Silas Marner Essay, Research Paper

Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe was first published by George Eliot in 1861. The novel’s main actions take place at the turn of the 19th century in the English rural community in Raveloe. A moral fable deals with the main character, who, has a series of simple probation. The story deals with ideas of good gratification and evil punished. Gorge Eliot shows us: when people have no love and no responsibility for each other, life become ruined. While a great deal of love and a willingness to take responsibility make a happy people.

Throughout the book the readers are involved in the development of Silas personality. When we find Silas Marner at the start of the novel he has lived in Raveloe for fifteen years. However, the story goes back to the narrow-minded religious community in Latern Yard, where Silas Marner lived before. Like many in the community, he relies on rules of the chapel, and does not develop any “independent thought”(p.10). He also makes friends and meets Sarah, his future wife. As it progresses, the readers see him as a hardworking, trusting, disciplined and also a naive man who is the part of a community. Not only does he is the part of a community, but he also trusts in his community and in God. However, due to the betrayal of a fellow pashioner, who blamed him for a robbery he did not commit, Silas was expelled from the congregation and he finds out later that his former fiancee married his friend who had betrayed him. We see the first change of his naive nature when the lots declare Silas guilty. He accuses William and denounces the ” God of lies”(p.14). Because of these circumstances he loses all regard for religion and people; for William, for the peacher and for Sarah. Also, the innocent Silas realized that God was neither just nor kind, and that he failed to help even innocent people.

Crushed and disillusioned Silas comes to Ravoloe. Raveloe with its easy-going attitudes, is very different, but Silas cannot understand it nor find anything there to comfort him or restore him to his faith. He cut off from other people, loses himself in his work and interested only in the gold he earns. For his work,” Silas was paid in gold”(p.19). Money has never before been important to him. Now, for the first time, he has gold, but he doesn’t have to share it with anyone. Having no real use for it, he starts to save it. He becomes obsessed with only things he does know: work and money. As a result, of his unusual skills in herbal remedies, and his catalepsy, people begin to think Silas is evil, and that he can interfere as well as cure (pp.18-9). They turn against him, and Silas breaks yet again from village life to concentrate on his work and gold. He spends each evening after work enjoying over his gold. He becomes the anchorite.

The next great change in Silas’s life, begins with the theft of his gold. When the villagers meet one evening in the Rainbow, suddenly Silas appears as it from nowhere and lets off the news: ” I have been robbed!”(p.55). When Silas turns to the villagers for help, he has already begun to change because of the country folk’s attitude to him. Realizing how upset Silas is, the villagers ready to help, particularly kind Dolly Winthrop (pp.79-80). She brings Silas food (p.81) and tries to persuade him to attend church(p.83). But he obsessed with the theft so much, that he cannot communicate with villagers who now offer help, and even spends Christmas alone.

Losing the money, however, is really beneficial for Silas. On New Year’s Eve, when Silas opens the door, he slips into one of his trances. When Silas recovers, he sees at first the baby’s hair gleaming in the firelight and thinks it is “his own gold-brought back to him as mysteriously as it had been taken away!”(p.110). But when he touches it, proves to be baby’s hair. He immediately starts to feel emotions he has not felt since his time at Latern Yard: “old quiverings of tenderness’ and a renewed sense of God’s part in his life”(p.111). When the small girl enters Silas’s cottage, his life is changed. He decides to adopt and so take responsibility for Eppie. Thus, Silas beginning life as a foster-parent. He suddenly experiences intuitive love in this child, his gold is gone, but child is come. Not only does he give Eppie all his love, but through Eppie he is reconnected to the community who help him raise her “rightly”. The people are now willing to accept him for Eppie’s sake, and they are kind to him because of his kindness to her. Moreover, Silas learns, through Eppie, to trust God. He goes to church first to have her christened. As Eppie grows, Silas becomes more and more grateful to God for sending her to him. Eppie saves Silas from himself. She replaces the stolen gold in his life and his heart. Because, Silas loves Eppie and cares for her, he starts to see the world through her eyes. Moreover, because of having Eppie, Silas changed from the anchorite to the kindly parent.”Silas’s face showed that sort of transfiguration, as he sat in his arm chair and looked at Eppie”(p.165). When Godfrey challenges Silas’s right to keep Eppie, Silas proves his true goodness of heart. ” Speak to the child. I’ll hinder nothing”(p.171). This is selfless love , because it is shows; Silas wants her to have the best in life, and he doesn’t want decide for Eppie. Eppie’s final choice to stay with Silas confirmed; he wins both Eppie and the gold(pp.169-70). When he arrives from Latern Yard, he realizes that Raveloe is his real home. In spite of the past, Silas now has Eppie, gold and his renewed faith in God and people. Silas’s final words show that he has become a fulfilled person, safe with Eppie and her family: “I shall trusten till I die”(180).

It is the remedial influence of pure, natural, human relations that we learn most about through Silas. Arrival of Eppie changes Silas life and his attitude to money. When the money found again it means nothing to Silas. The only thing that could hurt him would be the loss of Eppie. George Eliot shows that children can change people’s lives, bringing them raison d’etre, hope and happiness.