The novel Silas Marner, written by George Eliot, covered a long span of time. However, concentration with this span limited the time actually depicted to three rather short periods. The period on which the book opened, it showed Silas Marner living his lonely existence at Raveloe. Raveloe was a small village where the people view Marner with skepticism. This was pursued by a flashback to 15 years earlier. The time then skipped quickly back to its original point. The narrator briefly stated some events, which followed as Marner begins to raise Eppie (short for Hepzibah). Eppie was Godfrey Cass"s daughter who had a failure to possess his own daughter. I found that these three characters tied in with the theme "natural human relations.".

             Silas Marner was a pale bent man with protruding eyes and poor eyesight who worked as a weaver. He was an outcast and lived single-handedly at Raveloe. Marner was in no way an epic character in the novel. He changed greatly during the journey of the novel; yet there was a part of him always remained. The unchanging part of his character was that he required something to support his courage to face the real world. When he lost his religion, he turned to his work, and then to his gold. When his gold was stolen, he found a better support in an orphaned girl. This led eventually to his faith in his men and in his own authority. Marner was always truthful with himself and others. Later on in the novel, he gained maturity and courage to give up his daughter, his treasure, for her good. .

             Eppie was Godfrey Cass"s daughter who was found outside in the snow by Marner. She was an innocent bystander who had to be put in a position of having to choose between two "fathers." She greatly affected Marner and Cass"s lives in the novel. However, she was the least developed of the characters. She was a very special child in Marner"s eyes. Eppie provided a connecting link not only between Cass and Marner, but between Marner and the community as well.