However, in spite of his loss of faith in people and his attempt to shut himself off from the world, he still has not lost all feeling. Word gets around the village and everyone thinks that he is like the "Wise Woman of Tarley" and can cure people with all sorts of illnesses. However, when people go and ask him to help, “Silas now found himself and his cottage beset by mothers”, he is unable or unwilling to help them so he tells them to go away, this makes them dislike Marner even more.
In spite of his isolation and rejection of others, Silas has the capacity to love, this is shown when he accidentally breaks his favourite pot, “the brown pot could never be of any use to him any more, but he sticks the pieces together”. He keeps the pot because he was fond of it. In addition, Elliot is showing that Silas has not lost all his feelings. She is also highlight how memories, from the past, can keep us in touch with our inner selves.
All the love that he lost in Lantern Yard had left a hole in Silas. However after a while on working his loom and getting money the love is replaced by the gold that he is earning, “his guineas rising in the iron pot, and his life narrowing and hardening itself more ad more into a mere pulsation of desire and satisfaction that had no relation to any other being.” This shows that even though Silas had lost love at Lantern Yard he has replaced it with a love for his money, which he looks upon as his only friends. He could also be using the gold as if he was going to repay the gold that he apparently stolen at Lantern Yard.
However, Silas is an innocent. Although he loves his money very much, “Yet few men could be more harmless than poor Marner.” He would never do anything to harm another person to get it
When Silas comes back, he finds that his money has been stolen. However at first he does not accept the fact that his money has gone, “A man falling in to dark water seeks a momentary footing, even on sliding stones” this imagery is used to shows that Silas is trying to keep a grasp on reality while falling in to despair. When Silas comes out his initial shock he goes in to fright, “His heart leaps violently.”, “his trembling hand”, “lifts his hand to his head, trying to steady himself.” All these show that Silas is very distressed when he realises that his money in not there and he gets a terror attack. This type of language also makes the reader feel what Silas is feeling when he is crying out in despair when he finds his money gone.
When Silas accepts that his money has been stolen, his reaction is to go do to the pub and accuse Jem Rodney. When he gets to the pub, the villagers first think that Silas is a ghost, but when he first speaks, he says, “Robbed! ... I have been robbed! I want the constable-and the Justice-and Squire Cass-and Mr Crackenthorp.” This show he is in shock because the sentences are broken, he is confused because he does not know who robbed him, he is angry because he shouts the words out. When he Silas accuses Jem he denies it and the villagers in the pub back him up on his story. When Silas realises that he has wrongly accused Jem he asks Jem to forgive him. He does this because he remembers of when he was wrongly accused and how he felt.
When the villagers realise that Silas has lost all of his money they say that they will try to help Silas the best that they can. The villagers also change their point of view of Silas after this incident because they thought that Silas was in league with the Devil but seen as Silas has lost his money they do not believe this because it should not have happened if he was in league with the devil. They see him as “poor, mushed creature”. This shows that the villagers do not see him as evil but as human as them and not in league with the devil. After this incident, the villagers start to visit him more often and Silas accepts them to come in to his life. This shows that Silas has started to feel more because he is becoming part of the community.
Further, on in the novel, it shows the extent of Silas' despair. He cannot even find comfort in the thought of earning new gold because it will remind him of what he has lost, “Silas himself was feeling the withering desolation of that bereavement.” This shows that Silas is feeling grief because he has lost something close to him. The community rally round and try to help Silas, especially Dolly Winthrop. The extent of Silas’ grief is emphasised by Elliot’s choice of language, she starts using imagery, which emphasises the extent of Silas’ grief because we are able to visualise it.
When he sees Eppie’s hair, he thinks it is his gold, and that it has come back, “Gold-his own gold- brought back to him as mysteriously as it was taken away!” This shows that he thinks that Eppie’s hair is his gold. When he goes to touch her hair, he finds out that it is not his gold, “a sleeping child”. Once Silas had wakened Eppie, he started to feed her. This all shows that because Silas saw Eppie as his gold at first he thinks that Eppie is his own. This also shows that Silas is now starting to fill the place where the gold had been in him with love for Eppie rather than grief for his lost money. As well, it shows that Silas is starting to loose his grief and it is changing in to love and love of life.
From the beginning, Eppie has had a place in Silas’ heart, his parental feelings are shown when the women at the Red House to Silas, they try to persuade Silas to give up Eppie but he says, “No-no- I can’t part with it, I can’t let it go, It’s come to me-I’ve a right to keep it.” This shows that his love for Eppie is growing by the second because he will not let the women take it because he thinks it is his. His love for Eppie is beginning to replace his gold in his feelings.
The villagers take a keen interest and want to help him because of Eppie. Silas cannot explain how things have turned out but he feels very paternal towards the child. Although Silas is grateful for the help, he wants to care for her himself. Eppie has made a change on Silas’ life by making him being able to love other things rather than gold. With Eppie has become more part of the community, than when he felt in love with his past gold. "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 shows that with Eppie, Silas can love her and she can show him love where as the gold could not. It is also showing how that while Eppie is learning Silas is as well. Eppie is also making Silas come in to the real world and not seclude himself.
Silas has his own way of bringing up Eppie "without punishment". This is shown when Silas had tied Eppie to his loom as he worked. However, Eppie cut the rope and ran of to the stone pit. When Silas found out that she was gone, he went out to find her, when he did, he, “…snatch her up and covered her with half-sobbing kisses.” This shows that he is feeling as if Eppie is his. However, after the initial joy has finished he thinks that he should punish her, and puts her in to the coal cupboard. Nevertheless, Silas was reluctant to put Eppie in the coal cupboard because he does not want to cause her to dislike him. When Silas found Eppie though he said that he was, “…finding his treasure again” this shows that Silas now sees Eppie as his treasure or gold. In the Victorian times, it was looked upon that parents should punish their children, so this is why Elliot is making such a big thing out of Silas not wanting to punish Eppie.
In the second part of the novel, which takes place sixteen years later, we are shown how Silas' life has turned out and how Eppie has grown up. Silas is shown as very different man from the one who left Lantern Yard all those years ago. This is shown when Elliot says, “His large brown eyes seem to have gathered a longer vision” This shows that Silas is now able to see the bigger picture in life, and that he has a more answering look so not so many people are not afraid of him. Elliot shows Silas feeling to Eppie are of love because Silas says, “For when Eppie’ talking o’things, I see nothing but what she a saying.” This shows that Silas does not wish to do any thing except of what Eppie wants to do.
Silas also takes up the habit of; “smoking a pipe daily” This shows that Silas is making an effort of fitting in to the community for Eppie. He also starts smoking a pipe because the doctor says that it will help his fits. Silas relates his past with his present life "he recovered a consciousness of unity between his past and present" by starting to go to church and taking part in the community. This is now showing that Silas is very different from when he first came to Raveloe because he was a very isolated man that did not take part in the community. As well, it shows that Silas is doing what he can so that he cannot isolate Eppie off from the community.
Silas is not keen to the idea of Eppie marrying but this is only because he does not want to be left alone. However, he does not want to become a burden on Eppie. This is shown when Eppie starts talking to Silas about marriage, “anxious lest he should fall in to the slightest tone that was not for Eppie’s good” This shows that Silas does not want Eppie to marry because he does not want to be left on his own. Eppie reassures him by saying, “But you’ll never be lone again father, that was what Aaron said.” This shows that both Eppie and Aaron do not want to leave Silas on his own. However, Silas dose not mind Eppie marrying because he does not want to leave her on her own or be a burden to her.
At this part of the novel, we can see that Silas only wants what is best for her and will let her make her own choices. Godfrey and Nancy Cass' visit and proposal to raise Eppie as a lady. When Silas hears this he says, “Eppie my child speak, I won’t stand in your way.” This shows that Silas wants the best for Eppie even if it means losing her, because he loves her so much. However, Eppie’s reaction to this is, “We’ve been used to being happy together every day, and knowing him sitting at home, thinking if me and felling lone”. This shows that Eppie is not willing to leave Silas just because her blood father just comes along, says come with me, and have a wealthy life. In addition, it shows that Eppie will stand by her father because she loves him very much.
Near the end of the novel, Silas is shown that he can trust once again. When Silas and Eppie go to find Lantern Yard, they discover that it has long disappeared and a factory stands in its place. Silas tells Dolly how he will never find out whether his name was cleared, but in a sense this no longer matters to him because he has regained his ability to trust in God and other people, "I think I shall trusten till I die.". This is important because it shows that by Eppie, Silas’ feeling have changed from when he first came to Raveloe. They have changed from when he could not trust to now.
The novel shows that Silas’ feeling change a lot in the novel. At first, he is a very trusting man who believes in God. However, all of this is lost when he is falsely accused of robbery. When he comes to Raveloe, he isolates himself until Eppie comes along and brings him back to life by her learning and her joy. At the end of the novel, we see that Silas is now able to trust people, he believes in God and that he is part of the community. This is what all of George Elliot’s books are saying, that we should be part of the community and be in touch with our inner selves.
