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Teaching Silas Marner

Another masterpiece from Missy "George" Eliot.

Activities: 13
Quiz Questions: 110

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Description
Sample

The story of a crabby old miser who raises an orphan with honest-to-goodness dimples and "auburn hair" with "little ringlets," George Eliot's Silas Marner starts off by laying on the tragedy. Young Silas is betrayed, exiled, isolated, and then robbed; a baby is born to an opium-addled mom and a deadbeat dad and then abandoned at the side of the road. But by the last page, everyone's living happily together in a quaint little cottage with a quaint little garden in a quaint little village full of quaint local characters.

Yay?

Students might be unsure what to make of all this; but never fear, our Shmoop guide will help you make sense of exactly what Eliot's getting at. Sure, you can read Silas Marner for the warm fuzzies. But Eliot actually raises a lot of Big Issues about religion, history, industrialization, community, and even the nature of literature. We're here to help you dig deep in the Marner muck to root out all this goodness for your high schoolers.

In this guide, you'll find

an exploration of the idea of conflict resolution, and application of these tactics to get to the heart of why the characters in Eliot's novel clash.
an analysis of how a character's background affects them in the present, and also a chance to think about ways of dealing with difficult histories in order for the future to be a bit brighter.
a chance to play the part of an investigative reporter writing a feature piece on the main man Silas Marner.

Bonus: this book is a nice entry point into the semi-overwhelming canon of Victorian Literature. Our Silas guide will prep students for longer works by Eliot along with Tennyson, Dickens, & co., so it's smooth Victorian literary sailing from here on out.

What's Inside Shmoop's Literature Teaching Guides

Shmoop is a labor of love from folks who love to teach. Our teaching guides will help you supplement in-classroom learning with fun, engaging, and relatable learning materials that bring literature to life.

Inside each guide you'll find quizzes, activity ideas, discussion questions, and more—all written by experts and designed to save you time. Here are the deets on what you get with your teaching guide:

13 – 18 Common Core-aligned activities to complete in class with your students, including detailed instructions for you and your students
Discussion and essay questions for all levels of students
Reading quizzes for every chapter, act, or part of the text
Resources to help make the book feel more relevant to your 21st-century students
A note from Shmoop's teachers to you, telling you what to expect from teaching the text and how you can overcome the hurdles

Want more help teaching Teaching Silas Marner?

Check out all the different parts of our corresponding learning guide.

Instructions for You

Objective: Silas Marner initially seems to be a pretty warm and cuddly novel. Sure, Silas has some hardships, but he always has a home, and the community rallies around him when he's robbed. He even gets to adopt a child at the end, so he also finds family to close everything out with. It's not so bad in Silas-land, or Raveloe, if you want to be precise.

But if we look deeper into the novel, there are actually quite a few storm clouds brewing. Parties, individuals, and groups clash over various issues, bonds are broken, and people are forced to leave their homes. Eesh.

In this sixty-minute lesson, your students will be exploring the idea of conflict resolution, and then applying these tactics to get to the heart of why the characters in Eliot's novel clash. They'll also think about how to resolve some of these conflicts. It's like character and plot analysis with applied learning all wrapped into one.

Onward.

Materials Needed: Link to University of Kansas page on conflict resolution, a copy of the text and/or our Shmoop summary page for reference

Step 1: Begin by making sure that your students are familiar with the concepts of conflict and conflict resolution. Have everyone read the page from the University of Kansas, and then have a class discussion to go over what they've just read. Be sure to touch on the following:

When conflict takes place
What conflict resolution is
The best ways to resolve conflict

You can emphasize how conflict, like ice cream, comes in many flavors and resolution requires cooperation from both sides.

Step 2: Assign everyone to a group of three or four students, where they'll become mini-conflict resolution teams. They'll have to enter the novel, find a conflict, and try to get the characters to forget their differences by writing a short 200-word brief.

Here are a couple of suggestions for some solid conflicts to look at:

William becoming jealous of Silas near the beginning of the novel
The Dissidents versus the Anglicans
The villagers of Raveloe becoming annoyed that Silas won't meet their requests

Here's what they'll need to include in their report:

Analyze the conflict; define what has happened and why there's a division
Come up with a solution
Address any potential obstacles that could occur
How to implement the solution

They can pull info from the article that they just read and also textual evidence, making sure to cite pages.

Step 3: Send the teams back out to explore a different conflict from the novel.

Again the students can pick a case if they wish, or you can suggest one, such as:

Silas being exiled from Lantern-Yard
When Silas has just accused Jem of stealing from him
Silas' move to Raveloe and distance from the townspeople, who are suspicious of him

On to the brief. Get them to write 200 words about the following:

How this case differs from their last
Will their solution/response to the conflict differ?
What are the potential obstacles this time?
How to implement the resolution

The team should report back to the class now to highlight the differences between this case and the last, as there might be a contrast between how they approached this conflict, the methods they used, and the responses from those involved. Again, they can pull info from the article and the novel, making sure to cite.

Step 4: Now that they're professional peacemakers, here's an assignment for everyone to complete on their own to keep the nice peaceful vibes going.

Analyze a third scene of conflict in the novel, considering the following:

What resulting conflict could occur in the future as a result of this scene?
What appropriate actions could be undertaken by the characters to avoid conflict?
Which other characters in the text could be learned from so as to avoid future conflict?

We'd like around 400 words on this one, and they should be sure to make specific references to the novel and also the article.

Peace, man.

Instructions for Your Students

Silas Marner initially seems to be a pretty warm and cuddly novel. Sure, Silas has some hardships, but he always has a home, and the community rallies around him when he's robbed. He even gets to adopt a child at the end, so he also finds family to close everything out with. It's not so bad in Silas-land, or Raveloe, if you want to be precise.

Today you'll be exploring the idea of conflict resolution, and then applying these tactics to get to the heart of why the characters in Eliot's novel clash. You'll also think about how to resolve some of these conflicts, to make the world a better and brighter place.

Let's do this.

Step 1: Start by reading the page from the University of Kansas that Teach is going to share, and then have a class discussion to go over what you've just read. We want to make sure you touch on the following:

When conflict takes place
What conflict resolution is
The best ways to resolve conflict

Conflict, like ice cream, comes in many flavors and resolution requires cooperation from both sides.

Step 2: You'll get into a group of three or four students, where you'll become a mini-conflict resolution team. You'll need to find a conflict in the novel and try to get the characters to forget their differences by writing a short 200-word brief.

Here are a couple of suggestions for some solid conflicts:

William becoming jealous of Silas near the beginning of the novel
The Dissidents versus the Anglicans
The villagers of Raveloe becoming annoyed that Silas won't meet their requests

Here's what you'll need to include in the report:

Analyze the conflict; define what has happened and why there's a division
Come up with a solution
Address any potential obstacles that could occur
How to implement the solution

You can pull info from the article that you just read and also use textual evidence, making sure to cite pages.

Step 3: Get back out there to explore a different conflict from the novel.

Your group can pick a case if you wish, or you could use one of the following:

Silas being exiled from Lantern-Yard
When Silas has just accused Jem of stealing from him
Silas' move to Raveloe and distance from the townspeople, who are suspicious of him

On to the brief. Write 200 words about the following:

How this case differs from the last
Will your solution/response to the conflict differ?
What are the potential obstacles this time?
How to implement the resolution

When you're all done, the team should report back to the class to highlight the differences between this case and the last, as there might be a contrast between how you approached this conflict, the methods you used, and the responses from those involved. Again, you can pull info from the article and the novel, making sure to cite.

Step 4: Now that you're professional peacemakers, here's an assignment for you to complete on your own to keep the nice, peaceful vibes going: