On Silas Marner’s Narrative Art

George Eliot is a philosophical novelist of the19th century in UK. She was already renowned in the literary world when she was alive. Rooted in real life, her novels bear a rich and deep thinking, and thus they can stand the test of time as enduring literary works. For a long time, many scholars have analyzed her novels from the perspective of religion or the theme of alienation, granting her the title of "serious writer". In order to open a new horizon for George Eliot study, this dissertation aims to explore its narrative texts and techniques on the basis of narratology and archetype.Putting narrative theory into practice, narrative art is involved with a writer’s writing skills, manners and styles. It explores the inner rule and deep structure of literary works. This dissertation holds that Silas Marner is a novel abundant with narrative tropes, and the pluralism of narrative modes demonstrates George Eliot’s flexible employment of writing methods and high emphasis on the inner rule of literary works. On the other hand, this dissertation points out George Eliot’s ideal for a society with harmonious human relationships in the gradual unfolding of the novel’s double tragedy, pastoral comedy and allegoric myth. Her narrative techniques not only endow readers with participation in the text meaning construction but also enlighten them to see the implied meaning in the deep structure of the novel.