The Narrative Structure Of Silas Marner

This thesis, on the basis of the mytho-archetypical criticism of Northrop Frye, the Canadian critic and theoretician, taking Silas Marner written by English novelist, George Eliot, as the object of study, mainly analyzes the narrative structure of Silas Marner, so as to reveal the characteristic of this structure and its symbolical meaning, in order to deepen the understanding of the significance of the novel.Northrop Frye is the representative of the mytho-archetypical criticism. They regard the myths as the origin of literature, tries to discover the repeatedly appeared images, narrative structures and character types in literary works, and to find archetypes for them in the myths, applying these archetypes to then analysis of the works. As its main representative, Northrop Frye put forward the archetype of U-shaped narrative structure employed in the Bible, providing a new approach to study the narrative structure of Silas Marner. In contrast to its archetype, the Bible, George Eliot in Silas Marner also used the U-shaped narrative structure similar to that in the Bible. It can be seen in two aspects. One is the U-shaped structure in the life experience of Silas Marner, the protagonist; the other is the U-shaped structure in the life experience of Godfrey, adopted the archetype of the Prodigal Son in the Bible. Whereas the U-shaped structure in Silas Marner's case can be subdivided into three sub-structures: the U-shaped experience in his material living condition, in his spiritual world, including his religion belief, and at last, in the changes of Silas Marner's social status and his relationship with the community. This characteristic of the narrative structure of Silas Marner has some special symbolical meaning, mainly reflected in three aspects. First, the U-shaped experience of Silas Marner in his religious belief reflected the similar experience of George Eliot, showing that she objected the superficial, ceremonial, hypocrite religion, while still held hope in the educational function of religious emotion. In morality, the U-shaped structure reflected the novelist's idea to teach the people by the thought of retribution and fraternity. In the respect of humanity, U-shaped structure gives the experience of Silas Marner some universal appeal. The humankind could only gain their salvation and return to the Paradise by the pure, innocent love for others.In the first chapter, it summaries recent comments on the novel, both in China and abroad. The second chapter introduces the theoretical basis of the thesis, the myth-archetypical criticism. The third chapter analyzes in details the U-shaped structure employed in Silas Marner. The fourth chapter deals with the symbolical meaning of the structure.