Silas is given the chance of a fresh start when he uses one of his herbal remedies to cure a local girl, Sally Oates, of a heart disease. Sally informs other villagers about Silas’s aid and he begins to become accepted by the community, but when other villagers ask him for some of his ‘miracle cures,’ he refuses. This proves that although he appears to be short of emotion, he still has morals and ethics. The time in which Silas lived meant that morals and ethics were a way of life, and how many of his actions can be explained. Evidence of this is shown through an earthenware pot. His reaction to this situation also demonstrates that although he may lack feeling, he is not without love. ‘He put his trembling hands to his head, and gave a wild, ringing scream, the cry of desolation’ as the pot breaks and although it is now useless, it is not worthless, so he keeps it for sentimental value.
As Silas earns more and more money from his weaving, it seems to fill him with happiness and satisfaction that is needed from his lack of human companionship and communication. ‘The money had come to mark off his weaving into periods, and the money not only grew, but it remained with him.’ This suggests that Silas has a hidden desire to raise a child, again revealing the love deep inside him. The gold pieces begin to provide stability in his life; he comes to love them as ‘his familiars’ and enjoy their companionship. However, he begins to forget his own need of human companionship and love, and turns to his gold, which soon becomes an unhealthy obsession. Silas looks upon the golden guineas ‘as if they had been unborn children.’ This is another reference to children, and the way he acts towards his gold could represent the love he is willing to give to a child.
There are social divisions within the community, shown through the relationship of Silas and the Godfrey. The time the novel is set means that the social classes were far more important and regarded as eternal. The upper class members of society, such as The Osgood’s, would not mix with those of the lower classes, such as Silas. The Cass family are brought into Silas’s life through the second theft of his gold. Silas, in a state of vulnerability, is forced to ask the community for help in answering the question of providence or larceny. Nevertheless, this has crucially brought him into the community, as they feel sympathetic towards him. Silas has learnt that help must come from outside, so on New Year’s Eve he is waiting expectantly with his door open.
A child follows a bright light to the door of Silas’s cottage. Silas decides to name her ‘Hephzibah,’ after his mother and sister; another reference to his sentimental values. This child changes his life, as Silas believes it is sent from above. Eppie has restored his faith in God and humanity. ‘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 the gold – that the gold had turned into the child.’ Eppie revealed the forgotten, loving nature of Silas. She provides links between Silas and the people of Raveloe, allowing Silas to become an insider. With the help of Eppie, Silas is able to overcome his catalepsy, as she brings him more happiness and joy than he had ever received from the gold. He is also able to unite his old faith with his new one and raise Eppie without means of punishment; an unusual method of nurture for the time in which he lived. “Eppie was a creature of endless claims and ever growing desires, seeking and loving sunshine, and living sounds” Unlike the gold which required nothing, Eppie wanted new experiences and Silas’s instinctive kindness towards her enriches his life, unlike the life of Godfrey which is empty and without meaning.
In contrast to the life of Silas, the rural landowner’s lifestyle appears aimless, indulgent and boring. Lady Cass had died many years previously leaving an all male family. Godfrey Cass the Squire’s eldest son is a feeble, spineless man. He married Molly, a drug addict who is below his class and at that time the situation was unacceptable. Godfrey grew tired of Molly and is left to cope with the consequences, as the miserable and vengeful Molly is determined to reveal herself to the Squire. Yet she freezes to death before she can expose herself and Godfrey’s child to all of Raveloe high society. The place in which Molly is forced to bring up the child is poor and due to Godfrey’s cowardliness he is too ashamed too admit he married below his class and denies his child. He was also unable to divorce Molly as this would give him a bad name and Nancy Lammeter would not respect him or love him. Godfrey’s character is weak, proven by the fact that he always takes the easy way out of a difficult situation. He does what he thinks the community expect of him, not what he thinks is right; but he pays the price as discovered later in the novel. Godfrey knows he should acknowledge that Molly was his wife and that he should claim the child and raise it, but he does not have the ‘moral courage enough to make him for ever uneasy under the weakness that forbade the renunciation.’
Squire Cass is the most respected and wealthiest man in Raveloe, but he is both indulgent and harsh. Always drunk and well known for his temper and patronizing attitude, the Squire does not seem to care about his sons, only his money. Godfrey appears to the Raveloe community as “a fine open faced, good natured young fellow,” but this is only a perception, as he does in fact have the same priorities as his father. Just as his father chose money instead of caring for his two sons; Godfrey chose money and status over Molly and Eppie. The squire is deceived by Godfrey more than once about the rent received from the tenant Fowler, which he has lent to Dunstan. The opportunity for Godfrey to confess, but he cannot bring himself to face the consequences, as the punishment would have been far harsher than today. The squire’s younger son, Dunstan Cass is a reckless, manipulative man who will do anything or say anything to get what he wants. Dunsey blackmails Godfrey with the secret of his marriage and steals Silas’s money. He is thought to have disappeared somewhere, but his dead body is found in the stone-pits when it is drained sixteen years later. He is attracted to greed and wealth, and has no conscience at all. Both Godfrey and Dunstan threaten to tell all to the squire, and their shifting of responsibility on to each other shows how weak the characters really are. Godfrey is nervous of his lies escaping into the open and feels guilty for abandoning his child, so he lives for the moment only to regret it after. “He would rather go on sitting at the feast and sipping the wine he loved, though with a sword hanging over him.”
The Lammeter family, as the other main landowners in Raveloe, represent contrasting values to the Cass’s (as their surnames suggest.) The head of the family is a sober, strong-minded widower, with two contrasting daughters. Nancy is the beautiful younger daughter with the love of Godfrey Cass. She is a product of the 19th century and is greatly influenced by the community around her, like Godfrey. She is very talented and of strong principle, and although she has had a narrow upbringing and education she has a kind, loving character; yet society continues to mould her into a narrow-minded woman. Nancy is unlike other Raveloe women, as she actually does the chores herself and refuses to marry Godfrey until he can prove that he is the man she wants him to be. When they are eventually married, she tries to make him happy, but feels that she somehow is lacking in her duties as a wife as she had adamantly refused to adopt a child after she had a miscarriage. When Dunstan and the gold are found, Godfrey feels it is the right time to confess all to Nancy; as he fears God is catching up with him.
During the sixteen-year gap in the novel, Nancy’s sense of politeness and respectability has influenced Godfrey’s lifestyle, as his character has given way to routine, order and accountability. The couple is now childless, which both unites and separates them. Godfrey tries to repair the misunderstanding through the adoption of Eppie, but Nancy denies him this compensation fore within the rigidly ordered Lammeter world there is a strong belief in providence. Due to her upbringing and religious beliefs she believes that if God has not naturally given her a child then he does not want her to have a child at all. This is the price that Godfrey must pay for failing to claim his own child those many years ago. Nancy has managed to influence Godfrey to become more honest and mature. Godfrey describes that to be with Nancy is to have a life of “industry, sobriety and peace,” as she believes in a world of “rigid principles” which she firmly insists on upholding. During the time in which Nancy lived, a happy marriage was what most young women desired, and Nancy had it all. Even when Nancy discovers the truth about Eppie, she is tolerant and understanding which shows that her character has mellowed with age.
Godfrey’s marriage to Nancy is both his salvation and his nemesis. He is shocked by Nancy’s understanding and accepting reaction and an example of the emotion she appears to lack. However, Godfrey does not seem to entirely trust Nancy’s reaction and is torn between her morals and ethics and his own wishes. He is now intent on claiming Eppie as the ‘blessing’ denied from his marriage and in turn putting right all those years of secrecy and irresponsibility. This worries Silas as he is scared that Eppie will disappear like the gold, as mysterious as before, leaving him with nothing. Silas rebukes Godfrey for not claiming her sixteen years ago, but all Godfrey has in return is his argument of blood; he shows no love or companionship towards her. Silas believes he has a right to keep her, “when a man turns a blessing from his door, it falls on them as take it in.” Eppie loves Silas, the only family she has ever known, and refuses to leave him stating that ‘nobody shall ever come between us.’ This makes Godfrey angry, but he soon realizes that her refusal to be with him is his punishment for not taking her in as his daughter years before. Godfrey and Nancy accept Eppie's decision, and through this rejection, Godfrey is forced, in turn, to move on. Neither Godfrey nor Silas can go back into the past, fore even Lantern Yard has disappeared, when Silas returns there at the end of the novel. As Eppie and Aaron get married Silas uses the wedding ring he had removed from Molly and gives it to Eppie. This is a clear reference to the sentiment and love that now fills his heart.
The characters, Silas Marner, Godfrey Cass and Nancy Lammeter cannot be fully understood without an awareness of the time and place in which the novel is set because many of their responses to difficult situations were based on their upbringing and religious beliefs. The three main characters represent the different layers of the community and social classes. This novel is about human companionship, and proves that human love, especially the love of a child, is worth far more than gold.
