Character guide

Silas Marner

major

Also known as Wordsworth Silas Marner, Marner, brother Marner, Strangely Marner, poor Silas, father Silas, Master Marner, Old Master Marner, Poor Marner

Silas lives at the edge of Raveloe's social world, a suspected miser whose trance-like fits and rootless past make him an outsider even to kindly neighbors like Mr. Macey. His life contracts to the rhythm of his loom and the counted coins beneath his floor—until theft strips away his one comfort and forces him to reckon with the community he has refused. His slow thaw matters because the novel's moral center lies in whether a man can be reclaimed from isolation by love rather than gold.

Godfrey Cass

major

Also known as Mr. Godfrey, Master Godfrey, Godfrey Cass, Mr. Godfrey Cass, the artful Godfrey, Mr. Cass, Dear Godfrey

Godfrey moves through Raveloe as the presumed heir to the Red House, courting Nancy Lammeter while hiding a wife and child he cannot acknowledge. His fatal flaw is the habit of deferral—he hopes time will solve what only honesty can, and Dunsey exploits that hesitation mercilessly. His struggle between respectability and conscience drives the novel's central question of whether a man can outrun his own past.

Nancy Lammeter

major

Also known as Miss Nancy Lammeter, sweet Miss Nancy, Miss Nancy, Nancy Lammeter, Nancy, Lammeter, sweet Nancy

Nancy rides to the Squire's party on a pillion behind her father, bewitching in drab, and carries herself with the quiet authority of a woman who knows her own worth. She loves Godfrey but will not bend her moral code—even when compassion might serve better than correctness. Her firmness shapes the novel's later reckonings, as she becomes both Godfrey's refuge and the conscience he cannot escape.

Eppie

major

Eppie knows no home but the stone-pit cottage, where she calls Silas father and dreams chiefly of a garden. Her warmth draws the weaver back into Raveloe's human web, and her unpretentious joy stands in quiet rebuke to the genteel world that later claims her by blood. She matters because her choice—when it comes—tests whether love or birth defines a life.

Dunstan Cass

supporting

Also known as Dunstan, IV Dunstan Cass, Dunstan Cass, Dunsey Cass, Dunsey, Master Dunsey, No Dunsey

Dunsey lives by his wits and his brother's secrets, enjoying the self-important swagger of a man who believes himself lucky. He holds Godfrey's hidden marriage over him like a lever, and his casual cruelty—toward the horse, the weaver, anyone weaker—marks him as the novel's most active agent of harm. His path past Silas's cottage sets the plot's central loss in motion.

Dolly Winthrop

supporting

Also known as Dolly, Dolly Winthrop, Mrs. Winthrop

Dolly embodies Raveloe's best self: unlettered but deeply decent, she treats the weaver's strange household with patience rather than suspicion. She teaches Silas to dress and christen the child, offering the rituals of community he has long refused. Her steady kindness is the human bridge that turns a miser's cottage into a home.

Mr. Macey

supporting

Also known as the argumentative Mr. Macey, Macey, old Macey, old Mr. Macey

Mr. Macey has spent a lifetime in the clerk's desk, and his opinions carry the weight of custom in Raveloe. He buttonholes Silas Marner with blunt neighbourly advice — buy a Sunday suit, come to church, be a bit neighbourly — and takes the weaver's silence for muddle rather than grief. His running commentary stitches the village together, making him the story's chorus: the voice of communal judgment that Silas must slowly earn back.

Aaron Winthrop

supporting

Also known as Aaron, little Aaron, Aaron Winthrop

Aaron grows up in the Winthrop household, where his mother's patient charity shapes his character and draws him naturally toward Silas Marner's cottage. He is unassuming and practical, the opposite of the Cass brothers' restless privilege, and his attachment to Eppie forms gradually across years of shared Sundays and small errands. He matters because he embodies the honest, rooted life Raveloe offers — the future that Eppie's belonging to the village, not the gentry, will eventually mean.

Priscilla Lammeter

supporting

Also known as Miss Priscilla Lammeter, Priscilla, niece Priscilla, sister Priscilla, Miss Priscilla, Priscy

Priscilla runs the Warrens and her rheumatic father with the same firm hand, cheerfully declaring that a man should let somebody else do the ordering and keep the blaming in his own hands. She is sharp-tongued, unromantic, and utterly loyal to Nancy, whose beauty and delicacy she treats with wry, protective affection. Her sturdy practicality throws Nancy's scruples and Godfrey's evasions into relief, grounding the Lammeter household in plain sense rather than sentiment.

Squire Cass

supporting

Also known as Squire, old Squire Cass

Squire Cass presides over the Red House with a blustering authority that masks how little he actually governs — his sons run up debts, his household drifts, and his temper substitutes for discipline. He is proud of his position and quick to grumble about poor-rates and ruinous times, yet blind to the moral chaos inside his own family. His failures as a father create the pressure that drives Godfrey's secrecy and Dunstan's schemes, making the Squire's weakness the quiet engine of the novel's central scandal.

Molly Farren

supporting

Also known as Molly

Molly Farren lives on the margins of Raveloe society, bound to Godfrey by a marriage he bitterly regrets and cannot acknowledge. Her addiction and poverty make her both pitiable and dangerous to his prospects, and her determination to force him into the open drives her toward the village on a bitter winter night. She is the buried truth beneath the Cass family's respectability — the human cost of Godfrey's weakness and the reason a child will soon arrive at Silas Marner's hearth.

Ben Winthrop

minor

Also known as Winthrop, Ben

Dolly's husband and a wheelwright in Raveloe.

William Dane

minor

Also known as William

Silas's former friend in Lantern Yard who betrays him.

Jem Rodney

minor

Also known as Jem, poor Jem

A poacher initially suspected of stealing Silas's gold.

Mr. Lammeter

minor

Also known as the Mr. Lammeter, young Mr. Lammeter, old Mr. Lammeter

Father of Nancy and Priscilla, a proud landowner.

Bryce

minor

Also known as old Bryce

A horse dealer involved in Dunstan's sale of Godfrey's horse.

Mrs. Osgood

minor

Also known as Osgood, aunt Osgood

A relative of the Lammeter sisters who appears at social gatherings.

Mr. Snell

minor

The landlord of the Rainbow tavern in Raveloe.

Dowlas

minor

Also known as Mr. Dowlas, Master Dowlas

A farrier and frequent debater at the Rainbow.

Sally Oates

minor

Also known as Sarah

A villager who seeks Silas's herbal remedies.

Mr. Kimble

minor

Also known as aunt Kimble, uncle Kimble, Kimble, Doctor Kimble, old Kimble

The local doctor and apothecary, related to the Casses.

Solomon Macey

minor

Also known as Solomon, Solomon Macey, So Solomon

A fiddler who plays at village festivities.

Mr. Tookey

minor

Also known as Tookey, poor Tookey, Master Tookey

A minor church singer and deputy clerk.

Miss Gunns

minor

Also known as the Miss Gunns, The Miss Gunns

A pair of sisters who are guests at the Lammeter party.

Jane

minor

A servant in the Cass household.

Mr. Crackenthorp

minor

Also known as Squire Cass—and Mr. Crackenthorp

The rector of Raveloe.

Mrs. Crackenthorp

minor

The rector's wife.

Fowler

minor

A farmer who rents land from the Casses.

Mr. Drumlow

minor

The clergyman who performs a wedding ceremony.

Mr. Paston

minor

A lawyer consulted by Godfrey.

Bob Cass

minor

Also known as Bob

One of the younger Cass brothers, mentioned in passing.

Justice Malam

minor

Also known as X Justice Malam

A local magistrate briefly mentioned.

Miss Ladbrook

minor

An elderly spinster in the village.

Master Kench

minor

Also known as Kench

A minor villager mentioned in the Rainbow scene.

Jinny Oates

minor

Daughter of Sally Oates.