Godfrey tries to be a good father but instead of showing his feelings through love and care for his daughter, Eppie, he tries to do it by giving money to help bring her up on and when she is older making her a Lady and rich. When Eppie is young and living with Molly, Godfrey rarely visits and on the odd occasion he does, takes no notice of his daughter. He doesn’t show any feelings towards her, just sees her because he believes it a fathers duty to give money towards her upbringing, not through love and his own willingness to do so. Godfrey appears to have the makings of a good person, but is too mentally weak to be able to believe in anything but chance. Godfrey is selfish. The reason he doesn’t do more for Eppie is that he is selfish and worries about his self image and what people would think if they found out he had married a drug addict, and also doesn’t want anything to get in the way of him courting Nancy.
Silas Marner is Eliot’s perfect model of a father. He is loving and caring and doesn’t believe in punishment. Due to Silas’s past experiences in Lantern Yard, for the first 15 years he finds it difficult to direct his emotion to anywhere but his money. Because of the way he looked and excluded himself, no one in Raveloe became friendly with Silas when he arrived and thought of him as a miser ‘spinning like an insect’ at his loom in his cottage alone. Once his money is discovered missing, Silas looses an object to direct his emotion towards. This is eventually replaced with Eppie who grows up to be a fine young woman.
We immediately see a close interaction between Silas and Eppie. When they are first together at the party, they immediately feel for each other. Silas does not want to let her go from his arms nor go to the workhouse to live. There love for each other continually builds. Eppie recognises Silas as her father almost straight away, for example, on their first evening together, they sit in front of the fire in Silas’s cottage. Eppie touches Silas face playfully and on setting her eyes upon Godfrey, turns away having not realised he was her natural father. Silas repeatedly demonstrates how much he cares for Eppie for example, when she walks he worries she may fall over and when she runs outside becomes distraught at the prospect she may get lost or injure herself in some way. In this instance he feels he must punish her although he doesn’t want to and so he simply shuts her in the coal cupboard, which she enjoys. Instead of raising her with punishment, he turns to raising her with love. Prior to the arrival of Eppie, Silas was very introspective and only had himself to worry about but now he has to care for Eppie, which has re-awoken his old emotions and gained him many friends from Raveloe. His love for her is also shown by the name he chooses to call her, ‘Hepzibah’ meaning my love is in her. Eppie could be described as a plant. Silas helps her to grow and in turn grows himself becoming accepted in the community and letting people into his life.
Although Silas loves Eppie greatly, he lets her make her own decisions in matters like moving to live with Godfrey. Silas is not selfish, but would hate to see Eppie leave, as she is the love of his life saying ‘I won’t stand in your way’. Eppie is grateful for everything Silas has done for her and wouldn’t leave him as he wouldn’t like to see her go, shown in the quotations ‘He’s took care of me and loved me from the first, and I’ll cleave to him as long as he lives, and nobody shall ever come between him and me’. For the duration of the meeting with Nancy and Godfrey, Eppie remains close to Silas and they are normally holding hands, this is another example of how close the pair are.
Eliot’s ideal fathering role is Silas Marner. He loves Eppie and treats her well, letting her make decisions on her own to lead her own life. Godfrey means to be a good father but he is mentally weak and doesn’t show his love thorough emotion but by money, which isn’t a sign of good parenting. Squire spoilt Dunstan and Godfrey which made them expect people to do everything for them in life and also greedy.
