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SILAS MARNER
CHAPTER 1: SILAS
The story takes places in England in the early 19th^ century. Raveloe was a pleasant, peaceful village situated in a valley and there were trees all around it.. The men were usually farmers and women looked after their small houses and the children. The village was far from the main road. There was a church and a pub called the Rainbow. The pub was the social centre of the villagers’ lives.
Silas Marner lived in a small stone house in Raveloe. He wasn’t a farmer. He was a weaver (teixidor). He worked 16 hours a day. Silas was a thin, pale man, who was 40 years old but looked much older. He had very large, prominent eyes which used to frighten the children of the village. He has been living in Raveloe for 15 years. He had suddenly appeared there one day and no one knew about his past. He didn’t speak to people except when he was selling his materials. The villagers thought that Silas was strange.
Several years before, one of the village men was walking along the road late on evening when suddenly saw Silas standing completely rigid and carrying a sack on his back. When the man came closer to Silas, he saw that his eyes were wide open, but they looked like the eyes of a dead man. The man spoke to him and touched him, but Silas gave no sign of life. Suddenly, Silas came out of his trace and we walked slowly down the road. Silas had suffered cataleptic fits (atacs cataleptics) ever since he was a young man: during a fit, he couldn’t see, hear or speak. His whole body become rigid and he couldn’t move at all. In the pub, the men talked about Silas.
CHAPTER 2: SILAS’ PAST LIFE
Before living in Raveloe, Silas’ life was different: he had lived in a small, religious community, called Lantern Yard. The people who live there were very religious. The church was at the centre of all their activities (They practice prayer-meetings). The first fit (el primer atac) was in Lantern Yard, but there people weren’t frightened by Silas.
Silas had a good friend in Lantern Yard: William Dane. Silas was in love with a woman called Sarah. They were planning to get married. All three were good friends, but one day William and Sarah changed their behaviour (segurament al William li agradava la Sarah i per això començen a comportar-se de manera diferent amb el Silas).
One day, the oldest man of the community became very ill. He had no family, so each night, Silas sat with him until 2 o’clock in the morning and then William came and replaced him for the next few hours. One night, when Silas was sitting beside the old man’s bed, he realized that the man was dead. It was because it was already 4 o’clock and William wasn’t there. Silas called the minister. When he arrived, he stayed with the dead man and William went to work. Two hours later, William came to tell Silas to come immediately to a meeting of the church members. Something had happened: All the church money was in a cupboard near the bed of the old man who had just died and it had been robbed. They had only found Silas’ knife next to the cupboard. Silas was surprised! He hadn’t robbed the money. William offered himself to go to Silas’ house to look for the money. A few minutes later, William came with the little bag in which the money was kept!
(va ser el William que li va parar una trampa al Silas. El Silas va recordar que li havia deixat el gavinet al William i que no li va tornar. El William va robar els diners i ho va fer perquè es volia quedar amb la seva promesa, la Sarah, i volia posar a tothom en contra del Silas). After that, Sarah sent Silas a message saying that she didn’t want to marry him and that she was going to marry William. The money was never found and the members of the community decided to punish (castigar) Silas. He wasn’t permitted to go to church until he confessed that he has taken the money. Silas lost his belief in God and in human beings (va deixar de creure amb Déu i amb les persones). He took his possessions and left Lantern Yard.
Silas travelled around the country for some time, finally, he came to Raveloe. He wanted to forget his past and the terrible things that had happened to him.
CHAPTER 4: THE SECRET
Godfrey’s secret: a few years before, he had secretly married Molly Farren, a poor woman with no education, who drank alcohol and took opium. They had a little girl. He had realized that he had made a terrible mistake by marrying Molly. One evening, when Godfrey was drunk, explained his secret to his brother, Dunstan. Since then, Dunstan used it to threaten him (amenaçar). Dunstan said to Godfrey: “You know that Father will never forgive you for marrying without his permission and also for marrying someone who’s got no money and no education”. Godfrey was in a difficult situation. If he didn’t inherit his father’s money, Nancy wouldn’t want to marry with him. Dunstan went to get Godfrey’s horse from the stables and rode to the town to sell it there. On the way, he rode past Silas’ house. He drank a little whisky and decided to ride very fast and to make the horse jump over some walls between the fields. They fell. Dunstan didn’t hurt at all but the horse died. So, Dunstan thought another way to achieve the money: he went to Silas’ house. He thought that Silas had a lot of money and could give Godfrey some. The door wasn’t locked so he opened it. No one was there. Dunstan thought it was very strange that Silas wasn’t at home; the door was opened and the fire was burning. He thought that he could be dead. So, he decided to look for the money. He found it: he took the two leather bags with all Silas’ coins. Then he put the stones back and covered them with sand so everything looked the same as before. He had done everything quickly. He left Silas’ house and started to walk home.
CHAPTER 5: UNPLEASANT SURPRISES
Silas had left his house just some minutes because he needed some thread (fil) in order to continue working. He had never heard about a robbery in Raveloe. Before preparing the supper, he wanted to count his coins. He went to his hidden place and realized that the hole was empty. The two bags of coins had disappeared. He decided to go to the pub Rainbow and ask for help in order to find the robber. When he arrived at the pub, everyone looked at him. He explained the situation, and some men offered to go with him to see the policeman of the village.
By the next morning, everyone in the village knew about the robbery. When Godfrey heard the story, went to Silas’ house to see the scene of the crime. He was also worried about his brother, Dunstan. He wasn’t at home. Godfrey met a villager who explained to him the accident of his brother and his horse. Dunstan had left the horse dead and had walked away. Godfrey was very angry. He decided that would explain the problem with the money to his father, before Dunstan returned.
CHAPTER 6: THE PARTY
Godfrey talked to his Father: “Father, do you remember the money I was supposed to give you from the villager who is living on your land? I gave it to Dunstan. I also allowed Dunstan to sell my horse, but the horse had an accident and died”. Father answered: “Where is Dunstan? I want to ask him why you gave him money. I think that you’ve done something wrong and you don’t want him to tell me about it. I don’t think I’ve been strict enough with you and your brother. One day, you will inherit my land and my house. You have to be more responsible. I think marriage to Nancy will be good for you”. Father told Godfrey that he had to ask Nancy to marry him.
A few weeks passed, and Dunstan hadn’t returned home yet. No one was worried because he had disappeared like this before when he had had problems. He usually returned without any explanation. Nobody saw a connection with the disappearance of Dunstan and Silas’ robbery. Silas was suffering and the villagers were kinder to him. Dolly Winthrop was one of the villagers that tried to help him, but he didn’t want to talk to anyone.
Christmas passed and the New Year was coming, but Dunstan still hadn’t returned. In the Red house (Mr. Cass house) it was preparing a big party. Mr Cass invited important people from the area. Nancy (Godfrey’s girlfriend) would come to the party, too.
