Materialism in George Eliot’s Silas Marner

This thesis analysis assesses critically how dominant the determinations of materialism on the social’s environment. Such the effects roused, in the novel George Eliot’s Silas Marner, the researcher discusses the kind of phenomenon that grows the characters become capitalist and be alienated with the system used that they created such as capitalism and feudalism. They compete to reach and keep them, because material is the most important need for their economic life, so they create some systems such as capitalism and feudalism. In explanation, actually, the phenomenon raises a number of problems such as the movement happened in a social environment, in each individual person’s moral, or in their movement of ways to reach and keep their materials. These kinds of problems are as the effect that can be related to Marx’s theory.

Marx’s theory of materialism influences the analysis. The determination of materialism is the main problem including on the effect of it and the character’s ways to reach and keep it. Relating to the analysis, it is focused to know the influences of materialism to the characters in Silas Marner; including in moral aspect and social problems, and about the character’s ways to reach and keep their material. And the two kinds of objection in this analysis are deeply on the movement of the characters caused by the economic system they use.

This research is categorized in literary criticism because the thesis also assesses critically a phenomenon about the determination of materialism to the characters textually in a literary work into novel of Silas Marner by George Eliot. The literary criticism used in this research is structural Marxism. It is kind of literary criticism that uses Marx’s theory as a base of problems. And generally, the object of Structural Marxist analysis is a social formation structured on the basis of a mode of production. Actually, if it is compared to other kinds of literary criticism, it is not so popular, because it includes two kinds of literary criticism; namely, Structuralism and Marxist literary criticism.

Certainly, the findings on this analysis are very influenced by the economic system, such as capitalism and feudalism. In citation as they bear that the characters use capitalism are modern people, while the characters use feudalism are ancient people. Then the result effects of these systems rise when the characters have addicted by these systems, the characters become involved on classes and alienated. In explanation, they are involved on classes, because they are influenced by capitalism or feudalism system, while they are involved on alienation, because they are influenced by capitalism.