Silas Marner Characters: Full List & Analysis

Who drives the story

Main characters

Silas Marner

A linen weaver betrayed by his best friend, stripped of faith and fiancée, who hoards gold until gold is stolen and a child arrives in its place. He trades a miser's isolation for a father's life — and keeps both his money and his daughter in the end.

Appears in:: Part 1: The Betrayal at Lantern Yard; Part 2: Gold, Blackmail, and a Foggy-Night Theft; Part 3: A Child on the Hearth; Part 4: The Stone-Pit Gives Up Its Dead
Themes:: Money as a substitute for love; Community as a slow cure; Faith broken and rebuilt

Godfrey Cass

The squire's eldest son, secretly married to an opium addict, blackmailed by his own brother, in love with a woman he cannot court. He abandons his child to Silas, confesses sixteen years too late, and loses her by trying to claim her.

Appears in:: Part 2: Gold, Blackmail, and a Foggy-Night Theft; Part 3: A Child on the Hearth; Part 4: The Stone-Pit Gives Up Its Dead
Themes:: Money as a substitute for love; Secrets and their compound interest

Eppie (Hephzibah)

Molly and Godfrey's daughter, named by Silas after his dead mother and sister, who wanders into his cottage as a toddler and grows into a radiant young woman. Offered a gentleman's life, she chooses the weaver who raised her.

Appears in:: Part 3: A Child on the Hearth; Part 4: The Stone-Pit Gives Up Its Dead
Themes:: Community as a slow cure

Dunstan Cass

The squire's dissolute second son, a blackmailer and thief who kills his brother's horse and robs Silas before vanishing into the fog. The drained stone-pit yields his skeleton and the gold sixteen years on.

Appears in:: Part 2: Gold, Blackmail, and a Foggy-Night Theft; Part 4: The Stone-Pit Gives Up Its Dead
Themes:: Judgment without truth; Money as a substitute for love; Secrets and their compound interest

Dolly Winthrop

Silas's kindly neighbour, wife of wheelwright Ben and mother of Aaron, who brings cakes, outgrown clothes, and steady moral ballast. She stands godmother to Eppie and anchors Silas in the village.

Appears in:: Part 2: Gold, Blackmail, and a Foggy-Night Theft; Part 3: A Child on the Hearth; Part 4: The Stone-Pit Gives Up Its Dead
Themes:: Community as a slow cure; Faith broken and rebuilt

Nancy Lammeter Cass

The virtuous beauty Godfrey marries once his secret wife dies, governed by rigid principles of propriety and divine will. Her refusal to adopt a child leaves her childless — and unprepared for the truth of Eppie.

Appears in:: Part 2: Gold, Blackmail, and a Foggy-Night Theft; Part 3: A Child on the Hearth; Part 4: The Stone-Pit Gives Up Its Dead
Themes:: Secrets and their compound interest

Molly Farren

Godfrey's secret first wife, impoverished and opium-addicted, who dies in the snow trying to expose their marriage. Her death frees Godfrey and delivers her child to Silas's hearth.

Appears in:: Part 2: Gold, Blackmail, and a Foggy-Night Theft; Part 3: A Child on the Hearth; Part 4: The Stone-Pit Gives Up Its Dead
Themes:: Secrets and their compound interest

Aaron Winthrop

Dolly's son, who helps Silas plant a garden as a boy and courts Eppie as a young man. He marries her in the closing pages and moves into Silas's enlarged cottage.

Appears in:: Part 2: Gold, Blackmail, and a Foggy-Night Theft; Part 3: A Child on the Hearth; Part 4: The Stone-Pit Gives Up Its Dead
Themes:: Community as a slow cure

Squire Cass

Raveloe's greatest landowner and a widower, whose party on New Year's Eve frames the novel's turning point. Angry at his sons' failures, blind to their secrets.

Appears in:: Part 2: Gold, Blackmail, and a Foggy-Night Theft; Part 3: A Child on the Hearth

Also in the story

Supporting characters

William Dane

Silas's Lantern Yard best friend, who plants the knife and money bag to frame him, then marries Silas's fiancée Sarah. He vanishes from the book — and from any reckoning.

Appears in:: Part 1: The Betrayal at Lantern Yard
Themes:: Judgment without truth

Mr Macey

The elderly tailor and parish clerk, a fount of village history and gossip at the Rainbow Inn, who defends his theory that Silas is 'all of a piece' with something ghostly.

Themes:: Community as a slow cure

Priscilla Lammeter

Nancy's plain, plain-spoken older sister, who runs their father's household and declares she has no intention of marrying.

How they are connected

Key relationships

Godfrey Cass Squire Cass
The squire's eldest son, secretly married to an opium addict, blackmailed by his own brother, in love with a woman he cannot court.
Godfrey Cass Silas Marner
He abandons his child to Silas, confesses sixteen years too late, and loses her by trying to claim her.
Eppie (Hephzibah)Silas Marner
Molly and Godfrey's daughter, named by Silas after his dead mother and sister, who wanders into his cottage as a toddler and grows into a radiant young woman.
Eppie (Hephzibah)Godfrey Cass
Molly and Godfrey's daughter, named by Silas after his dead mother and sister, who wanders into his cottage as a toddler and grows into a radiant young woman.
Eppie (Hephzibah)Molly Farren
Molly and Godfrey's daughter, named by Silas after his dead mother and sister, who wanders into his cottage as a toddler and grows into a radiant young woman.
Dunstan Cass Silas Marner
The squire's dissolute second son, a blackmailer and thief who kills his brother's horse and robs Silas before vanishing into the fog.
Dunstan Cass Squire Cass
The squire's dissolute second son, a blackmailer and thief who kills his brother's horse and robs Silas before vanishing into the fog.
Dolly Winthrop Silas Marner
Silas's kindly neighbour, wife of wheelwright Ben and mother of Aaron, who brings cakes, outgrown clothes, and steady moral ballast.
Dolly Winthrop Aaron Winthrop
Silas's kindly neighbour, wife of wheelwright Ben and mother of Aaron, who brings cakes, outgrown clothes, and steady moral ballast.
Dolly Winthrop Eppie (Hephzibah)
She stands godmother to Eppie and anchors Silas in the village.
Nancy Lammeter Cass Godfrey Cass
The virtuous beauty Godfrey marries once his secret wife dies, governed by rigid principles of propriety and divine will.
Nancy Lammeter Cass Eppie (Hephzibah)
Her refusal to adopt a child leaves her childless — and unprepared for the truth of Eppie.

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Silas Marner themes & symbols

Judgment without truth · Money as a substitute for love · Secrets and their compound interest · Community as a slow cure

Themes explained

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