SILAS MARNER George Eliot

Context
GEORGE ELIOT WAS THE PSEUDONYM of Mary Ann Evans, born in 1819 at the estate of her father’s employer in Chilvers Coton, Warwickshire, England. She was sent to boarding school, where she developed a strong religious faith, deeply influenced by the evangelical preacher Rev. John Edmund Jones. After her mother’s death, Evans moved with her father to the city of Coventry. There she met Charles and Caroline Bray, progressive intellectuals who led her to question her faith. In 1842 she stopped going to church, and this renunciation of her faith put a strain on Evans’s relationship with her father that did not ease for several years.
Evans became acquainted with intellectuals in Coventry who broadened her mind beyond a provincial perspective. Through her new associations, she traveled to Geneva and then to London, where she worked as a freelance writer. In London she met George Lewes, who became her husband in all but the legal sense—a true legal marriage was impossible, as Lewes already had an estranged wife. At this point in her life Evans was still primarily interested in philosophy, but Lewes persuaded her to turn her hand to fiction instead. The publication of her first collection of stories in 1857, under the male pseudonym of George Eliot, brought immediate acclaim from critics as prestigious as Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray, as well as much speculation about the identity of the mysterious George Eliot. After the publication of her next book and first novel, Adam Bede, a number of impostors claimed authorship. In response, Evans asserted herself as the true author, causing quite a stir in a society that still regarded women as incapable of serious writing. Lewes died in 1878, and in 1880 Evans married a banker named John Walter Cross, who was twenty-one years her junior. She died the same year.
Eliot wrote the novels Adam Bede (1859) and The Mill on the Floss (1860) before publishing Silas Marner (1861), the tale of a lonely, miserly village weaver transformed by the love of his adopted daughter. Eliot is best known, however, for Middlemarch (1871–1872). Subtitled “A Study in Provincial Life,” this lengthy work tells the story of a small English village and its inhabitants, centering on the idealistic and self-sacrificing Dorothea Brooke.
Eliot’s novels are deeply philosophical. In exploring the inner workings of her characters and their relationship to their environment, she drew on influences that included the English poet William Wordsworth, the Italian poet Dante, the English art critic John Ruskin, and the Portuguese-Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza, whose work Eliot translated into English. The philosophical concerns and references found in her novels—and the refusal to provide the requisite happy ending—struck some contemporary critics as unbecoming in a lady novelist. Eliot’s detailed and insightful psychological portrayals of her characters, as well as her exploration of the complex ways these characters confront moral dilemmas, decisively broke from the plot-driven domestic melodrama that had previously served as the standard for the Victorian novel. Eliot’s break from tradition inspired the modern novel and inspired numerous future authors, among them Henry James, who admirered Eliot.
Silas Marner was Eliot’s third novel and is among the best known of her works. Many of the novel’s themes and concerns stem from Eliot’s own life experiences. Silas’s loss of religious faith recalls Eliot’s own struggle with her faith, and the novel’s setting in the vanishing English countryside reflects Eliot’s concern that England was fast becoming industrialized and impersonal. The novel’s concern with class and family can likewise be linked back to Eliot’s own life. The voice of the novel’s narrator can thus, to some extent, be seen as Eliot’s own voice—one tinged with slight condescension, but fond of the setting and thoroughly empathetic with the characters. Though Silas Marner is in a sense a very personal novel for Eliot, its treatment of the themes of faith, family, and class has nonetheless given it universal appeal, especially at the time of publication, when English society and institutions were undergoing rapid change.
The Epigraph
“A child, more than all other gifts
That earth can offer to declining man,
Brings hope with it, and forward-looking thoughts.”
—William Wordsworth
At his death, eleven years before the publication of Silas Marner, William Wordsworth was widely considered the most important English writer of his time. His intensely personal poetry, with its simple language and rhythms, marked a revolutionary departure from the complex, formal structures and classical subject matter of his predecessors, poets such as John Dryden and Alexander Pope. Unlike the poetry of Dryden and Pope, Wordsworth’s poems are meditative rather than narrative. They celebrate beauty and simplicity most often most often located in the natural landscape. Wordsworth’s influence on English poetry—at a time when poetry was unquestioningly held to be the most important form of literature—was enormous. Along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Wordsworth set in motion the Romantic era, inspiring a generation of poets that included John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron.
George Eliot evidently felt a kinship with Wordsworth and his strong identification with the English landscape. Like Wordsworth, Eliot draws many of her metaphors from the natural world. However, the Wordsworth epigraph she chose for Silas Marner also highlights the philosophical aspect of her affinity with Wordsworth. Like Eliot, Wordsworth had tried his hand at philosophy before turning to more literary pursuits, and in his poetry he works out his conception of human consciousness. One of Wordsworth’s major ideas, radical at the time, was that at the moment of birth, human beings move from a perfect, idealized “otherworld” to this imperfect world, characterized by injustice and corruption. Children, being closest to that otherworld, can remember its beauty and purity, seeing its traces in the natural world around them. As they grow up, however, they lose that connection and forget the knowledge they had as children. However, as described in the quote Eliot has chosen, children and the memories of childhood they evoke in adults can still bring us close to that early, idyllic state. It is not hard to imagine that Eliot had this model in mind when she wrote her story of a child bringing a man out of isolation and spiritual desolation
SILAS MARNER IS THE WEAVER in the English countryside village of Raveloe in the early nineteenth century. Like many weavers of his time, he is an outsider—the object of suspicion because of his special skills and the fact that he has come to Raveloe from elsewhere. The villagers see Silas as especially odd because of the curious cataleptic fits he occasionally suffers. Silas has ended up in Raveloe because the members of his religious sect in Lantern Yard, an insular neighborhood in a larger town, falsely accused him of theft and excommunicated him.
Much shaken after the accusation, Silas finds nothing familiar in Raveloe to reawaken his faith and falls into a numbing routine of solitary work. His one attempt at neighborliness backfires: when an herbal remedy he suggests for a neighbor’s illness works, he is rumored to be a sort of witch doctor. With little else to live for, Silas becomes infatuated with the money he earns for his work and hoards it, living off as little as possible. Every night he pulls his gold out from its hiding place beneath his floorboards to count it. He carries on in this way for fifteen years.
Squire Cass is the wealthiest man in Raveloe, and his two eldest sons are Godfrey and Dunstan, or Dunsey. Dunsey is greedy and cruel, and enjoys tormenting Godfrey, the eldest son. Godfrey is good-natured but weak-willed, and, though secretly married to the opium addict Molly Farren, he is in love with Nancy Lammeter. Dunsey talked Godfrey into the marriage and repeatedly blackmails him with threats to reveal the marriage to their father. Godfrey gives Dunsey 100 pounds of the rent money paid to him by one of their father’s tenants. Godfrey then finds himself in a bind when Dunsey insists that Godfrey repay the sum himself. Dunsey once again threatens to reveal Godfrey’s marriage but, after some arguing, offers to sell Godfrey’s prize horse, Wildfire, to repay the loan.
The next day, Dunsey meets with some friends who are hunting and negotiates the sale of the horse. Dunsey decides to participate in the hunt before finalizing the sale, and, in doing so, he has a riding accident that kills the horse. Knowing the rumors of Silas’s hoard, Dunsey makes plans to intimidate the weaver into lending him money. His walk home takes him by Silas’s cottage, and, finding the cottage empty, Dunsey steals the money instead.
Silas returns from an errand to find his money gone. Overwhelmed by the loss, he runs to the local tavern for help and announces the theft to a sympathetic audience of tavern regulars. The theft becomes the talk of the village, and a theory arises that the thief might have been a peddler who came through the village some time before. Godfrey, meanwhile, is distracted by thoughts of Dunsey, who has not returned home. After hearing that Wildfire
has been found dead, Godfrey decides to tell his father about the money, though not about his marriage. The Squire flies into a rage at the news, but does not do anything drastic to punish Godfrey.
Silas is utterly disconsolate at the loss of his gold and numbly continues his weaving. Some of the townspeople stop by to offer their condolences and advice. Among these visitors, Dolly Winthrop stands out. Like many of the others, she encourages Silas to go to church—something he has not done since he was banished from Lantern Yard—but she is also gentler and more genuinely sympathetic.

Nancy Lammeter arrives at Squire Cass’s famed New Year’s dance resolved to reject Godfrey’s advances because of his unsound character. However, Godfrey is more direct and insistent than he has been in a long time, and Nancy finds herself exhilarated by the evening in spite of her resolution. Meanwhile, Molly, Godfrey’s secret wife, is making her way to the Casses’ house to reveal the secret marriage. She has their daughter, a toddler, in her arms. Tiring after her long walk, Molly takes a draft of opium and passes out by the road. Seeing Silas’s cottage and drawn by the light of the fire, Molly’s little girl wanders through the open door and falls asleep at Silas’s hearth.
Silas is having one of his fits at the time and does not notice the little girl enter his cottage. When he comes to, he sees her already asleep on his hearth, and is as stunned by her appearance as he was by the disappearance of his money. A while later, Silas traces the girl’s footsteps outside and finds Molly’s body lying in the snow. Silas goes to the Squire’s house to find the doctor, and causes a stir at the dance when he arrives with the baby girl in his arms. Godfrey, recognizing his daughter, accompanies the doctor to Silas’s cottage. When the doctor declares that Molly is dead, Godfrey realizes that his secret is safe. He does not claim his daughter, and Silas adopts her.
Silas grows increasingly attached to the child and names her Eppie, after his mother and sister. With Dolly Winthrop’s help, Silas raises the child lovingly. Eppie begins to serve as a bridge between Silas and the rest of the villagers, who offer him help and advice and have come to think of him as an exemplary person because of what he has done. Eppie also brings Silas out of the benumbed state he fell into after the loss of his gold. In his newfound happiness, Silas begins to explore the memories of his past that he has long repressed.
The novel jumps ahead sixteen years. Godfrey has married Nancy and Squire Cass has died. Godfrey has inherited his father’s house, but he and Nancy have no children. Their one daughter died at birth, and Nancy has refused to adopt. Eppie has grown into a pretty and spirited young woman, and Silas a contented father. The stone-pit behind Silas’s cottage is drained to water neighboring fields, and Dunsey’s skeleton is found at the bottom, along with Silas’s gold. The discovery frightens Godfrey, who becomes convinced that his own secrets are destined to be uncovered as well. He confesses the truth to Nancy about his marriage to Molly and fathering of Eppie. Nancy is not angry but regretful, saying that they could have adopted Eppie legitimately if Godfrey had told her earlier.
That evening, Godfrey and Nancy decide to visit Silas’s cottage to confess the truth of Eppie’s lineage and claim her as their daughter. However, after hearing Godfrey and Nancy’s story, Eppie tells them she would rather stay with Silas than live with her biological father. Godfrey and Nancy leave, resigning themselves to helping Eppie from afar. The next day Silas decides to visit Lantern Yard to see if he was ever cleared of the theft of which he was accused years before. The town has changed almost beyond recognition, though, and Silas’s old chapel has been torn down to make way for a new factory. Silas realizes that his questions will never be answered, but he is content with the sense of faith he has regained through his life with Eppie. That summer Eppie is married to Aaron Winthrop, Dolly’s son. Aaron comes to live in Silas’s cottage, which has been expanded and refurbished at Godfrey’s expense.
Character List
Silas Marner - A simple, honest, and kindhearted weaver. After losing faith in both God and his fellow man, Silas lives for fifteen years as a solitary miser. After his money is stolen, his faith and trust are restored by his adopted daughter, Eppie, whom he lovingly raises.
Silas Marner (In-Depth Analysis)
Godfrey Cass - The eldest son of Squire Cass. Godfrey is good-natured but selfish and weak-willed. He knows what is right but is unwilling to pay the price for obeying his conscience.
Godfrey Cass (In-Depth Analysis)
Eppie - A girl whom Silas Marner eventually adopts. Eppie is the biological child of Godfrey Cass and Molly Farren, Godfrey’s secret wife. Eppie is pretty and spirited, and loves Silas unquestioningly.
Nancy Lammeter - The object of Godfrey’s affection and his eventual wife. Nancy is pretty, caring, and stubborn, and she lives her life by a code of rules that sometimes seems arbitrary and uncompromising.
Nancy Lammeter (In-Depth Analysis)
Dunstan Cass - Godfrey’s younger brother. Dunsey, as he is usually called, is cruel, lazy, and unscrupulous, and he loves gambling and drinking.
Squire Cass - The wealthiest man in Raveloe. The Squire is lazy, self-satisfied, and short-tempered.
Dolly Winthrop - The wheelwright’s wife who helps Silas with Eppie. Dolly later becomes Eppie’s godmother and mother-in-law. She is kind, patient, and devout.
Molly Farren - Godfrey’s secret wife and Eppie’s mother. Once pretty, Molly has been destroyed by her addictions to opium and alcohol.
William Dane - Silas’s proud and priggish best friend from his childhood in Lantern Yard. William Dane frames Silas for theft in order to bring disgrace upon him, then marries Silas’s fiancée, Sarah.
Mr. Macey - Raveloe’s parish clerk. Mr. Macey is opinionated and smug but means well.
Aaron Winthrop - Dolly’s son and Eppie’s eventual husband.
Priscilla Lammeter - Nancy’s homely and plainspoken sister. Priscilla talks endlessly but is extremely competent at everything she does.
Sarah - Silas’s fiancée in Lantern Yard. Sarah is put off by Silas’s strange fit and ends up marrying William Dane after Silas is disgraced.
Mr. Lammeter - Nancy’s and Priscilla’s father. Mr. Lammeter is a proud and morally uncompromising man.
Jem Rodney - A somewhat disreputable character and a poacher. Jem sees Silas in the midst of one of Silas’s fits. Silas later accuses Jem of stealing his gold.
Mr. Kimble - Godfrey’s uncle and Raveloe’s doctor. Mr. Kimble is usually an animated conversationalist and joker, but becomes irritable when he plays cards. He has no medical degree and inherited the position of village physician from his father.
Mr. Dowlas - The town farrier, who shoes horses and tends to general livestock diseases. Mr. Dowlas is a fiercely contrarian person, much taken with his own opinions.
Mr. Snell - The landlord of the Rainbow, a local tavern. By nature a conciliatory person, Mr. Snell always tries to settle arguments.
The peddler - An anonymous peddler who comes through Raveloe some time before the theft of Silas’s gold. The peddler is a suspect in the theft because of his gypsylike appearance—and for lack of a better candidate.
Bryce - A friend of both Godfrey and Dunsey. Bryce arranges to buy Wildfire, Dunsey’s horse.
Miss Gunns - Sisters from a larger nearby town who come to the Squire’s New Year’s dance. The Misses Gunn are disdainful of Raveloe’s rustic ways, but are nonetheless impressed by Nancy Lammeter’s beauty.
Sally Oates - Silas’s neighbor and the wheelwright’s wife. Silas eases the pain of Sally’s heart disease and dropsy with a concoction he makes out of foxglove
Analysis of Major Characters
Silas Marner
The title character, Silas is a solitary weaver who, at the time we meet him, is about thirty-nine years old and has been living in the English countryside village of Raveloe for fifteen years. Silas is reclusive and his neighbors in Raveloe regard him with a mixture of suspicion and curiosity. He spends all day working at his loom and has never made an effort to get to know any of the villagers. Silas’s physical appearance is odd: he is bent from his work at the loom, has strange and frightening eyes, and generally looks much older than his years. Because Silas has knowledge of medicinal herbs and is subject to occasional cataleptic fits, many of his neighbors speculate that he has otherworldly powers.
Despite his antisocial behavior, however, Silas is at heart a deeply kind and honest person. At no point in the novel does Silas do or say anything remotely malicious and, strangely for a miser, he is not even particularly selfish. Silas’s love of money is merely the product of spiritual desolation, and his hidden capacity for love and sacrifice manifests itself when he takes in and raises Eppie.
Silas’s outsider status makes him the focal point for the themes of community, religion, and family that Eliot explores in the novel. As an outcast who eventually becomes Raveloe’s most exemplary citizen, Silas serves as a study in the relationship between the individual and the community. His loss and subsequent rediscovery of faith demonstrate both the difficulty and the solace that religious belief can bring. Additionally, the unlikely domestic life that Silas creates with Eppie presents an unconventional but powerful portrait of family and the home.
Though he is the title character of the novel, Silas is by and large passive, acted upon rather than acting on others. Almost all of the major events in the novel demonstrate this passivity. Silas is framed for theft in his old town and, instead of proclaiming his innocence, puts his trust in God to clear his name. Similarly, Dunsey’s theft of Silas’s gold and Eppie’s appearance on Silas’s doorstep—rather than any actions Silas takes of his own accord—are the major events that drive the narrative forward. Silas significantly diverges from this pattern of passivity when he decides to keep Eppie, thereby becoming an agent of his eventual salvation.
Godfrey Cass
Godfrey is the eldest son of Squire Cass and the heir to the Cass estate. He is a good-natured young man, but weak-willed and usually unable to think of much beyond his immediate material comfort. As a young man he married an opium addict, Molly Farren, with whom he had a daughter. This secret marriage and Godfrey’s handling of it demonstrate the mixture of guilt and moral cowardice that keep him paralyzed for much of the novel. Godfrey consented to the marriage largely out of guilt and keeps the marriage secret because he knows his father will disown him if it ever comes to light.
Despite his physically powerful and graceful presence, Godfrey is generally passive. In this respect he is similar to Silas. However, Godfrey’s passivity is different from Silas’s, as his endless waffling and indecisiveness stem entirely from selfishness. Godfrey is subject to constant blackmail from Dunsey, who knows of Godfrey’s secret marriage, and Godfrey is finally freed of his malicious brother simply by an accident. He is delivered from Molly in a similarly fortuitous way, when Molly freezes to death while en route to Raveloe to expose their marriage to Godfrey’s family. Even Godfrey’s eventual confession to Nancy is motivated simply by his fright after the discovery of Dunsey’s remains. This confession comes years too late—by the time Godfrey is finally ready to take responsibility for Eppie, she has already accepted Silas as her father and does not want to replace him in her life.
Nancy Lammeter
Nancy is the pretty, caring, and stubborn young lady whom Godfrey pursues and then marries. Like Godfrey, Nancy comes from a family that is wealthy by Raveloe standards. However, her father, unlike Squire Cass, is a man who values moral rectitude, thrift, and hard work. Nancy has inherited these strict values and looks disapprovingly on what she sees as Godfrey’s weakness of character. She is, however, exhilarated by Godfrey’s attention, in part because of the status he embodies.
Nancy lives her life according to an inflexible code of behavior and belief. She seems to have already decided how she feels about every question that might come up in her life, not necessarily on the basis of any reason or thought, but simply because anything else would represent a sort of weakness in her own eyes. When Nancy is younger, this “code” of hers demands that she and her sister dress alike on formal occasions. When she is older, Nancy’s code forbids her to adopt a child, as in her mind such an action represents a defiance of God’s plan. Nancy is neither well educated nor particularly curious, and her code marks her as just as much a product of Raveloe’s isolation and rusticity as Dolly Winthrop. Nancy is, however, a genuinely kind and caring person, as evidenced by her forgiveness of Godfrey after his confession.
Themes, Motifs & Symbols
Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
The Individual Versus the Community
Silas Marner is in one sense the story of the title character, but it is also very much about the community of Raveloe in which he lives. Much of the novel’s dramatic force is generated by the tension between Silas and the society of Raveloe. Silas, who goes from being a member of a tight-knit community to utterly alone and then back again, is a perfect vehicle for Eliot to explore the relationship between the individual and the surrounding community.
In the early nineteenth century, a person’s village or town was all-important, providing the sole source of material and emotional support. The notion of interconnectedness and support within a village runs through the novel, in such examples as the parish’s charitable allowance for the crippled, the donation of leftovers from the Squire’s feasts to the village’s poor, and the villagers who drop by Silas’s cottage after he is robbed.
The community also provides its members with a structured sense of identity. We see this sense of identity play out in Raveloe’s public gatherings. At both the Rainbow and the Squire’s dance, interaction is ritualized through a shared understanding of each person’s social class and place in the community. As an outsider, living apart from this social structure, Silas initially lacks any sense of this identity. Not able to understand Silas in the context of their community, the villagers see him as strange, regarding him with a mixture of fear and curiosity. Silas is compared to an apparition both when he shows up at the Rainbow and the Red House. To be outside the community is to be something unnatural, even otherworldly.
Though it takes fifteen years, the influence of the community of Raveloe does eventually seep into Silas’s life. It does so via Godfrey’s problems, which find their way into Silas’s cottage first in the form of Dunsey, then again in Eppie. Eliot suggests that the interconnectedness of community is not something one necessarily enters into voluntarily, nor something one can even avoid. In terms of social standing, Silas and Godfrey are quite far from each other: whereas Silas is a distrusted outsider, Godfrey is the village’s golden boy, the heir of its most prominent family. By braiding together the fates of these two characters and showing how the rest of the village becomes implicated as well, Eliot portrays the bonds of community at their most inescapable and pervasive.
Character as Destiny
The plot of Silas Marner seems mechanistic at times, as Eliot takes care to give each character his or her just deserts. Dunsey dies, the Squire’s lands are divided Godfrey wins Nancy but ends up childless, and Silas lives happily ever after with Eppie as the most admired man in Raveloe. The tidiness of the novel’s resolution may or may not be entirely believable, but it is a central part of Eliot’s goal to present the universe as morally ordered. Fate, in the sense of a higher power rewarding and punishing each character’s actions, is a central theme of the novel. For Eliot, who we are determines not only what we do, but also what is done to us.
Nearly any character in the novel could serve as an example of this moral order, but perhaps the best illustration is Godfrey. Godfrey usually means well, but is unwilling to make sacrifices for what he knows to be right. At one point Godfrey finds himself actually hoping that Molly will die, as his constant hemming and hawing have backed him into so tight a corner that his thoughts have become truly horrible and cruel. However, throughout the novel Eliot maintains that Godfrey is not a bad person—he has simply been compromised by his inaction. Fittingly, Godfrey ends up with a similarly compromised destiny: in his marriage to Nancy he gets what he wants, only to eventually reach the dissatisfied conclusion that it is not what he wanted after all. Godfrey ends up in this ironic situation not simply because he is deserving, but because compromised thoughts and actions cannot, in the moral universe of Eliot’s novel, have anything but compromised results.
The Interdependence of Faith and Community
In one sense Silas Marner can be seen simply as the story of Silas’s loss and regaining of his faith. But one could just as easily describe the novel as the story of Silas’s rejection and subsequent embrace of his community. In the novel, these notions of faith and community are closely linked. They are both human necessities, and they both feed off of each other. The community of Lantern Yard is united by religious faith, and Raveloe is likewise introduced as a place in which people share the same set of superstitious beliefs. In the typical English village, the church functioned as the predominant social organization. Thus, when Silas loses his faith, he is isolated from any sort of larger community.
The connection between faith and community lies in Eliot’s close association of faith in a higher authority with faith in one’s fellow man. Silas’s regained faith differs from his former Lantern Yard faith in significant ways. His former faith was based first and foremost on the idea of God. When he is unjustly charged with murder, he does nothing to defend himself, trusting in a just God to clear his name. The faith Silas regains through Eppie is different in that it is not even explicitly Christian. Silas does not mention God in the same way he did in Lantern Yard, but bases his faith on the strength of his and Eppie’s commitment to each other. In his words, “since . . . I’ve come to love her . . . I’ve had light enough to trusten by; and now she says she’ll never leave me, I think I shall trusten till I die.”
Silas’s new faith is a religion that one might imagine Eliot herself espousing after her own break with formalized Christianity. It is a more personal faith than that of Lantern Yard, in which people zealously and superstitiously ascribe supernatural causes to events with straightforward causes, such as Silas’s fits. In a sense, Silas’s new belief is the opposite of his earlier, simplistic world view in that it preserves the place of mystery and ambiguity. Rather than functioning merely as a supernatural scapegoat, Silas’s faith comforts him in the face of the things that do not make sense to him. Additionally, as Dolly points out, Silas’s is a faith based on helping others and trusting others to do the same. Both Dolly’s and especially Silas’s faith consists of a belief in the goodness of other people as much as an idea of the divine. Such a faith is thus inextricably linked to the bonds of community.
Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
The Natural World
Throughout the novel, Eliot draws on the natural world for many images and metaphors. Silas in particular is often compared to plants or animals, and these images are used to trace his progression from isolated loner to well-loved father figure. As he sits alone weaving near the start of the novel, Silas is likened to a spider, solitary and slightly ominous. Just after he is robbed, Silas is compared to an ant that finds its usual path blocked—an image of limitation and confusion, but also of searching for a solution. Later, as Silas begins to reach out to the rest of the village, his soul is likened to a plant, not yet budding but with its sap beginning to circulate. Finally, as he raises Eppie, Silas is described as “unfolding” and “trembling into full consciousness,” imagery evoking both the metamorphosis of an insect and the blooming of a flower. This nature imagery also emphasizes the preindustrial setting of the novel, reminding us of a time in England when the natural world was a bigger part of daily life than it was after the Industrial Revolution.
Domesticity
For the most part, the events of Silas Marner take place in two homes, Silas’s cottage and the Cass household. The novel’s two key events are intrusions into Silas’s domestic space, first by Dunsey and then by Eppie. Eliot uses the home as a marker of the state of its owner. When Silas is isolated and without faith, his cottage is bleak and closed off from the outside world. As Silas opens himself up to the community, we see that his door is more frequently open and he has a steady stream of visitors. Finally, as Silas and Eppie become a family, the cottage is brightened and filled with new life, both figuratively and in the form of literal improvements and refurbishments to the house and yard. Likewise, the Cass household moves from slovenly and “wifeless” under the Squire to clean and inviting under Nancy.
Class
Raveloe, like most of nineteenth-century English society, is organized along strict lines of social class. This social hierarchy is encoded in many ways: the forms characters use to address one another, their habits, even where they sit at social events. While the Casses are not nobility, as landowners they sit atop Raveloe’s social pecking order, while Silas, an outsider, is at its base. Nonetheless, Silas proves himself to be the better man than his social superiors. Similarly, in Eppie’s view, the simple life of the working class is preferable to that of the landed class. Eliot is skilled in showing how class influences the thinking of her characters, from Dunsey’s idea of Silas as simply a source of easy money to Godfrey and Nancy’s idea that, as higher-class landowners, their claim to Eppie is stronger than Silas’s.
Symbols
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
Silas’s Loom
Silas’s loom embodies many of the novel’s major themes. On a literal level, the loom is Silas’s livelihood and source of income. The extent to which Silas’s obsession with money deforms his character is physically embodied by the bent frame and limited eyesight he develops due to so many hours at the loom. The loom also foreshadows the coming of industrialization—the loom is a machine in a time and place when most labor was nonmechanical, related to farming and animal husbandry. Additionally, the loom, constantly in motion but never going anywhere, embodies the unceasing but unchanging nature of Silas’s work and life. Finally, the process of weaving functions as a metaphor for the creation of a community, with its many interwoven threads, and presages the way in which Silas will bring together the village of Raveloe.
Lantern Yard
The place where Silas was raised in a tight-knit religious sect, Lantern Yard is a community of faith, held together by a narrow religious belief that Eliot suggests is based more on superstition than any sort of rational thought. Lantern Yard is the only community Silas knows, and after he is excommunicated, he is unable to find any similar community in Raveloe. Throughout the novel Lantern Yard functions as a symbol of Silas’s past, and his gradual coming to grips with what happened there signals his spiritual thaw. When Silas finally goes back to visit Lantern Yard, he finds that the entire neighborhood has disappeared, and no one remembers anything of it. A large factory stands in the spot where the chapel once stood. This disappearance demonstrates the disruptive power of industrialization, which destroys tradition and erases memory. Likewise, this break with the past signals that Silas has finally been able to move beyond his own embittering history, and that his earlier loss of faith has been replaced with newfound purpose.
The Hearth
The hearth represents the physical center of the household and symbolizes all of the comforts of home and family. When Godfrey dreams of a life with Nancy, he sees himself “with all his happiness centred on his own hearth, while Nancy would smile on him as he played with the children.” Even in a public place such as the Rainbow, one’s importance is measured by how close one sits to the fire. Initially, Silas shares his hearth with no one, at least not intentionally. However, the two intruders who forever change Silas’s life, first Dunsey and then Eppie, are drawn out of inclement weather by the inviting light of Silas’s fire. Silas’s cottage can never be entirely separate from the outside world, and the light of Silas’s fire attracts both misfortune and redemption. In the end, it is Silas’s hearth that feels the warmth of family, while Godfrey’s is childless.

BLACKBOY by Richard Wright

Plot Overview
REQUIRED TO REMAIN QUIET while his grandmother lies ill in bed, four-year-old Richard Wright becomes bored and begins playing with fire near the curtains, leading to his accidentally burning down the family home in Natchez, Mississippi. In fear, Richard hides under the burning house. His father, Nathan, retrieves him from his hiding place. Then, his mother, Ella, beats him so severely that he loses consciousness and falls ill.
Nathan abandons the family to live with another woman while Richard and his brother, Alan, are still very young. Without Nathan’s financial support, the Wrights fall into poverty and perpetual hunger. Richard closely associates his family’s hardship—and particularly their hunger—with his father and therefore grows bitter toward him.
For the next few years, Ella struggles to raise her children in Memphis, Tennessee. Her long hours of work leave her little time to supervise Richard and his brother. Not surprisingly, Richard gets into all sorts of trouble, spying on people in outhouses and becoming a regular at the local saloon—and an alcoholic—by the age of six. Ella’s worsening health prevents her from raising two children by herself and often leaves her unable to work. During these times, Richard does whatever odd jobs a child can do to bring in some money for the family. School is hardly an option for him. At one point, the family’s troubles are so severe that Ella must place her children in an orphanage for a few weeks.
Life improves when Ella moves to Elaine, Arkansas, to live with her sister, Maggie, and her sister’s husband, Hoskins. Hoskins runs a successful saloon, so there is always plenty of food to eat, a condition that Richard greatly appreciates but to which he cannot accustom himself. Soon, however, white jealousy of Hoskins’s business success reaches a peak, as local white men kill Hoskins and threaten the rest of his family. Ella and Maggie flee with the two boys to West Helena, Arkansas. There, the two sisters’ combined wages make life easier than it had been in Memphis. After only a short time, however, Maggie flees to Detroit with her lover, Professor Matthews, leaving Ella the sole support of the family. Hard economic times return.
Times become even harder when a paralytic stroke severely incapacitates Ella. Richard’s grandmother brings Ella, Richard, and Alan to her home in Jackson, Mississippi. Ella’s numerous siblings convene in Jackson to decide how to care for their ailing sister and her two boys. The aunts and uncles decide that Alan, Richard’s brother, will live with Maggie in Detroit. Ella will remain at home in Jackson. Richard, given the freedom to choose which aunt or uncle to live with, decides to take up residence with Uncle Clark, as Clark lives in Greenwood, Mississippi, not far from Jackson. Soon after he arrives at Clark’s house, Richard learns from a neighbor that a young boy had died years ago in the same bedroom Richard now occupies. Too terrified to sleep, Richard successfully pleads to be returned to his grandmother’s home.
Back at Granny’s, Richard once again faces the familiar problem of hunger. He also faces a new problem: Granny’s incredibly strict religious regimen. Granny, a Seventh-Day Adventist, sees her strong-willed, dreamy, and bookish grandson as terribly sinful, and she struggles mightily to reform him. Another of Richard’s aunts, Addie, soon joins the struggle against Richard’s defiance. Richard’s obsession with reading and his lack of interest in religion make his home life an endless conflict. Granny forces him to attend the religious school where Aunt Addie teaches.

One day in class, Aunt Addie beats Richard for eating walnuts, though it was actually the student sitting in front of Richard who had been eating the nuts, not Richard. When Addie tries to beat Richard again after school that day, he fends her off with a knife. Similar scenes recur with frustrating frequency over the following months and years. One time, Richard dodges one of Granny’s backhand slaps, causing her to lose her balance and injure herself in a fall off the porch. Addie tries to beat Richard for this incident, but he again fends her off with a knife. Later, another of Richard’s uncles, Tom, comes to live with the family. One morning, Tom asks Richard what time it is and thinks Richard responds in a sassy manner. He tries to beat Richard for his supposed insolence, but the boy fends him off with razor blades.
Meanwhile, Richard picks his way through school. He delights in his studies—particularly reading and writing—despite a home climate hostile to such pursuits. To the bafflement and scorn of everyone, he writes and publishes in a local black newspaper a story titled “The Voodoo of Hell’s Half-Acre.” He graduates from the ninth grade as valedictorian, giving his own speech despite the -insistence of his principal, friends, and family that he give a school-sanctioned speech to appease the white audience.
As Richard enters the adult working world in Jackson, he suffers many frightening, often violent encounters with racism. In the most demoralizing of these encounters, two white Southerners, Pease and Reynolds, run Richard off his job at an optical shop, claiming that such skilled work is not meant for blacks. Richard is upset because the white Northerner who runs the company, Mr. Crane, has hired Richard specifically for the purpose of teaching a black man the optical trade, but then does little to actually help defend Richard against his racist employees.
As his despair grows, Richard resolves to leave for the North as soon as possible. He becomes willing to steal in order to raise the cash necessary for the trip. After swindling his boss at a movie -theater, selling stolen fruit preserves, and pawning a stolen gun, Richard moves to Memphis, where the atmosphere is safer and where he can make his final preparations to move to Chicago.
In Memphis, Richard has the seeming good fortune of finding a kind, generous landlady, Mrs. Moss, who determines that he must marry her daughter, Bess. Richard does not take to Bess, so his living situation is awkward until Mrs. Moss comes to terms with the fact that her daughter will never be Richard’s wife. Richard takes a job at another optical shop, where Olin, a seemingly benevolent white coworker, plays mind games with Richard and Harrison, another young black worker, in an attempt to get them to kill each other. These strategies culminate in a grotesque boxing match between Richard and Harrison.
Another white coworker in the optical shop, Falk, is genuinely benevolent and lets Richard use his library card to check out books that otherwise would be unavailable to him. Richard begins reading obsessively and grows more determined to write. His mother, brother, and Maggie soon join him in Memphis. They all decide that Richard and Maggie will go to Chicago immediately and that the other two will follow in a few months.
In Chicago, Richard continues to struggle with racism, segregation, poverty, and with his own need to cut corners and lie to protect himself and get ahead. He suppresses his own morals, forcing himself to work at a corrupt insurance agency that takes advantage of poor blacks. He also works in a café and for a couple of well-meaning Jewish storeowners, the Hoffmans, in a whites-only neighborhood. Irresponsibly, Richard soon quits to try to get a job in the post office.
As the Great Depression forces him and millions of others out of work, Richard begins to find Communism appealing, especially its emphasis on protecting the oppressed. He becomes a Communist Party member because he thinks that he can help the Party cause with his writing, finding the language that can promote the Party’s cause to common people.
Meanwhile, Richard works various jobs through federal relief programs. When he begins writing for leftist publications, he takes positions with federal theater companies and with the Federal Writers’ Project. To his mounting dismay, he finds that, like any other group, the Communist Party is beset with human fears and foibles that constantly frustrate its own ends. Richard’s desire to write biographical sketches of Communists and his tendency to criticize Party pronouncements earn him distrust, along with the titles “intellectual” and “Trotskyite.” After a great deal of political strife and slander that culminates in his being physically assaulted during a May Day parade, Richard leaves the Party. Unfazed by the failure of his high hopes, he remains determined to make writing his link to the world.



Character List
Richard Wright - Author, narrator, and protagonist of Black Boy. Richard is an unpredictable bundle of contradictions: he is timid yet assured, tough yet compassionate, enormously intelligent yet ultimately modest. Passive-aggressive as a young boy, Richard either says very little or becomes melodramatic and says too much. Growing up in an abusive family environment in the racially segregated and violent American South, Richard finds his salvation in reading, writing, and thinking. He grows up feeling insecure about his inability to meet anyone’s expectations, particularly his family’s wish that he accept religion. Even though he remains isolated from his environment and peers, at the autobiography’s end Richard has come to accept himself. Black Boy testifies to his gifted observational powers and his ability to reflect upon the psychological struggles facing black Americans. Richard’s most essential characteristic is his tremendous belief in his own worth and capabilities. This belief frequently renders him willful, stubborn, and disrespectful of authority, putting him at odds with his family and with those who expect him to accept his degraded position in society. Because almost everyone in Richard’s life thinks this way, he finds himself constantly punished for his nonconformity with varying degrees of physical violence and emotional isolation. Though Richard shows signs of insecurity, inferiority, and shame around some whites, his self-assurance seems largely -invulnerable, and his punishing childhood only serves to convince him of his own right to succeed in the world. Moreover, Richard’s difficult and isolating experiences as a child fuel his intensely powerful imagination, his love of reading and writing, and his will to make his life feel meaningful through writing about his environment.
Wright paints himself in several different shades throughout the course of Black Boy. As a young boy, Richard is simply unable to believe the publicly accepted notions that his blackness, lack of religion, and intellectual curiosity make him inherently flawed. Rather, we find in Richard a character determined to live according to his own principles and willing to live with the consequences. This strong-willed nature, however, contrasts with Richard’s powerless position in society—the low social status that comes with being black and poor. Starting off removed from society and his family, Richard must learn to educate himself. Much of this education stems from his experiences—in the homes of sharecroppers, as a black in the Jim Crow South, as a resident of the cramped apartments of Depression-era Chicago. There are clearly negative aspects to the character Richard develops, as we see him lie, steal, and turn violent numerous times in the book. In a sense, he is a victim of his poor upbringing—in both the black and white communities in the South; as a victim, he becomes contaminated by the oppressive forces working against him.
Despite his flaws, Richard remains intensely concerned with humanity, both in a universal sense and in the context of his concern for the individual people he meets on his journey. In this way, Richard overcomes the negative, debilitating, isolating aspects of his environment and channels them into a love for other people. He is an outsider who feels little connection to other people, yet who cares for these people nonetheless. Richard’s traits do not exist in perfect harmony: at certain points, one trait will seem to dominate, only to give way to other traits at other times. However, because the character of Richard Wright so convincingly contains all these traits, albeit in imbalance, he has a self-contradictory appeal that transcends the simple biographical facts of his life.


Ella Wright - Richard’s mother. Tough on Richard and certainly unafraid to administer a beating when she believes it is appropriate, Ella nevertheless loves her son and is the person most resembling an advocate in his life. Despite falling into ill health and becoming partially paralyzed, she maintains an optimistic outlook on life. Ella Wright
Richard’s contentious relationship with his mother may be traced back to his early childhood, when Ella administers a beating that nearly kills him. This strife continues throughout Richard’s early years, as he commits endless punishable offenses in a setting where his mother is often the only authority figure around to deliver punishment. Despite her sometimes brutal discipline, Ella is devoted to her children and is fiercely determined to raise them successfully after her husband abandons the family.
Ella shows a special tolerance and affection for Richard that we do not see in any of the other major characters. When Richard publishes “The Voodoo of Hell’s Half-Acre,” for example, the rest of the family attacks him, but Ella shows compassion through her concern that Richard’s writing might make it hard for him to get a job. Similarly, Ella walks on her weak legs to give Richard a hug when she learns that he will get a job in defiance of Granny’s and Addie’s wishes, suggesting that she takes genuine delight in her son’s success.
Much of the meaning of Ella’s character lies in her illness, as she symbolizes those elements of life that are at once unpredictable, overwhelming, and unfair. In Chapter 3, Ella’s suffering effectively becomes a symbol of everything wrong with the world for Richard. In a just universe, he concludes, the unfriendly and harmful people would be sick, and Ella would enjoy vigorous health, unimpeded in going about the business of raising her sons and earning a living. However, the reality is, of course, that Ella is constantly sick and suffering. In light of the seemingly cruel fate his mother endures, Richard finds it difficult to deny that the universe is unjust. The injustice he sees afflicting his mother mirrors the injustices he himself faces: poverty, hunger, a severely abridged education, and the mere fact of being black in the Jim Crow South. Taken together, these accidents of life constitute a major obstacle that Richard must overcome in order to live the life that he wants.

Granny - Richard’s maternal grandmother. Austere and unforgiving, Granny is a very strict Seventh-Day Adventist and runs her household accordingly. She thinks Richard is sinful, has little tolerance for his antics, and is inclined to demonstrate her disapproval with a quick backhanded slap across his mouth. Like her husband, Richard Wilson, Granny is the child of slaves. Due to her partially white ancestry, she looks somewhat white.
Alan - Richard’s younger brother. Born Leon Alan Wright, he goes by the name Alan. Alan does not contribute much to the story of Black Boy: a few times, he limply objects to something naughty that Richard is planning to do, like burn straws in a fireplace or hang a kitten. In this sense, he serves as one of Richard’s critics.
Aunt Addie - One of Ella’s sisters. Addie lives at home with Granny in Jackson, Mississippi. She shares her mother’s spite for Richard and tries not to miss any opportunity to beat or humiliate him. She shares Granny’s intense religious nature and teaches at a religious school that Richard briefly attends.
Grandpa - Richard’s maternal grandfather and a former soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War. Sour and remote, Grandpa is forever bitter that a clerical error has deprived him of his war pension. He keeps his distance from the family but is occasionally trotted out to discipline Richard. Grandpa keeps a loaded gun by his bed, as he believes that Civil War hostilities could resurface at any moment.
Nathan Wright - Richard’s father. Although Nathan is physically intimidating and frequently beats Richard, he abandons the family and proves to be simple, weak, and pathetic.
Aunt Maggie - Ella’s sister. Maggie sporadically lives with Ella, Richard, and his brother, and is Richard’s favorite aunt.
Uncle Hoskins - Maggie’s first husband. Uncle Hoskins is a friendly man, but loses Richard’s trust when he pretends to drive his buggy into the river to frighten Richard. Local whites murder Hoskins when they grow jealous of his profitable saloon.
“Professor” Matthews - Maggie’s second husband. The “Professor” is an outlaw and, when he begins courting Maggie, he visits only at night. After he apparently kills a white woman, he and Maggie flee to Detroit. Several years after that, he deserts Maggie.
Uncle Clark - One of Ella’s brothers. Uncle Clark briefly houses Richard after his mother becomes ill. Clark is a just, upright man who seems genuinely concerned for Richard’s welfare, although perhaps a little strict.
Uncle Tom - Another of Ella’s brothers. Like Aunt Addie, Uncle Tom finds Richard particularly galling and seems to leap at any opportunity to beat or ridicule him.
Ella, the schoolteacher - A young schoolteacher who briefly rents a room in Granny’s house. Bookish and dreamy, she introduces Richard to the imaginative pleasures of fiction by telling him the story of Bluebeard and His Seven Wives. Granny, however, views Ella’s stories as sinful and effectively forces Ella to move out.
Griggs - One of Richard’s boyhood friends. Griggs, like Richard, is intelligent, but he has a sense of when blacks need to abide by the rules—a sense Richard lacks. Griggs displays the compassionate concern of a true friend when he advises Richard on how to survive in the racist white world.
Pease and Reynolds - Two white Southerners who run Richard off his job at the optical shop in Jackson, Mississippi. Though technically two characters, Pease and Reynolds are unified in their bestial treatment of Richard and essentially operate as one.
Mr. Crane - A white Northerner who runs the optical shop where Richard works. Mr. Crane is a fair and unprejudiced man, who is sad to see Richard go when Pease and Reynolds run him off the job.
Olin - A white Southerner at Richard’s job at the optical shop in Memphis, Tennessee. Racist and destructive, Olin pretends to be Richard’s friend but then tells lies in an attempt to get Richard and Harrison to kill each other.
Harrison - A young black man who works at a rival optical shop in Memphis. The fight between Richard and Harrison demonstrates that racism’s power to instill fear in blacks is so great that it can lead two black men who truly like each other to fight each other viciously.
The Hoffmans - White Jewish shopkeepers who employ Richard in Chicago. The Hoffmans treat Richard with genuine respect and care, but Richard assumes that because they are white they will act just like most Southern whites. The Hoffmans help Richard begin his journey toward accepting some well-meaning white people, even though he treats them poorly at the time.
Shorty - The black elevator man in the building in Memphis where Richard works. Shorty is witty, intelligent, and has a sense of pride in his race. However, much to Richard’s horror, Shorty engages in supremely demeaning behavior to earn money.
Falk - A white Irish Catholic worker at the optical shop in Memphis. In stark counterpoint to Olin, Falk does not explicitly profess to be Richard’s friend, but he proves to be a genuine friend by letting Richard borrow his library card to obtain books from the whites-only library. When Falk learns that Richard is moving to Chicago, the quick smile he flashes suggests that he is pleased Richard is moving on to a better life.
Comrade Young - An escapee from a mental institution who suddenly appears at a meeting of the John Reed Club, a revolutionary artists’ organization Richard joins in Chicago. Comrade Young illustrates the vulnerability of the Communist Party to fraudulent acts by individuals.
Ross - A black Communist whom Richard wishes to profile for his series of biographical sketches. Ross is somewhat uneasy around Richard, fearing Richard’s deviations from Party doctrine.
Ed Green - A high-ranking black Communist suspicious of Richard’s interviews with Ross. Green’s rough, peremptory, and authoritative manner alienates Richard.

The Insidious Effects of Racism
Racism as a problem among individuals is a familiar topic in literature. Black Boy, however, explores racism not only as an odious belief held by odious people but also as an insidious problem knit into the very fabric of society as a whole. Wright portrays characters such as Olin and Pease as evil people, but also—and more chillingly—as bit players in a vast drama of hatred, fear, and oppression. For Richard, the true problem of racism is not simply that it exists, but that its roots in American culture are so deep it is doubtful whether these roots can be destroyed without destroying the culture itself. More than simply an autobiography, Black Boy represents the culmination of Wright’s passionate desire to observe and reflect upon the racist world around him. Throughout the work, we see Richard observe the deleterious effects of racism not only as it affects relations between whites and blacks, but also relations among blacks themselves. Wright entitles his work Black Boy primarily for the emphasis on the word “black”: this is a story of childhood, but at every moment we are acutely aware of the color of Wright’s skin. In America, he is not merely growing up; he is growing up black. Indeed, it is virtually impossible for Richard to grow up without the label of “black boy” constantly being applied to him.
Whites in the novel generally treat Richard poorly due to the color of his skin. Even more important, racism is so insidious that it prevents Richard from interacting normally even with the whites who do treat him with a semblance of respect (such as the Hoffmans or Mr. Crane) or with fellow blacks (such as Harrison). Perhaps the most important factor in Wright’s specifically “black” upbringing, however, is the fact that he grows up among black people who are unable or unwilling to accept his individual personality and his gifts. Wright’s critique of racism in America includes a critique of the black community itself—specifically the black folk community that is unable or unwilling to educate him properly. The fact that he has been kept apart from such education becomes clear to Richard when he recognizes his love of literature at a late age.
The Individual Versus Society
Richard is fiercely individual and constantly expresses a desire to join society on his own terms rather than be forced into one of the categories that society wishes him to fill. In this regard, Richard struggles against a dominant white culture—both in the South and in the North—and even against his own black culture. Neither white nor black culture knows how to handle a brilliant, strong-willed, self-respecting black man. Richard perceives that his options are either to conform or to wilt. Needless to say, neither option -satisfies him, so he forges his own middle path.
Richard defies these two unsatisfactory options in different ways throughout the novel. He defies them in Granny’s home, where he lives without embracing its barren, mandatory spirituality. He defies these options at school, where the principal asserts that Richard must read an official speech or not graduate. He defies them in Chicago, where the Communist Party asserts that he will either act as they tell him to act or be expelled. Richard negates this final choice by leaving the Party of his own accord. As we see, Richard always rejects the call to conform. This rejection creates strife and difficulty, however—not because Richard thinks cynically about people and refuses to have anything more to do with them, but precisely because he does not take this approach. Though Richard wishes to remain an individual, he feels connected to the rest of humanity on a spiritual level. Therefore, as an artist, he must struggle to show compassion for communities that say they do not want him. It is a difficult task, but one that he learns to accept at the end of the novel.
The Redemptive Power of Art
When Ella the schoolteacher furtively whispers to Richard the plot of Bluebeard and His Seven Wives, Richard becomes transfixed; he says that the story evokes his first “total emotional response.” This trend continues throughout the novel, as a number of experiences in Richard’s life prove eye-opening in the best sense, enabling him to become excited about his life and to feel that his life has texture, meaning, and purpose. Such eye-opening experiences include Richard’s hearing of the Bluebeard story, his reading of science-fiction and horror magazines, his penning of the story of the Indian maiden, his discovery of H. L. Mencken, his writing of “The Voodoo of Hell’s Half-Acre,” and his decision that he can use his writing to advance the cause of the Communist Party. These experiences all involve reading or some other use of his imaginative faculties, and all bolster his idea that life becomes meaningful through -creative attempts to make sense of it. This is a core idea in the history of philosophy, first articulated by Schopenhauer, refined by Nietzsche, and then taken up by the existentialists, with whom Wright grew fascinated. Indeed, the writing of Black Boy itself, when seen as Wright’s attempt to order the experiences of his life, is closely tied to this idea of the redemptive power of creativity.
Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Hunger
By frequently reminding us of the problem of his physical hunger, Wright emphasizes his hunger for other things as well—for literature, artistic expression, and engagement in social and political issues. Though there are indeed many instances in the novel when Richard does physically hunger for food, he eventually concludes that food is not as important as the other problems facing the world. He asserts that the world needs unity more than it needs to cure physical ills. Both Richard and the world have a more important need: understanding of and connection with one another. Physical hunger is merely a symbol of the larger emptiness Richard’s brutal, inhumane life causes him to feel. Throughout the autobiography he exhibits a strong desire to carve out a richer, more satisfying existence by connecting with the world around him. Just as literal hunger works to undo itself by making a person want to eat, so the motif of hunger works in Black Boy. Richard’s greater emotional and intellectual hunger serves as a sort of literary magnet that pulls us through the story, making us just as anxious to see Richard succeed as he is.
Reading
Throughout the text, Richard seeks out reading with a passion that resembles a physical appetite. Indeed, these two sensations—the desire to read and the desire to eat—are closely allied. At times, this alliance breaks down and the two sensations flow together. In Chapter 5, for example, Richard catches the smell of meat frying in a neighbor’s kitchen while he is reading. From his bookish daydreams, Richard drifts into a fantasy of having plenty of meat to eat. There is also the image, in Chapter 15, of Richard simultaneously devouring food and Proust’s novel A Remembrance of Things Past, hoping to flesh out his body and his writing. It is as if Proust is part of Richard’s weight-gaining plan. This blurring of literary and -physical appetite is most explicit when Richard remarks, “I lived on what I did not eat,” suggesting that, at some level, reading takes the place of food. As such, reading works as a counterpoint to the motif of hunger in the novel. While hunger represents the spiritual and emotional emptiness within Richard, reading represents Richard’s bread and water, giving him the energy he needs to persevere.

Violence
Richard is cursed, beaten, or slapped every time he stands up to Granny, Addie, or other elders, regardless of how justified he may be in doing so. When whites believe Richard is behaving unacceptably in their presence, they berate, slap, or manipulate him; in one instance, they smash a whiskey bottle in his face. When Richard acts out of line with the Communist Party, they denounce him and attempt to sabotage his career. Clearly, then, violence—which here means all the abuse, physical or mental, that Richard suffers—is a constant presence in Black Boy. Violence looms as an almost inevitable consequence when Richard asserts himself, both in the family and in society.
However, violence takes over Richard’s mind as well. Richard learns that he must demonstrate his violent power in order to gain respect and acceptance at school. Additionally, he reacts to his family’s violent, overbearing treatment with violence of his own, wielding a knife against Addie, burning down the house, and so on. More broadly, violence infects the black community in general, whether from within or from the white community’s imposed violence.
Perhaps the most important violent sequence in the novel occurs when Olin makes Richard and Harrison suspect each other of murderous intentions. Even though they acknowledge to each other that they mean each other no harm, they cannot escape the reality that the racist culture demands they fight viciously. One root of this violence between Richard and Harrison is Olin’s feigned friendship toward each of the men. Thus, we come to see that violence in a racist world often goes beyond physical attacks.

Symbols
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
Ella’s Infirmity
In Renaissance and Gothic literature, a deformity or some other physical impairment often serves as an outward sign of an unhealthy or evil soul. This kind of symbolism implies that the universe is a sensible place, as an evil soul is rewarded with a mangled body. In Black Boy, however, the opposite is true. Richard’s mother, Ella, is one of the few people in the novel—and the only person in the entire family—who seems genuinely concerned for Richard’s welfare. If anyone in the novel has a truly good, saintlike soul, it is Ella. However, she is beset with incurable ailments and paralytic legs. Other family members, meanwhile, have abundant strength, which they frequently use to beat Richard for trivial offenses. In this context, Ella’s infirmity symbolizes for Richard the unfair and random nature of the universe.
The Optical Shop in Memphis
In the microcosm of the optical shop in Memphis, Olin represents the Southern white racists willing to terrorize black people for the sake of amusement, while Falk represents those Southern whites who genuinely sympathize with black people and who are willing to help them. Shorty represents the black workers who pander to whites but inwardly retain their racial and personal pride. The building’s unnamed porter, with his daily wail about having to work in the same place day in and day out, represents the more embittered black workers of the South. Several Ku Klux Klan members and Jews also populate the office. As such, the Memphis optical shop is a microcosm of racial stratification in the South. Wright concentrates the racial dynamics of the region in one physical space in order to show that people who think they are different from or better than their peers are actually integrally connected to them.

A MAN FOR ALL SEASON- by robert bolt

Plot Overview
The Common Man figures prominently both in the plot of the play and also as a narrator and commentator. Although treated in more detail in other sections, in the following plot summary, his presence is indicated only when he interacts directly with the other characters in the play.
Sir Thomas More, a scholar and statesman, objects to King Henry VIII’s plan to divorce and remarry in order to father a male heir. But More, ever the diplomat, keeps quiet about his feelings in the hopes that Henry will not bother him about the matter. At a meeting with Cardinal Wolsey, Lord Chancellor of England, More reviews the letter to Rome that requests the pope’s approval of Henry’s divorce. More points out that the pope provided a dispensation, or exemption, in order for Henry to get married in the first place, since Catherine, the woman Henry married, was the widow of Henry’s brother. More doubts that the pope will agree to overturn his first dispensation. Wolsey accuses More of being too moralistic and recommends that he be more practical.
After conversing with Wolsey, More runs into Thomas Cromwell, the king’s confidante. Cromwell, recently promoted to the position of cardinal’s secretary, insincerely tells More he is one of More’s greatest admirers. More also meets Signor Chapuys, the Spanish ambassador to England. Chapuys takes More’s noncommittal response to questions about his meeting with Wolsey to mean that More agrees that the divorce should not go through. Chapuys stresses Christian morals and Catholic dogma and seems most concerned that Henry does not insult Henry’s wife, Catherine, who is also the king of Spain’s aunt. Chapuys thinks he has found an ally in More.
Back at More’s home, More’s daughter, Margaret, has received a visit from Roper, her
Lutheran boyfriend, despite the late hour. Roper asks More for Margaret’s hand, but More refuses to allow a Lutheran, in his eyes a heretic, into his family.
Meanwhile, Wolsey dies, leaving the position of Lord Chancellor vacant. The king was displeased with Wolsey’s failure to secure a papal dispensation to annul his marriage to Catherine, and Wolsey died in disgrace. More is appointed as Wolsey’s replacement.
Cromwell meets with Richard Rich, a low-level functionary whom More helped establish and to whom More gave a silver cup he was given as a bribe. (More did not realize that the cup was a bribe when he received it.) Cromwell tempts Rich with an opportunity for advancement, and the spineless Rich seems all too eager to accept the job in exchange for information he has about More. Rich and Chapuys, who has just entered, ask Cromwell what his current position is, and Cromwell announces simply that he does whatever the king wants done. He mentions that the king has planned a boat ride down the Thames to visit More. Meanwhile, More’s manservant, Matthew (played by the Common Man), has entered the room, and Cromwell, Rich, and Chapuys are eager to bribe him for information. Matthew tells them only the most well known facts about his master, but the trio pays him off anyway.
Back at More’s home in London’s Chelsea district, the king is set to arrive, but More is nowhere to be found. After fretting over his absence, the family eventually finds him busy at vespers (evening prayers). When the king arrives, all are on their best behavior, and More comes off as the most flattering of all. However, More does tell the king that More cannot agree to the divorce, reminding him that the king promised not to bother More about it. The king storms off, telling More he will leave him alone provided More does not speak out against the divorce. Alice, More’s wife, is angry at his behavior and thinks her husband should do as Henry wants. Rich arrives to tell More that Cromwell and Chapuys are collecting information about him. He asks for employment, but More turns him away.

At a local pub called the Loyal Subject, Cromwell meets Rich to conspire against More. Rich is reluctant and guilt-ridden, but he ultimately agrees to tell Cromwell about the bribe that More received and passed on to him. In exchange, Cromwell offers Rich a job.
Parliament passes the Act of Supremacy, which establishes the Church in England and appoints King Henry as its head. More decides that if the English bishops decide to go along with the act, he will resign as Lord Chancellor. Both Chapuys and Roper call it a remarkable “gesture,” but More, dead set against the act, thinks of it as a practical necessity. He refuses to explain himself to anyone but the king. Even his wife and daughter cannot know his reasons, because he does not want to put them in the position of having to testify against him later.
Cromwell meets with the Duke of Norfolk and tells him of his plan to bring More up on bribery charges. Norfolk proves that More gave the cup to Rich as soon as More realized it was a bribe, and Cromwell is forced to come up with some other way to entrap More. He tells Norfolk, however, that the king expects him to participate in the persecution of More.
A now impoverished More refuses to receive a letter of appreciation from the king of Spain, and he turns down the bishops’ sincere offer of charity. Cromwell calls More to his office and attempts to malign More by accusing him of sympathizing with the Holy Maid of Kent, who was executed for treason. Cromwell also accuses him of having written a book attributed to King Henry. More deconstructs both these charges, but when Cromwell reads a letter from King Henry calling More a villain, More is genuinely shaken. Meeting Norfolk outside, More insists that if he wishes to remain in the king’s favor, Norfolk should cease to be his friend, since by this point it is dangerous to know a man like More. Parliament passes another act, this time requiring subjects to swear an oath to King Henry’s supremacy in England over the Church and to the validity of his divorce and remarriage. The next time we see More, he is in jail for having refused to take the oath.
Cromwell, Norfolk, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, interrogate More in prison, but they cannot trick him into signing the oath or divulging his opinions on the king’s behavior. As long as More refuses to talk or sign the oath, Cromwell can keep him locked up but cannot have him executed. He removes More’s books but lets his family visit, hoping that they will be able to reason with him. Though More’s daughter, Margaret, tries to convince her father he has done all he can, More refuses to relent. Alice finally sympathizes fully with More’s predicament, and, displaying their full love toward each other, they reconcile just before the jailer (the Common Man) insists that the visit is over.
Cromwell gives Rich the office of attorney general for Wales in exchange for Rich’s false testimony at More’s trial. Though More never opened his mouth, Rich claims he heard More deny the king’s authority over the Church. More is sentenced to death but not before he can express his disapproval of the Supremacy Act and his disappointment with a government that would kill a man for keeping quiet. More goes to his death with dignity and composure, and the play ends with his beheading.

Character List
Sir Thomas More - The protagonist of the play. More’s historical refusal to swear to Parliament’s Act of Supremacy is the play’s main subject, but Bolt intentionally does not depict More as the saint or martyr of legend. Bolt does not see More as a person who takes a stand and sacrifices himself for a cause. Rather, Bolt’s More is a man who gives up his life because he cannot sacrifice his own commitment to his conscience, which dictates that he not turn his back on what he believes is right or on God. To More, a man’s conscience is his self, so he refuses to betray his own conscience even on pain of death. Significantly, More makes no move to speak out against King Henry’s divorce or to make any public gesture that indicates his opinion on the matter. Only after Cromwell condemns him does Thomas reveal his true opinions.
Sir Thomas More (In-Depth Analysis)
The Common Man - The Common Man sporadically narrates the play, and he plays the roles of most of the lower-class characters: More’s steward Matthew, the boatman, the publican (innkeeper), the jailer, the jury foreman, and the headsman (executioner). Bolt explains in his preface that he intends the Common Man to personify attitudes and actions that are common to everyone, but ultimately the Common Man shows that by common, Bolt implies base. In most instances, the Common Man plays characters who just do their jobs without thinking about the consequences of their actions or anyone’s interest other than their own. Therefore, most of these characters end up betraying their own personal moral values. Over the course of the play, the characters the Common Man plays become more and more guilt-ridden. In the end, the Common Man silences his guilty conscience by finding solace in the fact that he is alive. He ends the play by implying that most people do the same thing.
The Common Man (In-Depth Analysis)
Richard Rich - A low-level functionary whom More helped establish. Rich seeks to gain employment, but More denies him a high-ranking position and suggests that Rich become a teacher. Rich, however, goes to work for Norfolk instead and eventually obtains from Cromwell a post as the attorney general for Wales in exchange for perjuring himself at More’s trial. Like the Common Man, Rich serves as a foil, or character contrast, for Sir Thomas. In particular, Rich’s meteoric rise to wealth and power is simultaneous with More’s fall from favor. Unlike More, Rich conquers and destroys his conscience rather than obeying it. The repetition of the word rich in his name signals Rich’s Machiavellian willingness to sacrifice his moral standards for wealth and status.
Richard Rich (In-Depth Analysis)
Duke of Norfolk - More’s close friend. Norfolk is ultimately asked by Cromwell, and even encouraged by More himself, to betray his friendship with More. A large and rather simpleminded man, he is often too stupid to know what’s going on, and he is innocent relative to Cromwell.
Alice More - More’s wife. A conflicted character, Alice spends most of the play questioning why her husband refuses to give in to the king’s wishes. Her attitude shifts from anger to confusion. Eventually, More shows her that he cannot go to his death until he knows that she understands his decision. When she visits her husband in prison, Alice finally shows him unconditional love, saying that the fact that “God knows why” More must die is good enough for her.
Thomas Cromwell - A crafty lawyer who is the primary agent plotting against More. Whereas Rich and the Common Man are driven to their immoral actions (conspiracy, execution, and so on) somewhat reluctantly at times, Cromwell is motivated more by an evil nature. He facilitates More’s downfall with only a minimum of guilt.
Cardinal Wolsey - The Lord Chancellor of England, who dies suddenly following his inability to obtain a dispensation from the pope that would annul King Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon and permit him to marry Anne Boleyn. Though Bolt’s character descriptions claim Wolsey is ambitious and intelligent, Wolsey’s character is not well developed, and his primary function relates to the plot. Wolsey’s sudden death hangs over the rest of the play as a warning to anyone who would court the king’s disapproval.
Chapuys - The Spanish ambassador to England. Chapuys is loyal to his country and intent on assuring that the divorce between King Henry and Catherine, which would dishonor Catherine, does not go through. When questioning More, Chapuys displays his aptitude for hiding his political agenda under the guise of religious fervor.
William Roper - An overzealous young man who is a staunch Lutheran at the beginning of the play and later converts to Catholicism. Roper is also Margaret’s boyfriend and, after he converts to Catholicism, her husband. Roper’s high-minded ideals contrast with More’s level-headed morality, making Roper yet another foil for More. Each of Roper’s scenes shows him taking a public stance on a new issue, in opposition to More, who prefers to keep his opinions to himself. In a conversation with Roper, More argues that high-minded ideals, which he dubs “seagoing principles” are inconsistent at best, and he advocates human law as a better guide to morality.
Margaret Roper - More’s well-educated and inquisitive daughter. Also called Meg, Margaret is in love with and later marries William Roper. She shows that she understands her father perhaps better than anyone else in the play (except for More himself, of course). However, like her mother, Margaret questions her father’s actions.
King Henry VIII - The king of England, who only briefly appears onstage but is a constant presence in the speech and the thoughts of the other characters. It is very important to Henry that others think of him as a moral person, and he therefore cares greatly about what More, a man of great moral repute, thinks of him. Henry, who believes that he can force everyone, including the pope, into validating his desires, wants to put his conscience at ease by forcing More to sanction the king’s divorce from Catherine.
Analysis of Major Characters
Sir Thomas More
Even though Bolt announces in his preface that he tried to avoid the perils of having his characters represent something, symbolism turns out to be a major force driving the action of the play, as most characters are motivated by More’s reputation as a moral man, not by More’s individual characteristics. Perhaps, in fact, More stands for the perils of being
perceived as a saint or a moral man. Throughout the play, characters—including Chapuys, Roper, Cromwell, and the king—view More as a representative of a concept rather than as a person. His consent is important to the king and to Norfolk because it would make them feel and appear moral. Chapuys too sees More as an upstanding moral and religious man, and Chapuys takes comfort in the fact that the virtues More represents contradict the king’s actions.

In his preface to the play, Bolt calls More “a hero of selfhood.” More refuses to sacrifice his self, which he defines by his moral conscience, even as he sacrifices his life.
Though More was much later sainted for his refusal to swear an oath to King Henry’s supremacy to the pope, Bolt does not depict More as someone who ascribes to religious dogma of any sort. In fact, Bolt disparages such people, who are represented by Will Roper. As a hero, More is more existential than religious, because he looks inwardly for his motivations and does not rely on any external ideals to guide his speech and actions. In fact, More’s morals are continually shifting, and he surprises Chapuys and other characters with his sharp wit and unexpected pragmatism. If an ideal agrees with his conscience, More will do his best to live up to it; if not, he will discard it.
More’s reverence for being practical, however, is rooted in his love for the law. According to Bolt, the letter of the law held an important place in More’s conscience, albeit a notch below that held by the Church of Christ and the kingdom of heaven. Bolt explains that he uses More’s reverence for heaven as a metaphor for humanity’s reverence for the “terrifying cosmos,” which is either void of any morality or occupied by warring forces of good (God) and evil (the devil). Unable to know the nature of the cosmos, Bolt contends, More put his faith in society’s system of judgment—the law. The great beyond, symbolized in the play by the sea and water, remains unknown to humankind. Earthly society and laws, symbolized by dry land, offer the only shelter from the uncertainties of the universe.
The Common Man
In his preface, Bolt explains that he intended “common” to be understood to mean “universal,” but many people ascribe the pejorative connotations of vulgar and low class to the word as well. Bolt laments the fact that upper class and even lower-status people, who resented such an image, failed or refused to view the Common Man as a representative of themselves. However, regardless of how Bolt viewed his character, the Common Man embodies both universality and baseness. In fact, the Common Man shows that the “common” human being is base and immoral.
Although the Common Man acts in many different roles in order to establish his universal nature, he actually develops into a coherent character as the play progresses. Initially, he portrays Matthew and the boatman, who are forgotten figures of the lower class who judge the noble characters in the play and make them look like fools. Yet as the play progresses, even the characters played by the Common Man begin to lose their moral footing. Matthew, for example, tries to suppress his guilty conscience for having sold out More after More expresses his affection for Matthew.

Eventually, the Common Man’s characters become more aware of the excuses they make for their immoral acts. When the jailer deliberates about whether to set More free, he speaks directly to the audience about the futility of trying to do the right thing. By the end of the play, the Common Man affirms the notion that to be alive—regardless of the nature of one’s actions—is the only thing that counts. As a whole, the Common Man’s role in the play shows his complicity in More’s persecution. Because the Common Man represents humanity in general, he is intended to draw us all into the play’s central moral dilemma.
Richard Rich
Again, even though Bolt claims that he did not want his characters to stand for anything in particular, Rich symbolizes the tendency to succumb to the temptation of wealth and status. Rich is a Machiavellian hero, someone who seeks to advance himself politically and socially, whatever the cost. Despite his selfishness, Rich reveals his humanity when he wrestles with his own conscience while he sells out his friend More. In Rich’s awareness of his moral shortcomings, he is similar to the Common Man.
Like Cromwell, Rich serves as a foil to More, highlighting More’s superior character. Rich also illuminates More’s character in less obvious ways. For instance, in the opening scene, More tells Rich that he should be a teacher. More shows great interest in Rich’s moral fiber and wishes for him to quell his petty, self-interested urge to gain wealth and status. More’s conversation with Rich reveals More’s own interest in teaching as not just a profession but as something he himself practices throughout the play. In his interaction with Rich in the first scene, More teaches by testing Rich by offering him the goblet, letting Rich know that the goblet was a bribe and is therefore tainted. More understands Rich’s faults from the very opening of the play, but he tries to nurture Rich anyway. It is therefore tragic that Rich eventually perjures himself to condemn More to death.
Themes, Motifs & Symbols
Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
Types of Moral Guides
In his preface, Robert Bolt addresses the apparent contradiction between Thomas More’s upright moral sense and his periodic attempts to find legal and moral loopholes. More strongly opposes Henry’s divorce, yet he hopes to avoid rather than speak out against the Oath of Supremacy. More explains his actions when he says to Will Roper, “God’s my god. . . . But I find him rather too . . . subtle.” More respects God’s law above all else, but he also does not pretend to understand it. Therefore, he sees man’s law as the best available guide to action, even if it occasionally contradicts God’s law or lets some evildoers off the hook.
In his approach to moral action, More is thoroughly pragmatic, but not, like Cromwell or Rich, at the expense of his beliefs. If More sometimes seems hypocritical, it is because he is trying to balance his respect for the law and society with his deep-rooted sense of self. He obeys the law fully, and, in the end, the prosecution has to come up with false charges to execute him.
More’s pragmatic maneuvering through society contrasts with what More calls Roper’s “seagoing” principles. Roper follows ideals instead of a his conscience or the law, and More argues that attempting to navigate high-minded ideals is akin to being lost at sea. Roper switches willy-nilly from Catholicism to Lutheranism and back again, each time utterly convinced of his own righteousness. Bolt implies that because we cannot comprehend the moral alignment of the universe, much less wrap it up in a tidy theory, we should focus our energy on improving ourselves and our society.
Corruption
A Man for All Seasons focuses on the rise of Richard Rich as much as it follows the fall of Sir Thomas More. As More’s steadfast selfhood earns him a spot on the chopping block, Rich acquires more and more wealth and greater status by selling out his friend and his own moral principles. Although Rich at first bemoans his loss of innocence, by the end of the play he has no qualms about perjuring himself in exchange for a high-ranking position.
In Act One, scene eight, Rich gives Cromwell information about the silver cup in exchange for a job. Rich laments that he has lost his innocence, and the scene suggests that Rich has sold his soul to the devil. Cromwell himself evokes the devil as he craftily cajoles Rich into selling out before cramming Rich’s hand into a candle flame.
Although Act One, scene eight recalls many cautionary religious tales about the seductive powers of the devil, Bolt does not depict Rich’s corruption to warn us that people like Rich go to hell. Rather, Rich’s corruption, set against More’s hard and fast sense of self, shows the damage Rich has done to his own life. Rich has sacrificed the goodness of his own self, which the play argues is the only thing for which life is worth living.
The Self and Friendship
Through its depiction of More’s personal relationships, the play examines the extent to which one can be true to oneself and a good friend to others. Above all, More looks inwardly for his strength and comfort. He appears to be more of a teacher than a friend or a lover. He relies on his own conscience as his guide, and through tests and through the example he sets, he attempts to teach others to do the same. However, More’s instructive instinct results in relationships that are not overtly heartfelt.
One could also argue that More shows his friendship and love by teaching others. The play shows that More’s self-reliance is not completely incompatible with friendship and love. In More’s conversations with Norfolk and Alice, he shows that he truly cares about them as his friend and wife, respectively. More tells Norfolk to “cease knowing him,” but More argues that he gives his instruction because of the friendship the two men share. He tells his wife that he could not die peacefully if he knew that she was still confused about why he remains silent and does not give in to King Henry. More also tells Matthew that he will miss him.
Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.
Satire and Wit
Throughout the play, the characters with ties to the court participate in confused and misinterpreted exchanges of dialogue. These exchanges both satirize the court and portray the way corrupt morals lead to corrupt and ambiguous speech. In Cromwell’s exchange with the innkeeper, Cromwell humorously states that he can never be quite sure whether he’s duping or being duped when he interacts with such a “tactful” person. Cromwell has a similar exchange with Rich, in which he tries to assess just how trustworthy and how bribable Rich might be. Chapuys wrongly assumes that More’s straightforward answers are double talk and gives him a knowing wink that is completely out of place.
Historically, More was as witty as he was saintly. Much to Alice’s chagrin, More spends most of his time making light of the dangerous situations he encounters. In the play, More’s wit establishes his humanity. In Act One, scene seven, More insists that man is born to serve God “wittily.” By this, he means that man must cleverly escape death for as long as he legitimately and lawfully can, but the statement also emphasizes the importance of a sense of humor.
Silence
More is remarkable as much for his silence as for his statements. He maintains that if he does not speak his opinion concerning his disapproval of the king’s intention to divorce his wife, then, according to the Bible, his silence will connote consent, not dissent. More uses silence to his advantage, refusing to incriminate himself in a way that resembles invoking the fifth amendment in a United States court of law. More also protects his family from legal persecution by staying silent about his opinions in their presence.
More is silent in other ways as well. He disparages people, like Roper, who clamor at all times about ideals. More prefers to listen to the voice within, his conscience. He does not criticize Norfolk until he is sure that Norfolk needs to be criticized and enraged.
At the trial, Cromwell’s argument to the jury equates More’s silence with complicity in a crime. Cromwell’s claim is ironic, for the play shows how many other characters— primarily those played by the Common Man—remain silent when they could tell More about the plot against him.
Guilt
Guilt receives much attention in the play, particularly in the characters of Rich, Norfolk, the jailer, Matthew, and even in More himself. Bolt shows how Rich constantly suffers under his own sense of guilt and yet cannot resist the temptation to improve his own prospects at the expense of others and his own conscience. When he is Matthew, the Common Man noticeably feels guilt on some level when More shows affection for him. As the jailer, the Common Man has a conscious understanding of his guilt and assuages his guilty conscience by convincing himself that it would be futile to set More free. Norfolk is obviously wracked with a sense of guilt when he tells More of Cromwell’s plot and his own association with it. More himself shows an inkling of guilt when he realizes that he might have to go to the chopping block with his family still unaware of why he acts the way he does.
More understands guilt as a personal judgment made by one’s own conscience, and, based upon one’s perspective, the same action could be guilty or innocent. He also seems to be able to eradicate the guilt he feels for taking the tainted goblet as a bribe by getting rid of it. This flexibility is particularly true with respect to Norfolk. More says that he and More could part as friends even if Norfolk were to remain in his office, which is associated with the plot against More.
Symbols
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
Water and Dry Land
In his preface, Bolt announces that his play is rife with water and seafaring imagery, which symbolizes the uncertain moral territory of the great beyond, the unknowable realm of God and the devil. Characters who establish their actions on such an uncertain base include King Henry, whose shaky moral ground is symbolized by the way he sails down the Thames in order to visit More, and Roper, who holds what More calls “seagoing” principles.
Unlike Henry and Roper, More recognizes God’s will as impossible, and More therefore prefers to root his actions in his own conscience and in the law. When speaking with Roper, More compares the realm of human law to a forest filled with protective trees firmly rooted in the earth. To emphasize his belief in law as a guide to action, More tells Roper that removing all the laws in pursuit of the devil would be like cutting down all the trees in the land, letting the devil run amok like a fierce wind. In other words, More views society as a bulwark against the moral mysteries of the cosmos.
The Gilded Cup
In the first scene in Act One, More offers Rich a cup that More received as a bribe. Acknowledging that the cup is tainted, More tells Rich that he wishes to be rid of it. More tries to set an example by throwing away the cup, but Rich quickly shows that he does not share More’s intentions. Rich takes the cup from More and pawns it for money and a new set of fashionable clothes. The cup symbolizes corruption, and it also symbolizes More’s attempt to test Rich and teach him by example. More’s attempt to test Rich with the cup actually sets in motion the events that lead to More’s conviction at the end of the play—a conviction that Rich helps secure by lying under oath in court.

continuation....HAMLET (3)

Hamlet Commentary provides a comprehensive description of every act with explanations and translations for all important quotes.
Act I. Scene I. - Elsinore. A Platform before the Castle.
Francisco: "'tis bitter cold, / And I am sick at heart."
King Hamlet of Denmark has recently died from poisoning. Denmark is in a state of high alert and preparing for possible war with Young Fortinbras of Norway. A ghost resembling the late King Hamlet is spotted on a platform before Elsinore Castle in Denmark.
The play opens to the solitary scene of Francisco a soldier on guard duty on a platform before Elsinore Castle.
Bernardo, another soldier enters, asking "Who's there?" (Line 1).
Francisco does not reply, demanding identification from the intruder. Bernardo supplies this (Line 3) and Francisco warmly greets Barnardo as his replacement on guard duty. Barnardo tells us that it is midnight and advises his friend to"get thee [go to] bed," (Line 7).
Francisco is happy to do this, thanking Barnardo and saying "'tis [it is] bitter cold, / And I am sick at heart" (it is very cold and I am sick at heart), (Line 8), a line which symbolizes the mood of this play and the state of tension in Denmark.
Before leaving we learn from Francisco that it has been a quiet watch with "Not a mouse stirring" (not a mouse moving), (Line 10).
Francisco hears the approach of two men whom we soon learn are the soldiers Horatio and Marcellus who identify themselves as being loyal to Denmark (Lines 15-16).
Before leaving, Francisco tells Marcellus that Barnardo has relieved him.
Bernardo now meets up with Marcellus and Horatio, Marcellus asking if a certain apparition (The Ghost) seen before on a watch has returned.
Marcellus: "What! has this thing appear'd again to-night?" (Has the thing or the Ghost appeared again tonight?), (Line 21).
Learning from Bernardo that the apparition (The Ghost) has not returned, Marcellus explains the apparition further...
Barnardo explains that "Horatio says 'tis [it is] but our fantasy, [imagination]" but also that Horatio has agreed to sit with the men in case it appears again so Marcellus can prove the apparition is real and not merely fantasy (Lines 23-29).
Barnardo tells the skeptical Horatio to "sit down awhile," (Line 31) as Barnardo begins to tell the story of the apparition (Lines 29-39) when Marcellus notices the Ghost and cries out "Peace!" (Line 40), telling Horatio and Barnardo to look "where it [The Ghost] comes again!" (Line 40).
The Ghost now enters, Barnardo noting that this ghost has "the same figure [appearance], like the king that's dead" (the recently deceased King Hamlet of Denmark), (Line 41).
Marcellus tells Horatio to question the Ghost, after all "Thou [you-Horatio] art [are] a scholar;" he says (Line 42) .
Horatio is reluctant since he says the Ghost "harrows me with fear and wonder" (fills me with fear and wonder), (Line 44), but on Marcellus' urging, Horatio speaks to the Ghost.
Horatio now questions the Ghost, asking "What art [are] thou [you] that usurp'st [disturbs / takes] this time of night, / Together with that fair and war-like form [appearance] / In which the majesty of buried Denmark [King Hamlet of Denmark] / Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee [command you], speak!" (Lines 47- 48).
The Ghost does not answer, Marcellus saying it is offended and Bernardo saying that it "stalks [runs] away" (Line 50).
With the Ghost gone, Marcellus and Bernardo notice that the unbelieving Horatio is pale and trembling (Line 53). Bernardo asks Horatio "Is not this something more than fantasy?" (Is this not more than fantasy as you suggested earlier), (Line 54).
Horatio still trembling, says he would never have believed in the Ghost had he not seen it with his own eyes (Line 56) and Horatio mentions that the Ghost not only looked like the now dead King Hamlet but wore the "very armour" that King Hamlet had on when "he the ambitious Norway combated;" (he fought the ambitious Fortinbras, King of Norway) and when King Hamlet "smote the sledded Polacks [Poles] on the ice" (defeated the Poles on the ice), (Lines 60-63).
Marcellus reminds Horatio that the Ghost of the King has appeared twice before, wearing this very armor, Horatio saying that in his opinion, the appearance of the Ghost "bodes some strange eruption to our state" (foretells that something very bad will happen to our country), (Line 68).
Marcellus now sets the context of the play by asking Horatio why their guard duty watches Denmark by night, why weapons are being constructed and being bought and why shipwrights are being made to work on Sunday, against normal custom (Lines 70-78).
Horatio answers that all these actions are happening because Denmark is preparing for war.
Horatio explains that the late King Hamlet fought King Fortinbras of Norway, killing him in single combat and securing for Denmark, Norwegian territory which by agreement fell to King Hamlet since he won the fight and killed King Fortinbras (Lines 80-95).
Now, explains Horatio, Young Fortinbras, the son of the late King Fortinbras and nephew to the current King of Norway, has raised a force of "lawless resolutes," (lawless men) to help him reclaim the lands his father, King Fortinbras of Norway lost by losing the fight against the late King Hamlet of Denmark (Lines 96-100).
Young Fortinbras is not described favorably, being characterized by Horatio as being "of unimproved mettle hot and full," (unlearned, hot-blooded and reckless / rash), (Line 96).
It is this fear of attack, Horatio explains, that is the main reason their watch guards against intruders and the main reason for their preparations for war (Lines 96-108).
Bernardo agrees that it is Young Fortinbras who motivates their preparations for war, noting that the "portentous figure" (The Ghost), did come armed and during their watch (Lines 108-111).
Horatio agrees that it is significant that the Ghost appears now, saying that it is "trouble to the mind's eye" (Line 112) and remembering that such portents did precede Caesar's death, Horatio believing that the Ghost must be a precursor of things to come in Denmark. Just as Horatio finishes this thought, he sees the Ghost reappear (Lines 112-126).
Horatio demands that the illusion stay and not leave as it did before, asking it to speak to him if it can and tell them the future "If thou art privy to thy country's fate," (if you know my country's future), which Horatio hopes their foreknowledge of may avoid, and finally why this spirit exists (Line 132).
Unfortunately a cock crows, the Ghost rapidly moving twice before vanishing once more without saying a word (Lines 139-142).
Bernardo, Horatio and Marcellus all agree the Ghost was about to speak before the cock crowed, Horatio advising that they "impart [tell] what we have seen to-night / Unto [to] young Hamlet;" since as Horatio says, "upon my life [on my life], / This spirit, dumb [silent] to us, will speak to him" (Lines 168-171).
With the morning approaching (daybreak), (Lines 165-168), the three men agree to speak to young Hamlet, Marcellus saying he knows where to find the "young Hamlet" (son of the late King Hamlet and nephew to the current King "most conveniently" to tell him what they have seen (Line 174).
Act I. Scene II. - A Room of State in the Castle.
King Claudius: "How is it that the clouds still hang on you?"
King Claudius who now rules Denmark, has taken King Hamlet's wife, Queen Gertrude as his wife. King Claudius fearing that Young Fortinbras of Norway may invade, has sent ambassadors to Norway to urge the King of Norway to restrain Young Fortinbras. Young Hamlet distrusts King Claudius. The King and Queen of Denmark (Claudius and Gertrude) do not understand why Hamlet still mourns his father's death over two months ago. In his first soliloquy, Hamlet explains that he does not like his mother marrying the next King of Denmark so quickly within a month of his father's death...
Within Elsinore Castle, the current King of Denmark, King Claudius (succeeding King Hamlet) Queen Gertrude (Hamlet's mother), Lord Chamberlain Polonius, his son Laertes, the courtiers Voltimand and Cornelius, Lords and Attendants enter.
The King (Claudius) expresses his grief for King Hamlet's (his predecessor's) death, saying that all in their kingdom grieve and mourn "our dear brother's death" (Line 1), adding that "discretion" (discretion) has "fought with nature" (the natural desire to mourn a loved one) in their suppressing their complete grief of King Hamlet's death (Line 4).
King Claudius, the newly appointed King of Denmark explains that he has taken Hamlet's previous wife, Gertrude as his wife and as "our queen," whilst adding that his court in "Your better wisdoms [judgment]," have "freely gone [allowed] / With this affair [marriage] along:" (Line 16) or have accepted this and now receive King Claudius' thanks.
It is important to note that this marriage would have drawn gasps from Shakespeare's audience since such a marriage would have been viewed as quite incestuous...
Claudius now outlines recent events, reminding all that Young Fortinbras even now in their time of grief has sought back the lands his father lost now that King Hamlet has died (Lines 17-20), Claudius explaining that "young Fortinbras," may be encouraged by the belief that Denmark is now in disarray following King Hamlet's death (Lines 17-28).
Claudius explains that he has written to the leader of Norway who is currently "impotent and bed-rid," (sick and weak / bedridden), (Line 28) to suppress his nephew Young Fortinbras from pushing this issue. Claudius has done this by dispatching Cornelius and Voltimand to Norway, the two men exiting after pledging their loyalty (Line 40).
We learn also of a parallel in that King Hamlet has been succeeded by his brother as has the late King Fortinbras since both their sons are referred to as nephews of the current rulers of Denmark and of Norway.
Turning his attention to Laertes, King Claudius asks Laertes to speak his mind to him (Lines 42-50).
Laertes now asks King Claudius for "Your leave and favour [permission] to return to France;" (Line 52) from where he left willingly and dutifully to witness King Claudius' coronation as the new King of Denmark.
After the King finds that Polonius, Laertes' father has given his permission, (Lines 57-61), Claudius gives his permission for Laertes to leave (Line 63).
Hamlet makes his first observation, suspiciously commenting in an aside (a speech sharing his private thoughts with the audience) that Claudius who referred to him as a "son,-" (Line 64) is "A little more than kin [family], and less than kind" (a little more than family and less than kind), (Line 65).
King Claudius now asks how Hamlet who has recently lost his father (King Hamlet) can still be sad...
King Claudius: "How is it that the clouds still hang on you?" (How is it that you are still gloomy as if dark clouds hang over you?), (Line 66).
Hamlet coyly replies that this is "Not so, my lord;" explaining that "I am too much i' [in] the sun" (it is not so my Lord. I have been in the sun too long), (Line 67).
Queen Gertrude, no doubt sensing the tension, tells her son to "cast thy [your] nighted colour off, / And let thine [your] eye look like a friend on Denmark" (drop your sad outlook and let your eye look like friend on Denmark), telling her son not to "Seek for thy noble father in the dust:" (look for your father in the dust) since Hamlet must realize "all that live must die, / Passing through nature to eternity" (Lines 68-73).
Hamlet agrees too easily, prompting his mother to ask why her husband's death "seems it so particular with thee?" (seems so important to him), (Line 74).
Hamlet now explodes, saying "Seems, madam!" adding "Nay, it is; I know not 'seems'" (Line 76), explaining that his color or mood are "but the trappings and the suits of woe (what happens when you are sad), (Line 86).
It seems only Hamlet appears to be mourning his father's death whilst those around him go on with life as if King Hamlet had never lived, let alone died. Even Queen Gertrude, his mother, feels this way; she married King Hamlet's replacement (King Claudius) almost immediately after King Hamlet, her husband, had died!
The King praises Hamlet as being "sweet and commendable (praiseworthy)" (Line 87) in his nature to mourn his father, but tells Hamlet that his father lost a father and this father, his father, explaining that loss is a part of life (Lines 88-92).
Claudius explains that to grieve for some time is acceptable but to "persever [carry on] / In obstinate [stubborn] condolement [grieving] is a course [action] / Of impious [unbecoming / undignified] stubbornness; " (Line 92) adding that such ongoing grieving is above all else, "unmanly grief:" (Line 93).
King Claudius develops this theme of grieving being "unmanly" for some time before telling Hamlet that his desire to go back to school in Wittenberg will not be granted since it is "most retrograde [the opposite] to our [King Claudius' and company's] desire;" (Lines 112-116).
The Queen (Gertrude, Hamlet's mother) asks Hamlet to stay as well, Hamlet agreeing by saying, "I shall in all my best obey you, madam" (Line 119).
The King is pleased that Hamlet will stay, saying "'tis a loving and a fair reply:" (it is a loving and fair reply) adding that "This gentle and unforc'd [unforced] accord [agreement] of Hamlet / Sits smiling to my heart;" (Line 120-124), the King announcing that a celebration, complete with drinking and "cannon" fire will celebrate and mark this change of heart in Hamlet.
The King and Queen now exit, leaving Hamlet alone to discuss his true feelings in his first soliloquy...
Alone, Hamlet expresses his real feelings about King Claudius and Queen Gertrude, his mother. Hamlet is not happy and wishes he could commit suicide since the "uses of this world" have become "weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable" to him but Hamlet quickly chides himself for such thoughts, they are like weeds in a garden and a sin (Lines 132-136).
Hamlet now explains to us that his father (King Hamlet), unlike the impression we get from King Claudius, is "But two months dead:" (has only recently died), (Line 139).
Hamlet now tells us that King Hamlet was "so loving to my mother / That he might not betweem the winds of heaven / Visit her face too roughly" and yet within a month, a mere month, his very own mother remarried with the current King of Denmark (Claudius), (Line 140).
So angry is Hamlet that he generalizes that all woman like his mother are weak when he says: "Frailty, thy [your] name is woman!" (Line 146).
Hamlet sarcastically and bitterly describes his mother as being "Like Niobe, all tears;" a woman who shed not a tear for her husband but only for her dead children, saying that even this woman would have mourned longer than Gertrude, his mother and the former wife to the now dead King Hamlet (Line 149).
Hamlet cannot believe this, exclaiming "O God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, / Would have mourn'd longer,-" (O God! a beast that wanted or needed a reason, would have mourned longer) than his mother (Line 151), Hamlet still barely believing that she could so quickly have "married with mine uncle, [married my uncle, King Claudius]", (Line 151).
Hamlet cannot accept this, and still not believing his mother could do this, describes King Claudius as "My father's brother, but no more like my father / Than I to Hercules [regarded as a great man in this time]:" and yet "within a month, / Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears / Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, / She married" (and yet barely had her tears left her eyes when she remarried), (Line 153).
He remarks again on his mother's speedy marriage as being with "most wicked speed, to post / With such dexterity to incestuous sheets" (Line 157).
Hamlet is sure none of this can come to any good but decides to keep his opinions to himself.
Hamlet: "It is not nor it cannot come to good; / But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue!" (Line 158).
Horatio, Marcellus and Bernardo arrive, telling Hamlet of the Ghost they saw.
Before this happens, we get a further insight into Hamlet's troubled nature when Horatio says he came to see King Hamlet's funeral (Line 176). Hamlet sarcastically replies that "I think it was to see my mother's wedding" since the two events happened so close to each other (Line 177).
Hamlet gives us more imagery of the speed with which one ceremony (the funeral) was replaced by the marriage when he remarks that "the funeral bak'd meats / Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables" (the meat prepared for the funeral did coldly furnish the marriage tables which followed), (Line 180), a line sarcastically suggesting that Gertrude's remarriage following King Hamlet's death was so rapid, the food prepared for the funeral could have served as food for the subsequent marriage.
Hamlet now mentions that he believes he has seen his father in "my mind's eye," (Line 186), Horatio agreeing that King Hamlet "was a goodly king" (Line 186).
Hamlet agrees, and now Horatio describes what he, Bernardo and Marcellus have seen, describing The Ghost as "a figure like your father [the late King Hamlet], / Armed at points exactly," (Line 199).
Hamlet questions Horatio and Marcellus further and decides that if the Ghost is "my noble father's person," (Line 244) he will speak to it. Hamlet tells Horatio and company that he will meet them on the guard platform between eleven and twelve o'clock to see the Ghost.
Hamlet ends the scene, saying "My father's spirit in arms!" fearing "all is not well; / I doubt some foul play:" (Line 255).
Act I. Scene III. - A Room in Polonius' house.
Laertes: "This above all: to thine own self be true...."
Laertes, the son of Lord Chamberlain Polonius, gives his sister Ophelia some brotherly advice. He warns Ophelia not to fall in love with Young Hamlet; she will only be hurt. Polonius tells his daughter Ophelia not to return Hamlet's affections for her since he fears Hamlet is only using her...
Within a room in Polonius' house, Laertes (Polonius' son) is giving Ophelia, Polonius' daughter some brotherly advise.
Laertes warns his sister not to follow her heart with Hamlet too deeply, for as he says, "his will is not his own," (Hamlet does not control himself, King Claudius and Queen Gertrude influence him), owing to his position as Queen Gertrude's son (Line 16).
Laertes adds that Hamlet cannot as "unvalu'd persons do," (common people do) carve out a life for himself "for on his choice depends / The safety and the health of the whole state;" (Line 20).
"Then if he says he loves you," Laertes warns, she should remember that the Prince's wife (Hamlet's wife) will largely be dictated by the King (Claudius), (Line 24).
Laertes therefore reminds Ophelia to be wary and fearful of the loss of honor she could sustain if she should lose her heart and be used, warning her to protect her "chaste treasure" (her virginity), (Line 32).
Laertes now further describes the perils of following one's heart (Lines 24-52), telling her that the "best safety lies in fear:" (Line 43).
Ophelia says she will follow Laertes advise, warning Laertes not to show her the righteous way to live whilst not following his own advise. Laertes tells his sister to "fear me not" (Line 51) announcing that their father, Polonius arrives.
Ophelia:
I shall th'effect of this good lesson keep, / As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother, / Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, / Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, / Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine, / Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, / And recks not his own rede" (Lines 45-51)
Polonius now gives his daughter advise suggesting that Ophelia not speak her thoughts (Line 60), nor be vulgar but rather familiar instead (Line 61).
He tells his daughter to "Give every man thine [your] ear, but few thy [your] voice:", telling her to "reserve thy [your] judgment" (Line 69).
Polonius also advises that Ophelia would be wise to "Neither a borrower, nor a lender be;" because "For loan oft loses both itself and friend, [in loans one often loses oneself and friend] / And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry" Laertes warns (Line 76).
Famously, Polonius tells his daughter, "This above all [above all else]: to thine own self be true," (be true to yourself), (Line 78), adding that in his opinion as night follows day, Ophelia "canst not [cannot] then be false to any man" (Line 80).
Laertes must now leave (Line 85), telling his sister to "remember well / What I have said to you" before exiting (Line 85), Polonius wanting to know what this was (Line 88).
Alone with his daughter, Polonius demands to know the truth of any relationship between his daughter (Ophelia) and Prince Hamlet.
Polonius explains that he knows Hamlet has very recently "Given private time to you;" and Ophelia the same (Line 92), asking to know what is going on so he can be sure of his daughter's honor (Lines 88-99).
Ophelia replies that Hamlet has "made many tenders / Of his affection to me" (has spoken sweet words of love to me), (Line 100).
Polonius is not impressed saying "Affection! pooh! you speak like a green girl [innocent naive girl]," asking if his daughter believes Hamlet's "tenders," (words), (Line 101).
Ophelia replies she is not sure, but her father is. He is certain Hamlet merely wishes to "use" his daughter and in doing so Ophelia will "tender me a fool" (make a fool of Polonius), by being used (Line 108).
Ophelia defends Hamlet saying he has "importun'd me with love / In honourable fashion" (Line 111) but Polonius does not believe a word of it, saying Hamlet's "holy vows of heaven" (Line 113) are merely like "springes to catch woodcocks", a lie to catch or seduce his daughter...
Polonius now lays down the law, telling his daughter to keep her distance, ordering her to "be somewhat scanter [less available] of your maiden presence;" (Line 120), nor to believe Hamlet's vows, "for they are brokers [lies]," finally telling Ophelia that he does not want Ophelia to "give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet" since Polonius obviously fears his daughter being made a fool and by the culture of the time, himself being made one as well (Lines 120-134).
Ophelia will not disobey her father saying, "I shall obey, my lord" (Line 136).
Act I. Scene IV. - The Platform.
Hamlet meets the Ghost of his father and follows it to learn more...
Hamlet, Horatio and Marcellus are all on the platform before Elsinore Castle, waiting for the apparition (The Ghost) of King Hamlet to appear once again.
We learn from their conversation that it is just past midnight and that "The air bites shrewdly"; it is a very cold night (Line 1).
A flourish of trumpets is heard along with ordnance (canon fire) being shot off, Hamlet explaining that this noise signals the King's revels or celebrations.
Hamlet describes King Claudius' behavior quite negatively, remarking at how he drinks too much, saying that it would be more honorable to ignore the custom of Danish kings drinking than to maintain such lewd behaviour out of tradition alone.
Hamlet says this himself with the line, "though I am native here [born in Denmark] / And to the manner born,-it is a custom / More honour'd [honored] in the breach [by not performing it] than the observance [performing the custom]" (Line 16).
Hamlet also describes what he imagines to be the less than dignified revels (celebrations) King Claudius and company are enjoying:
"The king doth wake to-night and takes his rouse, / Keeps wassail, and the swaggering up-spring reels; / And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down, / The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out / The triumph of his pledge" (The King wakes up and drinks his toasts in celebration, sings badly and drunkenly dances around, heavily drinking his alcohol, the trumpets finally sounding out the triumph of his pledge in a foolish not triumphant manner), (Lines 8-11).
Hamlet is not impressed with this behavior, arguing that the dancing and drinking "takes / From our achievements," (takes something away from our achievements), giving the Danish a bad name abroad (Line 20).
He likens this to impressive men's reputations, which are reduced by them having one vice (Lines 23- 36).
At this point the Ghost reappears, Horatio telling Hamlet, "Look, my lord, it comes" (Line 38).
Hamlet decides that if the Ghost will speak to him, he will address the Ghost as "Hamlet, / King, father; royal Dane," and excitedly demands answers (Line 45).
Hamlet wanting to know why his father has returned, asks "Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we do?" (Line 58).
The Ghost says nothing, beckoning Hamlet to follow him to as Marcellus says "a more removed [private] ground:", Marcellus telling Hamlet not to follow the Ghost.
Hamlet ignores Marcellus, deciding that since "It [The Ghost] will not speak; then, will I [I will] follow it" (Line 62).
Horatio also tells Hamlet not to follow the Ghost since it may tempt him towards a flood or seek to kill him by leading Hamlet to a cliff (Lines 69-76).
Hamlet however despite the advise of Marcellus (Line 79) and Horatio (Line 81), follows the Ghost since "My fate cries out, / And makes each petty artery in this body / As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve" (my fate cries out and makes each petty artery in my body as strong as that of a Nemean lion's nerve, a powerful Lion encountered by Hercules), (Line 83).
With the Ghost beckoning, Hamlet asks the men to "Unhand me," (let me go) and Hamlet follows the Ghost, Marcellus and Horatio deciding to follow him (Line 84-86).
Marcellus now remarks that "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" but Horatio is more trusting, saying "Heaven will direct it" (Heaven will take care of things), (Lines 90- 91).
Act I. Scene V. - Another Part of the Platform.
King Hamlet's Ghost: "Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder."
Hamlet learns from his father's Ghost that he was poisoned by King Claudius, the current ruler of Denmark. The Ghost tells Hamlet to avenge his death but not to punish Queen Gertrude for remarrying; it is not Hamlet's place to do so and her conscience and heaven will judge her... Hamlet swears Horatio and Marcellus to silence over Hamlet meeting the Ghost.
The Ghost has now led Hamlet away from Horatio and Hamlet impatiently tells the Ghost, "speak; / I'll go no further" (Line 1).
The Ghost now speaks, saying, "Mark me", Hamlet replying that he will (Line 2).
The Ghost explains that time is short for him (Line 3) and that soon he must render or surrender himself to "sulphurous and tormenting flames" since he has been condemned to walk Denmark by night and burn in the flames of Purgatory by day (Line 3).
Nonetheless, the Ghost tells Hamlet to "Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing / To what I shall unfold" (pity me not Hamlet but listen carefully to what I am about to tell you), (Line 5).
Hamlet now tells the Ghost to "Speak; I am bound to hear" (Line 6).
The Ghost agrees, saying "So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear" (so you are to revenge when you hear what I have to say), (Line 7).
The Ghost now announces that "I am thy [your] father's spirit;" (Line 9) explaining that he is "Doom'd [doomed] for a certain term [time] to walk the night, / And for the day confin'd [confined] to fast in fires, / Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature [life] / Are burnt and purg'd away" (Lines 9-13).
The Ghost explains that because he is forbidden, he cannot fully describe the "secrets of my prison-house," (Line 13).
The Ghost of King Claudius tells Hamlet to "List, list, O list! [Listen] If thou [you] didst [did] ever thy [your] dear father love-" (Line 23).
Hamlet, listening, hears the Ghost tell Hamlet to,
"Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder" (Line 25).
The Ghost goes on to describe his murder as "Murder most foul, as in the best it is; / But this most foul, strange and unnatural" (Line 28).
Hamlet pledges to make his revenge if told more (Line 29), the Ghost explaining that as he slept in his orchard, "A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark" was abused, Hamlet explaining that this "serpent" now wears the crown of the man (King Hamlet) he had killed (Lines 33-39).
Hamlet immediately realizes that this is his uncle, now King Claudius, and the Ghost explains that as he was "Sleeping within mine orchard," (Line 60) in the afternoon as he always did, King Claudius referred to as "thy [your] uncle" secured a poison, pouring it into his ears (Line 64) killing him (Lines 64-73).
The Ghost explains that "Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's hand, / Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch'd;" (thus as I was sleeping, by my brother's hand was I murdered and deprived of my life, my crown and my wife, Queen Gertrude), (Line 74).
The Ghost tells Hamlet to do something about this, telling Hamlet, "Let not the royal bed of Denmark be / A couch for luxury and damned incest" (let not the royal rule of Denmark remain a place of luxury and incest), (Line 84).
The Ghost also tells Hamlet to "Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive / Against thy mother aught;" (do not let your mind be tainted into seeking revenge against your mother), advising Hamlet instead to leave her punishment to heaven and her own conscience (Line 84-89).
Running out of time (Lines 89-91), the Ghost tells Hamlet "Hamlet, remember me" before exiting (Line 91).
Hamlet resolves to remember the Ghost and to avenge his father's death as asked, saying that he put aside all else but this "commandment" (to avenge his father's death) which he says he will devote his entire "brain," or time to (Lines 92-112).
Hamlet also scorns his mother, calling her "O most pernicious woman!" (Line 105), also scorning King Claudius' behaviour.
Horatio and Marcellus now join Hamlet who continuously refuses to answer their questions as to what has happened (Lines 116-132).
Horatio also notes that Hamlet speaks now in "wild and whirling words," (Line 133).
Hamlet apologizes for this and asks his friends Marcellus and Horatio to not tell anyone "what you have seen to-night" (Line 144), Hamlet wanting them too swear this upon his sword, taking an oath not to tell (Lines 144-148).
Marcellus and Horatio will not agree to this until the Ghost from beneath the platform says "Swear" (Line 149), Horatio quickly saying "Propose the oath, my lord" (Line 152).
Telling Marcellus and Horatio to swear on his sword not to tell anyone what they have seen, Hamlet again is helped by the Ghost saying "Swear" (Line 155), the Ghost repeating this again (Line 161).
Hamlet now decides that should he appear mad, the two men should not give any reason explaining his behaviour (Lines 164-179).
Upon hearing the Ghost say "Swear" again (Line 181), Marcellus and Horatio swear to keep what they have seen a secret (Line 180).
Thanking his friends, Hamlet, Horatio and Marcellus depart, Hamlet reminding the men not to say a word and lamenting that his fate now is to avenge his father's death (Lines 181-188).