George Eliot is not being too complementary to Marner and I think she is trying to create the feeling that he belongs to an unfortunate, frail and unprivileged group of society hence inflicting reader sympathy upon him. We also know that Marner works ardently in a stone cottage on literally, the outskirts of society. Eliot also mentions ‘deserted’ in the passage, an obvious reference to Marner’s presence (or non-presence) in the village.
So from that quote we are aware of Marner’s appearance, that he is treated with suspicion by onlookers due to the mysterious nature of his species, and we can also assume he is a loner, engrossed in his work on the outskirts of society.
We first meet Godfrey in the third paragraph of chapter three:
‘But it would be a thousand pities if Mr. Godfrey, the eldest, a fine open-faced, good-natured young man who has come into the world, some day, should take to going along the same road as his brother, as he had seemed to do of late.’
This gives us a lot of information about what Godfrey is like. We have a physical description and, more importantly, a description of his personality and social status. He is described as a good-natured young man who is the heir to the
‘greatest man in Raveloe’, Squire Cass.
Nevertheless, he is not just daddy’s little rich boy; he is inclined to go down the road his brother took, that of betting, gambling and drinking. The fact that Eliot says it would ‘be a thousand pictures’ if Cass were to go down this road is significant. The quote is suggesting that this is not Godfrey’s real nature, at heart he is a very respectable young man and it would be unfortunate if he were to sidetrack from his ethics in search of a more daring lifestyle. What’s more, Godfrey would not have felt too self-conscious or guilty at doing this because at this time in history it was actually very common for men in his position to stray away from their respectable traditions and deviate into dishonourable exploits.
We now have a brief description of what both characters are like before any sort of change, so we can now go on to look at how they have changed. I think it is important to discuss in what categories we will monitor change. I need to describe what I mean when I refer to change.
In the first sentence of the essay, we have the definition of what change is; but in what mediums can ‘become different’ refer to? Therefore, in order to prevent further speculation, when I speak of change in this essay, I am referring to changes of personality or character, physical appearance, emotional or mental changes, domestic changes and social changes.
So, from this conclusion, what examples of ‘change’ can we extract from the text in reference to the lives of Mr. Marner and Mr. Cass?
As previously mentioned, Silas Marner is a story about redemption, and in most cases including this one, redemption is about love. There are many relationships in the story that are pivotal to the plot and without these relationships, events that have taken place would not have and the story wouldn’t have ended with the confrontation between Marner and Cass.
The first relationship we come across is that between Marner and Sarah Oates at Lantern Yard, mentioned in the first chapter. This is a very significant relationship in the story, though only briefly described. Silas loves Sarah dearly and is led to believe her love is genuine in return, for it is only financial barriers that prevent them from marrying:
‘waiting only for a little increase to their mutual savings in order to their marriage’.
However, what Marner is unfortunately unaware of is Sarah’s feelings towards his best friend, William Dane:
‘(it was a great delight to him that) Sarah did not object to William’s occasional presence in their Sunday interviews.’
The relationship between Sarah and Dane causes Marner’s engagement to fall apart and this obviously has a major psychiatric effect on him. Yet I do not believe this is the reason Marner was in emotional exile for so long.
Most of the relationships in the story are not romantic relationships; only this and one other out of many are fuelled by romance. Instead, most of the relationships are about fraternal or paternal love – a completely different dimension of the word ‘love’.
The fraternal love that exists between Marner and Dane is the important relationship here, not that involving Sarah Oates. Marner and Dane were so close they compared to the biblical friends, David and Jonathan:
‘he had long lived in such close friendship that it was the custom of their Lantern Yard brethren to call them David and Jonathan’.
Going back to one of the above quotes, I added brackets round one section because it is not significant until now. Marner was obviously ignorant of Sarah and Dane’s relationship because he was quite happy with Dane being there. He wanted Dane to be there himself, maybe even more than Sarah did. It was the breakdown of this relationship with Dane, his closest sole mate known, which was the reason for the primary change in Marner. The change that included his moving home, the cause of his insanity that made him lose all touch with society, all confidence in himself, and all trust in other people.
Marner’s next significant relationship in the novel is with his new acquired fortune that he has accumulated in his fifteen years of vocational labour. The importance of this relationship isn’t about how much it’s worth or it’s material value, the relationship isn’t actually between Marner and this money, it is specifically about Gold. As we will come to see, the fact that it is gold is extremely important, gold holds much more weight and dramatic influence than money, coins or riches could. Marner subconsciously replaces Sarah with the gold. The gold is the all-important solo aspect in his life; to Marner it is everything, he buries himself in his work, so to:
‘bridge over the loveless chasms of his life’.
Marner is a monomaniac; he is concentrating on one thing in life hence diverting his attentions away from his troubles. He now lives in a:
‘wooded region, where he felt hidden even from the heavens’.
He does not want to notice anyone and he does not want to have anything to do with any other human or even celestial being; Silas Marner wants to be in control of Silas Marner’s life. The human race has betrayed him, he can no longer trust anyone from it and instead turns to something that can offer no resistance and he can simply enjoy the gold’s companionship. To him the gold is a solution to all his problems and he can occupy himself with its trusting company. So from these two relationships we have an example of change, how Marner has rejected human love in favour of a constant, one-way relationship that carries no conditions.
From looking at the changes in those two relationships and the effects that are of a consequence of them, we have identified how Marner has changed in the aftermath emotionally, domestically and socially. We can now compare these changes to the changes that occur to Godfrey because of his relationships.
When we first meet Godfrey, we soon become aware of his character and the type of lady he ‘should’ be courting, Nancy Lammeter for example; but we are made aware of a relationship of a very different nature that he is already participating in. It is apparent that he is married and has a child with Molly Farren, a peasant drug-addict and alcoholic, outside of Raveloe. This relationship would bring disgrace to him, his family and Raveloe itself, how he became involved in it in the first place is never explained.
The laudanum Molly is addicted to does eventually kill her and, unsurprisingly this ends the relationship. Somewhat overlapping this marriage is Godfrey’s relationship with Ms. Lammeter. We know she comes from an upper class background, much unlike Molly, and is a very suitable partner to match the position of Godfrey. Upon examining these relationships, it does not take a genius to notice there is more than just a little contrast. Nancy is undoubtedly the right partner for Godfrey and why he was in the other relationship is a mystery, we do not know why Godfrey’s relationships changed so much, but they did and this is important to the story. If Cass had not left Molly, then the affair on the night of years eve would never had happened and the resulting quarter of the book would have been non-existent. This change in Cass’s relationship is significant and has an affect on the plot and his character. Later on in the book having married Nancy, he appears a much wiser, philosophical man because of his past experiences.
All the relationships discussed so far result in the presence of Eppie. Being the biological daughter of Molly and Cass, she is brought to Raveloe by Molly, abandoned by Cass and somehow makes her way into Marner’s cottage. Upon seeing this ‘marvel’ Marner was taken aback, for surely this was:
‘Gold! – his own gold – brought back to him as mysteriously as it had been taken away!’
These first impressions upon seeing the child are very important, we all know he has made the simple mistake of mistaking a child’s golden hair for golden coins, after all he was short-sighted. Perhaps this is an indication of how much he has missed the gold since it was stole from him and how much he has anticipated it actually returning one day. However when he realises it is a child, he becomes just as besotted with its charms because for the first time since his relationships back at Lantern Yard:
‘it stirred fibres that had never been moved in Raveloe – old quiverings of tenderness’.
As Eppie grows, so does the relationship grow and Marner remembers what it is like to love again. He loved the gold, but Eppie is an adequate substitute for this. Remember, Marner first noticed her golden, curly locks of hair and this has remained symbolic throughout Marner’s adoration with the child. Marner has changed back to his old, sane self. He has changed back again and this will result in him keeping his golden treasure.
Meanwhile Cass, no doubt affectionate for his child, is content with Marner’s stewardship of Eppie. Where Marner is able to accept the responsibility of keeping Eppie, Cass is not; yet. Cass is still young and immature; he has things that are more important on his mind like his reputation and his relationship with Nancy to be bothered about Eppie. But sixteen years later, being married to Nancy and comfortably accepted as the most important man in Raveloe, he feels the time right to make a claim for Eppie. Over the years, though never emotionally deserting Eppie, he was never prepared to change and accept responsibility of her, now he is.
The climax of the fable is the confrontation between the two characters over Eppie. One has loved and lived with her for sixteen years, the other has hid in the shadows like a coward. Confronting Marner, Cass makes the justified claim that Eppie is his child and that she belongs to him. Marner graciously accepts this fact but raises the question about why Cass had not come forward sixteen years ago rather than now. There is no answer, Cass just simply wasn’t ready for the change then, if he was he may have owned Eppie all that time, but instead it was Marner who stepped forward and Eppie was his.
In short, both Marner and Cass change a lot throughout the story. They both change numerous times in various examples, but Marner made the significant change first. Cass changed, but changed later than Marner, he waited for things to dictate when he should make these changes: he only married Nancy once Molly had died and his claim for Eppie was simply too late. Therefore, Marner deserves the acknowledgement of being the character that has undertaken the most change, he is the main character, but he has nonetheless changed on his own accord.
