Silas Marner by George Eliot

This was a book club read, although I was out of town when they met to discuss it and didn't get to participate in the discussion. All the books so far have been great for discussion, but this is the first one since the book club started up back in November that I can say I truly enjoyed. Yes, there are a few criticisms I could offer, but it left a good taste in my mouth and I'd rather talk about that.

Silas Marner seems like a moral tale, in which wrong is punished and good is rewarded, and a quick google search on themes in Silas Marner suggests that "Is Silas Marner just a simple morality tale?" is a pretty common high school English essay question, which in turn suggests that the "right" answer is that, no, Silas Marner is not just a simple morality tale. I'd agree with that. My very first thought upon finishing the book was that everything had worked out awfully well in the end, but for all that I believe about complexity and ambiguity in life, the ending still felt right and I was very happy with it.

This thought led me in two directions. The first is that Silas Marner does have strong moral themes and the characters really do get their just rewards in the end, but it's by no means simple. The characters are not as complex as in some novels I've read, but they are not one-sided either. And Eliot tackles issues of class and industrialization and agency and community - the theme of reward and punishment is only one of many.

But the other direction that the thought led me was that the idea of "everything works out in the end" absolutely should resonate with me. It's true that I have certain limits. I've read books and stories or seen movies or TV shows where I think it all just worked out a little too conveniently. But my worldview, shaped and formed by my religious beliefs, is one where everything does work out in the end. It might be complex and messy and it might sometimes take longer than we hope or happen in unexpected ways, but ultimately I do believe that our honest and good but imperfect efforts are rewarded, and that our deliberate mistakes and unkindnesses do take their toll. I don't see any of this as simple or easy or naive. That "everything works out" ending to Silas Marner took years and years of the characters lives and there was a lot of unjustness and unhappiness along the way. Nor did the ending leave any guarantee that the future of the characters would be all roses and sunshine thereafter. But things were put right that needed to be put right, and I really, truly believe that of life.

I also think that most novels reflect some moral view. An author is creating a world, not letting a world come into creation, and has to set up implicit rules of "how things are" to decide how the story will come together. Even when the rule the author chooses is that there are no rules, that's still a reflection of a particular worldview. The implied worldview of a few stories that I read/watch/hear run counter to what I believe about the rules of the world I actually live in, but most speak to me on some level, and a few resonate so deeply that they stay with me for days or weeks or even years afterward. I don't know that Silas Marner is one that will resonate for years (like Cry the Beloved Country or Les Miserables, for instance), but it definitely resonated.