He became money orientated because he had no friends and no family to keep him company. The money was like his only companion and his family. His money is so important to him because he doesn’t have any friends or family or a social life and his life is devoted to working. Counting the money is like a break from his work, but he gets obsessed.
“Marner wanted the heaps of ten to grow into a square, and then into a larger square; and every added guinea, while it was itself a satisfaction, bred a new desire … but the money had come to mark off his weaving into periods, and the money not only grew but it remained with him.”
This is important because it shows how Silas is obsessed with his money and that it remained with him not like his friends and family who had banished him from Lantern Yard. As he was set up by his best friend, William Dane who later married Silas’ ex-fiancée. This is why he was in Raveloe and why he is obsessed with money because he doesn’t have anything else to look upon apart from his work.
Silas has always had fits throughout his life due to a bad childhood with his mother and sister dying. He has fits to help him live with the fact that his mother and sister had died. It is like an illness.
“that on coming up to him he saw that Marner’s eyes were set like a dead man’s, and he spoke to him, and his limbs were stiff, and his hands clutched the bag as if they’d been made of iron; but just as he had made up his mind that the weaver was dead, he came alright again, like, as you might say in the winking of an eye, and said “good night”, and walked off.”
Having fits is Silas’ way of escaping from his life and forgetting about it for a while.
Eppie comes to Raveloe with her mother, Molly Farren, because Molly is determined to tell Squire Cass that his son, Godfrey has a wife and daughter. Due to Molly’s addiction to opium she is unwell. As she is walking through the snow with Eppie in her arms she collapses and dies. Eppie follows a cat to Silas’ cottage. He feeds her and cares for her. Then he follows her footprints in the snow to find her dead mother. Silas goes to Squire Cass for help. Godfrey is confused by the child in Silas’ arms but is pleased that Molly is dead because he hadn’t told anyone about his marriage and child. Now he can marry Nancy Lammeter without having to tell her about Molly. Silas decides to adopt Eppie. The villagers now begin to accept him into the community.
After Eppie had arrived Silas was not money orientated or a work-a-holic anymore and he stopped having fits because he had something special in his life and was pre-occupied with Eppie. Silas had started to turn into a different person; he made friends and became a part of Raveloe’s community. He was a lot more cheerful and happy with his life. Eppie helped him forget about the past and look at the present and towards the future so he stopped having fits.
“As the child’s mind was growing into knowledge his mind was growing into memory; as her life unfolded, his soul, long stupefied in a cold narrow prison, was unfolding too, and trembling gradually into full consciousness”
This quote is important because it describes how Silas feels and how he is overcoming his fits and getting total consciousness back. He overcomes his fits because he is part of the community and has Eppie to look after and care for so he looks to the future instead of dwelling on the past. He is no longer negative about life he has become friendly and wants to make friends where as before he didn’t want any friends and didn’t try to make friends.
“But I want to do things for it myself, else it may get fond o’ somebody else, and not fond o’ me. I’ve been used to fending for myself in the house – I can learn, I can learn.”
This shows that Silas is positive about Eppie. He is eager to learn to look after her. Silas has become friendly since Eppie came, before he wouldn’t have really talked to Dolly Winthrop but now he does because she helps him to look after Eppie and teaches him new things.
Since Eppie arrived Silas has had a responsibility for her. He cares for her.
“Marner took her on his lap, trembling with an emotion mysterious to himself, at something unknown dawning on his life. Thought and feeling were so confused within him, that if he had tried to give them utterance, he could only have said that the child was come instead of his gold – that the gold had turned into the child.”
This shows that Silas cares for Eppie and loves her. His responsibilities had turned into love and care. He cares for Eppie more than he cared for his gold. Eppie is worth more than all of his Gold that he had.
In order to analyse the development of Silas Marner’s character in the novel I have paid particular attention to the change after he finds Eppie. Before Silas finds Eppie he was money orientated, work-a-holic, isolated, bitter old man. After he found Eppie she changed his life completely. He changed to a positive, friendly, not money orientated or a work-a-holic man and he changed from being unsociable to being a main part of the community.
By Katie Sheridan 10JKa 07/02/03 page