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I've lived with a secret on my mind, but I'll keep it from you no longer.

Silas Marner - Dialogue

This GCSE English Literature quiz explores dialogue in Silas Marner, showing how speech patterns reveal character, power and tension in Eliot’s tightly controlled scenes.

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Fascinating Fact:

Dunstan Cass speaks in a bold, careless manner, using threats and jokes, and his confident tone disguises his selfishness and lack of real courage.

In GCSE English Literature, looking at dialogue in Silas Marner means asking how characters speak and respond. Eliot uses speech, silence and interruptions to show power, status and hidden motives in Raveloe.

Key Terms

Dialogue: The spoken conversation between characters in a text, which reveals relationships, attitudes and tensions.
Tone of voice: The attitude suggested by how a character speaks, such as confident, nervous, mocking or respectful.
Subtext: The hidden meaning behind what characters say, where the real feelings are implied rather than directly stated.

Frequently Asked Questions (Click to see answers)

How does Silas Marner’s dialogue change during the novel?

Silas starts with short, suspicious replies that keep people away. After Eppie arrives, his speech becomes warmer and more open, showing growing trust and emotional recovery.

What does Dunstan Cass’s way of speaking reveal about him?

Dunstan’s dialogue is full of jokes, threats and casual remarks. His careless, bullying tone shows his selfishness, lack of responsibility and false confidence.

How can I analyse Godfrey Cass’s dialogue in a GCSE answer?

Pick a short exchange where Godfrey hesitates or evades the truth, comment on his uncertain tone, and link this to his guilt, weakness and fear of exposure.

Try These Related Quizzes

1 .

Match the dialogue to the correct speaker.

"I wasn't worth doing wrong for — nothing is in this world"

Dolly

Nancy

Eppie

Silas

Nancy is in many ways Godfrey's moral anchor. He believes that she can make him a better person, but here she reminds him of his own responsibility to do what is right

2 .

Match the dialogue to the correct speaker.

"We've been used to be happy together every day, and I can't think o' no happiness without him"

Silas

Eppie

Dolly

Priscilla

Eppie refuses Godfrey's and Nancy's request that she live with them, distancing herself by calling them "sir" and "ma'am" and reinforcing Silas's position in her view as her real father

3 .

Match the dialogue to the correct speaker.

"There is no just God that governs the earth righteously, but a God of lies, that bears witness against the innocent"

William Dane

Godfrey

Dolly

Silas

Silas's religious beliefs lead him to believe that the drawing of lots makes God's will clear. When his community condemns him as guilty of theft he loses his faith

4 .

Match the dialogue to the correct speaker.

"It's what I think to myself sometimes, as there need nobody run short o' victuals if the land was made the most on, and there was never a morsel but what could find its way to a mouth"

Dolly

Aaron

Eppie

Silas

As an idealised working man of the countryside, Aaron is both compassionate and practical. He does not see why anyone should go hungry when plenty of food could be produced with good management of the land

5 .

Match the dialogue to the correct speaker.

"For if us as knows so little can see a bit o' good and rights, we may be sure as there's a good and a rights bigger nor what we can know — I feel it i' my own inside as it must be so"

Eppie

Silas

Aaron

Dolly

Dolly struggles to find the words to express her religious beliefs. These revolve around humility, the ability to recognise good and evil, and the importance of trust

6 .

Match the dialogue to the correct speaker.

"I might come to think I was forsaken again, and lose the feeling that God was good to me"

Nancy

Silas

Priscilla

Eppie

The return of his stolen money makes Silas half believe, superstitiously, that he might lose Eppie in exchange

7 .

Match the dialogue to the correct speaker.

"You're a silly-shally fellow: you take after your poor mother. She never had a will of her own; a woman has no call for one, if she's got a proper man for her husband"

Silas

The Squire

Dunstan

Godfrey

The Squire hectors his son, not understanding why he has not asked Nancy to marry him. Although he appears only briefly in the book, his manner of speaking does not portray him as very sympathetic

8 .

Match the dialogue to the correct speaker.

"I've lived with a secret on my mind, but I'll keep it from you no longer"

Silas

Eppie

Godfrey

Nancy

Godfrey finally admits to Nancy that he is Eppie's father

9 .

Match the dialogue to the correct speaker.

"You never hold trumps, you know — I always do. You've got the beauty, you see, and I've got the luck, so you must keep me by you for your crooked sixpence"

Godfrey

Dunstan

Silas

William Dane

Ironically, Dunstan's belief in his own good luck reveals itself to be misplaced

10 .

Match the dialogue to the correct speaker.

"I'm such a good-natured brother, you know"

Dunstan

The Squire

Godfrey

William Dane

Dunstan blackmails Godfrey because he is the only person who knows about Godfrey's secret marriage to a poor alcoholic woman in another village. His speech refers repeatedly to his good nature and concern for his elder brother

Author: Sheri Smith (PhD English Literature, English Teacher & Quiz Writer)