A Biblical Archetypal Interpretation Of George Eliot's Silas Marner

George Eliot is one of the famous female novelists in the British literature history; her main literary works are The Mill on the Floss, Middlemarch, Daniel Deronda and so on. Silas Marner is one of her renowned works in her early literary period.Silas Marner describes a bumpy story of a linen weaver named Silas Marner:he is framed by his friend to steal the church money, the community people confirms his theft in the way of drawing lots and his intended wife also abandons him. He leaves his hometown with the grievance and the complaints, then he moves to the Raveloe to live. The former experience makes him begin to doubt his belief and he does not go to church any more. He devotes himself to weaving all day long and leads a lonely life. His only joy is to count his golden coins, one night, the golden coins are absent. The only joy is gone, at this depressed time, a little girl Eppie scrawls into his door and afterwards becomes his adopted daughter. It is the coming of Eppie that brings the freshness to Marner's life. He begins to get along with neighbors and consequently he regains his golden coins. He starts to realize that God does not abandon him factually. Eppie is the gift from God. From then on, his belief in God is much firmer.Silas Marner gains wide attention after its publication, many scholars and critics are interested in studying it. But the connotation of a famous work will never be dug out completely. It still attracts many people to give the further new studies on it.George Eliot's experience of staying in two religious schools exerts a deep influence on her and her literary works. Silas Marner is just like this with many archetypes embedded in it. This thesis is to analyze the novel from the perspective of archetypal criticism with the careful analysis of the archetypal characters, archetypal structures and the archetypal plots in this novel.This thesis mainly consists of introduction, body and conclusion.The introduction is made up of a synopsis of the novel, a literature review, research motivation, methodology and questions as well as the framework of the thesis.Chapter One mainly reviews the theories of the archetypal criticism and demonstrates the feasibility of analysis on the basis of the archetypal criticism. In Chapter Two, the archetypal characters are analyzed in it. Chapter Three discusses the U-shaped structures in this novel. Chapter Four explores the archetypal plots including drawing lots and three sin testimonies.The conclusion is the summary of the above interpretations and illustrates the intention of the novelist's employment of these archetypes. Through the using the rich archetypes, the novelist emphasizes the traditional Christian values and the significance of the harmonious relationship between human beings. Furthermore the novelist also refers to the relationship between man and nature under the influence of the industrial civilization. The archetypes employed in this novel are the origins of the inspiration for the novelist; meanwhile they also give us a much deeper and wider understanding of this novel. The archetypal exploration of Silas Marner to some extent enriches the archetypal study and makes a certain amount of contribution to the archetypal research.