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Literature: Senior High School: 11th and 12th Grade Quiz - Silas Marner - Setting (Questions)

This Literature quiz is called 'Silas Marner - Setting' and it has been written by teachers to help you if you are studying the subject at senior high school. Playing educational quizzes is one of the most efficienct ways to learn if you are in the 11th or 12th grade - aged 16 to 18.

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This senior high school English Literature quiz takes a look at setting in Silas Marner by George Eliot. At its most basic level, the setting of a text means the location and the time in which the events take place.

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In addition to the events with which a text is primarily concerned, there will be events occurring in the background to which characters might allude. This wider fictional world is known as context and is also a key component of its setting (fictional context should not, of course, be confused with the author’s real-life context). Atmosphere is another important element of setting, and can change multiple times in a text, just as a text most probably moves between several different settings.

It is important to consider carefully the setting of any text you study. Characters are affected by the world in which they live, fictional though it is.

For example, authors show the effect of political or social events on characters through their reported thoughts, behavior and dialog.

At one level, Silas Marner is not rooted in a very specific time and place. Its fairy-tale elements create an impression of time being transcended. Nevertheless, Eliot also vividly presents a rural village on the verge of the Industrial Revolution, with the many changes that will bring. Why might Eliot have wished to present this moral tale as transcending time while being placed at a point in history where the life it relates is in danger of being forever destroyed? It is interesting to note that “ravel”, the root of the name Raveloe, means both “to tangle” or “to unpick/to unravel”. Does this bear upon the meaning of the text, in your view?

Geographical setting includes country or region, environment, the buildings or landscapes where events occur, and even the weather. Do events occur in a variety of places, or all in the same place? Do any characters travel, or arrive from elsewhere? How does the interaction of characters with their environment create meaning in the text?

One useful task is to compare the time a text is set with when it was written. Do these times differ? Think about the reasons why an author might choose to set a text in the past, present or future. Do such differences change our understanding of the story?

Answer the questions below on setting in George Eliot's Silas Marner.

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1. Silas Marner is set in which country?
[ ] Germany
[ ] The Netherlands
[ ] Wales
[ ] England
2. Which of the following best describes Raveloe?
[ ] Gossipy and highly political
[ ] Friendly, traditional and inward-looking
[ ] Impoverished and mistrustful
[ ] Fashionable and political
3. The novel is set in the early years of which century?
[ ] The 17th
[ ] The 18th
[ ] The 19th
[ ] The 20th
4. Raveloe provides a contrast to which of the following?
[ ] London, where Lantern Yard is located
[ ] The industrial town where Lantern Yard is located
[ ] The local woolen mill
[ ] All of the above
5. How many years pass over the course of the novel?
[ ] A single year
[ ] A decade
[ ] Around twenty years
[ ] Over thirty years
6. Which of the following best describes the novel's setting?
[ ] Utopic
[ ] Pastoral
[ ] Mythic
[ ] Industrial
7. How does Silas's cottage change during Eppie's young life there?
[ ] It gains life and comfort
[ ] It becomes progressively more run-down
[ ] It becomes less comfortable but more lively
[ ] Silas's cottage does not change at all
8. How is Godfrey's home depicted in the first half of the novel?
[ ] The Red House is a feminine environment in which the Squire and his sons feel unwelcome
[ ] The Red House is a comfortable haven
[ ] The Red House is cozy although slightly unkempt
[ ] The Red House is a masculine environment which requires domesticating by a woman
9. How does the Stone-pit function in the text?
[ ] As the place where the village disposes of its rubbish
[ ] As an ever-present danger; a hider and revealer of secrets
[ ] As a beauty spot where Silas and Eppie enjoy sharing a picnic
[ ] All of the above
10. "He found himself in front of a bright fire which lit up every corner of the cottage — the bed, the loom, the three chairs, and the table — and showed him that Marner was not there." Which elements of this description portray the cottage as welcoming?
[ ] The table and the loom
[ ] The loom and the bed
[ ] The bright light and the three chairs
[ ] The cottage is too basic to be welcoming
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Literature: Senior High School: 11th and 12th Grade Quiz - Silas Marner - Setting (Answers)
1. Silas Marner is set in which country?
[ ] Germany
[ ] The Netherlands
[ ] Wales
[x] England
Raveloe is a village which "lay in the rich central plain of what we are pleased to call Merry England". This is a rather otherworldly, almost fairy-tale depiction of a village located in the Midlands
2. Which of the following best describes Raveloe?
[ ] Gossipy and highly political
[x] Friendly, traditional and inward-looking
[ ] Impoverished and mistrustful
[ ] Fashionable and political
Raveloe is characterized by its friendliness; this friendliness, however, is not easily extended to outsiders such as Silas
3. The novel is set in the early years of which century?
[ ] The 17th
[ ] The 18th
[x] The 19th
[ ] The 20th
The novel opens with the following words: "In the days when the spinning-wheels hummed busily in the farmhouses..." This vague reference to time is shortly afterwards clarified with the slightly more specific reference to "the early years of this century", which, for George Eliot was of course the nineteenth century
4. Raveloe provides a contrast to which of the following?
[ ] London, where Lantern Yard is located
[x] The industrial town where Lantern Yard is located
[ ] The local woolen mill
[ ] All of the above
Silas chooses Raveloe for its difference from the town where he suffers his great betrayal
5. How many years pass over the course of the novel?
[ ] A single year
[ ] A decade
[ ] Around twenty years
[x] Over thirty years
Silas has lived in Raveloe for fifteen years before Eppie's arrival. The second part of the novel takes place sixteen years after her arrival
6. Which of the following best describes the novel's setting?
[ ] Utopic
[x] Pastoral
[ ] Mythic
[ ] Industrial
Life in Raveloe and the surrounding countryside is to a great extent idealized. Pastoral settings concern life in the countryside, especially when favorably contrasted with urban life
7. How does Silas's cottage change during Eppie's young life there?
[x] It gains life and comfort
[ ] It becomes progressively more run-down
[ ] It becomes less comfortable but more lively
[ ] Silas's cottage does not change at all
Sixteen years after Eppie's arrival, the cottage holds several pets as well as more solid and comfortable furniture given by Godfrey
8. How is Godfrey's home depicted in the first half of the novel?
[ ] The Red House is a feminine environment in which the Squire and his sons feel unwelcome
[ ] The Red House is a comfortable haven
[ ] The Red House is cozy although slightly unkempt
[x] The Red House is a masculine environment which requires domesticating by a woman
The early death of the Squire's wife leaves the home inhabited solely by men. Eliot describes the home as lacking the "fountain of wholesome love and fear in parlor and kitchen". Nancy is expected to fill this role after marrying Godfrey
9. How does the Stone-pit function in the text?
[ ] As the place where the village disposes of its rubbish
[x] As an ever-present danger; a hider and revealer of secrets
[ ] As a beauty spot where Silas and Eppie enjoy sharing a picnic
[ ] All of the above
The Stone-pits are on the site of an old stone quarry, which presumably provided the stones from which the village itself was built
10. "He found himself in front of a bright fire which lit up every corner of the cottage — the bed, the loom, the three chairs, and the table — and showed him that Marner was not there." Which elements of this description portray the cottage as welcoming?
[ ] The table and the loom
[ ] The loom and the bed
[x] The bright light and the three chairs
[ ] The cottage is too basic to be welcoming
The bright light entices Dunstan in from the dark night and also provides warmth. The three chairs are interesting because Silas lives alone. Who are the chairs for?
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