George Eliot’s Spiritual Quest in Silas Marner

Book excerpt: Based on K. Barth’s definition of faith and R. Bultmann’s existentialist theology, J. H. Mazaheri has attempted to reveal G. Eliot’s profound religious and spiritual quest by focusing on the short but powerful novel, Silas Marner. The critic believes that her thought in the area of religion and theology has not been appreciated enough by critics, and that a postmodern reading is necessary in order to understand it. So, through a close textual reading, the author shows not only the affinities G. Eliot had with Coleridge and Wordworth, already mentioned by others, but also with Schleiermacher and Kierkegaard. The novelist clearly distinguishes between religion and superstition: if she strongly rejects the latter, she believes in the reality and good aspects of the former. Indeed she demythologizes Christianity in a positive way, and implicitly offers a new definition of religion. On the other hand, although she admired and translated Feuerbach’s The Essence of Christianity, she differed from him as much as she did from Strauss, whom she also translated. This essay on Silas Marner proposes, thus, a new approach to G. Eliot’s thought, while stressing the qualities of her art, especially in the way she uses allegory, irony, and free indirect speech.