Silas Marner Essay - What changes does Eppie bring about in Silas?

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What changes does Eppie bring about in Silas?

 ‘A child, more than all other gifts that earth can offer to declining man, brings hope with it, and forward looking thoughts’.

The meaning of this quotation is that a child more than any other gifts in the world can bring happiness to a declining man, a man like Silas Marner.

      Silas Marner is an anti-social man. He has spent fifteen years in silence and isolation; he has no friends or family because of his behaviour towards people. Silas was deeply upset when someone stole his gold coins, until one day the arrival of Eppie changed him. Silas has learnt to love instead of keeping to himself, he has forgotten about his gold, he has become more socialized because Eppie has brought him something to live for, happiness and love.

     George Eliot the pen name of Mary Ann Evans believed that the city was a terrible place to live and the countryside was a much better place. She thought that the city was a dark and dull place because of all the factories in the city creating pollution. She thought that the people of the city looked like ‘the remnants of a disinherited race’. People who lived in the city were pale and undersized, they were alien-looking.  George Eliot thinks the countryside is a better place to live because there aren’t factories surrounding the place; it isn’t dark and dull like the city. The people who lived there ‘brawny country folk’ were tanned and healthy because they worked outside in the sun instead of working inside all the time. Silas’s journey represents the journey of a person’s life. Eppie helps Silas on his journey by giving him a chance to start over again; she helps him forget all that has happened in Lantern Yard. George Eliot wants people to take a journey and learn from it like Silas Marner did, Silas learnt that there was more to life then material possessions and that nothing can replace a love of a person.

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        In the beginning of the novel it mentions that Silas is living in Raveloe, a flashback then takes place back to fifteen years when Silas didn’t live in Raveloe but a place called Lantern Yard. This place is where events took place causing Silas to leave Lantern Yard. Silas was part of a religious sect in Lantern Yard. One day during a prayer meeting, Silas suffered from one of his cataleptic fits which would cause him to stand still like a statue for hours. During this time Silas’s best friend, William Dane said that his fits ...

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