Silas lost hope in God and in humanity and left Lantern Yard and moved to Raveloe. The people of Raveloe thought of Silas as an ‘alien like creature’. They thought this because Silas used to live in seclusion. Silas who was now a weaver of Raveloe was very wealthy but on the other hand he was also a miser. He had been hoarding gold for fifteen years. It was known by the people of Raveloe that he had a large amount of wealth hoarded somewhere. After fifteen years of hard work, he was suddenly robbed. On New Years Eve after Silas was robbed, he was told that, “If you listen to the New Years Eve bells it will bring you good luck”. He stood outside his cottage and started to listen to the New Years Eve bells. While he was listening to the bells, he had one of his regular cataleptic fits. While he was having his regular cataleptic fits, a toddler walked into his cottage and helped itself next to the fireplace. After a short while Silas regained consciousness and went back inside the cottage. He was looking down at the floor and saw some gold; he was shocked and astonished, that his gold had all of a sudden returned back to him. In actual fact he mistook the golden curls of the toddler for his gold due to his blurred vision. He went closer to the toddler and had realised that he had mistook a toddler’s hair for his gold. Silas’s parental instincts made him feed the baby then he took its shoes off for it because it was complaining that they were wet. There are two plots running simultaneously through the novel. One story is about Silas and when he got robbed and when and how he finds a child, the other plot is the plot of an upper class gentry called the Squire family. These two plots start to merge when the Squire’s son robs Silas but these two plots completely merge together when Silas finds the daughter of the Squire’s eldest son. This part is ironic because Dunstan who is the Squire’s son expects Silas to fall into the stone pits but he himself falls into the stone pits. Therefore Dunstan receives his nemesis when he falls into the stone pits. Silas’s treasure is in Dunstan’s possession and Dunstan’s treasure is in Silas’s possession. Dunstan possesses Silas’s gold and Silas possesses Dunstan’s niece which makes this whole plot ironic.
After Silas fed the toddler and took the toddlers shoes off, it started to cry ‘mammy’ and ran outside to where its mother was lying. Silas followed the child and saw a woman buried into the snow, half covered, Silas immediately went running to the Red house where there was a party taking place, he ran inside intruding the party and shouted ‘I’m come for the doctor. I want the doctor’. He had the child in his hands and when Godfrey saw the child he started to panic and thought that any moment now his secret wife Molly Farren would walk in and reveal their secret marriage and that the proof lies in that child who bears a resemblance to him. Then Silas told the people that there is a woman, who is lying next to the stone- pits and he presumes that she is dead. Shortly later Mrs. Kimble asked Silas to leave the child here 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 was uttered by Silas with a strong sudden impulse, which even struck Silas. These were his reasons for wanting to keep her. Godfrey went with Silas to see if his wife was dead and Mrs. Dolly Winthrop saw him and said to him that you are a kind hearted person whereas he really went to reassure himself that she is dead which means in actual fact she is stone hearted. Godfrey saw his wife and was reassured that she is dead and he later on says to Silas that he should give the child to the church but Silas says no and Silas says he is going to look after her and keep her, So Godfrey gives him some money for her care and he rejected his own flesh and blood.
Silas hoarded gold for fifteen years and never let anybody touch it an he used to show all his possessiveness over it, he also used to love his money as he used to count it every night. One night whilst he was weaving he ran out of thread, he went to get some thread and came back home to find his money had been stolen. After his money had been stolen, he never had anything to show his possessiveness over, but when he found Eppie, he started showing the same possessiveness over her as he had showed to his gold. Silas says at the Red House, ‘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’. Silas is showing his possessiveness over the child as he is trying to say that the child needs to be loved and if they stay together then they both will get what is parted from them and they will be loved by each other.
Whilst Silas was weaving, He tied Eppie with a string to the table, So that she doesn’t go outside. Whilst Silas was weaving Eppie cut the string that she was tied with and ran out of the cottage. After a while Silas looks around and realises that she has ran out and he goes after her and catches her and brings her back. Silas decides to discipline her so that she doesn’t do it again. He punishes her by putting her in the coal-hole. After a while he feels sorry for her, so he lets her out and gives her a wash. After giving her a wash he goes back to his loom and starts weaving again and he saw Eppie coming to him covered in black coal and she says to him “Eppie in da toal-hole” and he realises that Eppie never took his punishment seriously. Silas in actual fact does not like disciplining Eppie because he thinks that if he disciplined Eppie then she might love him less and he doesn’t want that to happen to him, so he tries to refrain from punishing Eppie because he wants her to always like him. This again goes back to his desperate need to be lived.
Silas tells Eppie about her mother and how Eppie walked into his cottage at Christmas Eve, when the bells were ringing. Eppie is aware and knows that she is not Silas’s biological daughter, Eppie loves Silas and Silas loves Eppie too. Silas knows that he isn’t her biological father but he loves her like a biological father would do. When Godfrey goes to Silas to claim Eppie, he tells Eppie that he is her biological father but she just takes it in one ear and takes it out of the other, and she still accepts Silas as her father and doesn’t accept Godfrey who is really her biological father.
Godfrey accepts that he has been punished twice. He has been punished by Nancy being infertile and secondly been punished by Eppie rejecting him. Godfrey needed some pipes to go to his fields to give water, so he ordered the people of the village to take the water out of the stone-pits for drainage, for some of his fields. When he ordered it and it was emptied there was a body found there, which was his Brother Dunstan’s body and there was Silas Marner’s gold lain beside Dunstan’s body. Godfrey was called quickly by the people of the village and Godfrey saw his brother’s body and was shocked and astonished that his brother had committed such a crime. After seeing his brothers body, he rushed home and said to Nancy, ‘Its Dunstan- My Brother Dunstan, that we lost sight of sixteen years ago. We’ve found him, found his body- his skeleton’. Then he tells her ‘Dunstan was the man that robbed Silas Marner’. Then he tells her that when he married her, he kept something hidden from her and then he tells her that he was married before and he also told her that Eppie is his biological daughter.
Then Nancy reminisces about the past and wishes that she could have let Godfrey adopt Eppie before. Then they both decide to go to Silas Marner’s cottage to adopt Eppie. When it was dark they went to Silas Marner’s cottage and announced to him that they would like to adopt Eppie because they need someone to make use of the Red House. Silas felt like his soul was being taken out of his body and Silas told Godfrey ‘You might as well take the heart out o’ my body’. This was the way Silas was feeling because he knew that if she was gone, then there would have been no one to talk to him and he would be lonely again.
Silas used to be a miser before Eppie came into his life. After Eppie came into his life he suddenly transformed, he transformed from a miser into a kind, generous and loving person. Eppie asks Silas for things and he immediately buys them for her, for example Eppie asked Silas, ‘I wish we had a garden, father, with double daisies like Mrs. Winthrop’s’, and Silas says, ‘Yes I could do it for you if you want a bit o’ garden’. Now Silas has dogs, cats and even has a donkey. He has started to believe in god again and has faith in humanity. He doesn’t weave all day now. He is long-sighted now whereas before he was short-sighted. All these transformations were due to Eppie.
Squire Cass was proud of his son Godfrey because he was going to be the heir to his estate and take his position as The Squire. They had a good bond and the Squire treated him well but he spoiled him a little because there was no motherly figure in the house, but there were not always good relations in The Red House, because if you take the Squire and his youngest son Dunstan for example, they never had a good bond because Dunstan used to come home drunk and the Squire took him as a disgrace, but the main reason why Dunstan was spoiled because there was no motherly figure in their house. Dolly and Aaron have a good bond because they like each other and Dolly is proud of Aaron.
Squire Cass and Godfrey’s relationship, Dolly and Aaron’s relationship are all similar to Silas and Eppie’s relationship, because they are proud of each other.
But The Squire and Dunstan’s relationship is different to Silas and Eppie’s relationship because the Squire hates his son, Whereas Silas likes his adopted daughter.
I conclude that children do bring hopes and forward looking thoughts to the characters in the novel, for example, Silas used to be a miser, he lost faith in humanity and used to live in solitude. But when he found Eppie he transformed. Nancy was infertile which meant that Godfrey could not have children. They both were sad and oftenly used to wonder about who is going to take over the Red House after them and who is going to look after them once they get older. So therefore I conclude that children do bring hope and for ward looking thoughts to characters in the novel.
BY:
EHSAAN ALI
