The plot of this novel is based on relationships between people. Throughout George Eliot gives us the different relations between different people, showing us what love is, and what it is not.
It tells you about one man, everyone else's life in the novel is involved with him or around him. How Silas Marner is a quiet linen weaver, and who keeps himself to himself, until somehow he faces life with a little orphan child, Eppie. The child changes Silas Marners life in a completely different direction, getting him involved with the people in Raveloe, and he warms his heart towards Eppie.George Eliot gets you involved with how relationships change in the novel, how close parents and children and feelings are towards each other through the characters in the book.
It all started when Silas Marner was framed for a murder he did not commit. He then moved away to Raveloe, where the story begins of meeting Eppie and Silas getting close to her. George Elliot makes you see the difference of lantern yard and Raveloe, before and after the industrial revolution.The values in this novel are different from the way we are now, as they go through the smallest details, talking about such unimportant things, not like we do now.
George Elliot writes about those times when every little detail mattered, goes through them thoroughly. Main Part. It all began when Silas moved to Raveloe and started to weave again. The money he got from was stored, as he usually gave it to church.
He doesn't anymore, because when he got framed for murder he said God would clear him and prove him innocent, but he didn't. So Silas kept the money for him and the amount grew and grew.This is where another person comes in and steals the money from Silas, a person who is connected with a large part of the story. His name was Dunsey (Dunstan) and is the squire Cass's son, who was the greatest man in Raveloe, was one among several landed parishioners, but he alone was honoured with the title of squire.
I might tell the Squire how his handsome son was married to that nice young woman, Molly Farren, and was very unhappy because he couldn't live with his drunken wife," The squire Cass will throw him out. Godfrey is then persuaded to hand over his horse Wildfire to Dunsey to pay off the money. He then "staked" the horse and killed it. Dunsey walked away from the scene and decided to steal the money he heard about from Silas Marner. He goes to Silas's house and steals the money from beneath the floorboards and walks out into the night.Silas notices the money is gone and goes to the Rainbow pub and tells the people inside.
Godfrey also notices his brother hasn't been seen for a while, and later on Godfrey finds that his horse Wildfire has been staked. On New Years eve Molly farren set off with Godfreys and her child in her arms, ready to tell everyone that she was married to Godfrey with a child, for she knew he would rather die than acknowledge her as his wife. She drank a demon drink called opium where she sank down onto a bush as the drink killed her.She lay right next to Silas Marner's house, so little Eppie toddled to the open door of his house and squatted down on a sack next to the warm hearth.
Silas Marner was in the cottage, and had left his door open as he contracted the habit of opening the door and looking out from time to time as though he thought his money might come back to him somehow. He turned towards the hearth and that's when he thought his gold had been bought back to him. He had mistaken it for Eppie's hair and soon realized that it wasn't his gold, but a little sleeping child.He then discovered the mum of the child and set off to the red house where everyone from the village was for New Year. Silas told the people about the child and the mother and Godfrey instantly knew the child was his and that his drunken wife was dead.
A women tried to take Eppie from him but Silas didn't want to let her go, as I think its an impulse to keep the child after losing all his money, his obsession with that money is turning his attention to Eppie. People are then starting to warm up to him as Silas's love for Eppie grows.He's now become obsessed with her instead of the money but still protective and affectionate towards her. He always wants to make sure she is happy but makes sure she doesn't become spoiled with all the love he's giving her so he tries some discipline. When she tries to escape he places her in the coalhole, but for her own good so she wont try and escape again. He realizes she thinks this is all fun! She transforms his life as if this is the first time he opens his eyes to life.
You can see he cares for her deeply, with true love, as Eppie says when she's grown up; Had she not a father very close to her, who loved her better than any real fathers in the village seemed to love their daughters? " Even when Silas and Eppie are not father and daughter, not his natural child he loves her with every inch of his heart even if it means losing her for eppie to have a better life and to be a lady, because it says with unselfish love; "Eppie, my child, speak. I won't stand in your way. Thank Mr and Mrs Cass. " Silas just wants the better life for Eppie, not putting himself first and thinking of his loved ones.This is when Godfrey wants Eppie, as he wants his wife, Nancy Lammeter, not Mrs Cass to have a daughter that she always wanted.
Godfrey now comes over to Silas's house to claim his rights over this child. Silas's feelings were powerless under the conflict of emotions. He felt anger at first, Godfrey claiming this child after so many years when he could of claimed her at the beginning, and then sadness, as he thought of having to let Eppie go and live with her parents, and then having to listen to Eppie refusing to have a "better life," "I can't feel as I've got any father but one,"Which tells us that Eppie loves Silas and cares for him as much as he does for her. Two other parent and child relationships such as Godfrey and Eppie's were non-existent.
Godfrey did not care for Eppie and did not want her, but left her to starve and become ill at his wife's home, Molly Farren. Even when he had a chance to claim her at New Years Eve when Molly Farren died that night, he did not want Eppie, nothing to do with her. As Godfrey says; "As for the child, he would see that it was cared for: he would never forsake it; he would do everything but own it. "In other words, his love for a woman is much stronger than his own child, that he does not want her. Compared with Silas and Eppie, their love is strong next to Godfrey and Eppie, so it's completely different.
Silas cares for Eppie with all his heart, but Godfrey doesn't care about her, Silas would do everything for Eppie as their love blossoms between each other. In my opinion I do agree that children bring hope and forward-looking thoughts to the characters in the novel. It shows you what true love is between people and relationships, and also when there is selfishness.
