeless quality and a universal quality. Moreover they contain magic and it is as if in the story that Silas's transformation seems magical. In the novel there is a superior power operating in the book. Also fairytales have stock characters (e.g. evil/hero). In addition to this, in the novel there are partly realistic and fairytale characters.

In the book there are fairytale characters. These consist of Eppie, Aaron, William Dane and Dunsey. They have the same qualities. Eppie we only know one thing about her. Aaron is a 'rustic prince', we don't know much about him.

Eppie is a fairytale character. She is described as a 'rustic princess' like 'Perdita' in 'A Winter's Tale'. She is meant to be symbolic. She shows warmth, ideal filial love, innocence and gives Silas a reason to live. She is perfect in everyway possible but she is not real so it