Redemption in Silas Marner Silas Marner Essays

Redemption in Silas Marner

Two characters are going to be in "redemption" and "re-generation", in their concepts and beliefs in life. The main character of the novel, which the plot builds on, is "Silas Marner". His penance is him living lonely and cut off from the world for 15 years, till he finds Eppie. Eppie, is like the fairy genie, which will be the cause of his "re-generation".

Silas's redemption is evoked, when he takes Eppie the little child and raises her. By doing that, he was attaching him self to his passion, and re-gaining trust in kinship and emotions. The following quotation support the point mentioned:

For Silas, ignorant and confused as he is, moves, even in his passion for gold, on a more intense and heroic emotional plane than the villagers... [Austen, Henry.226]

The quotation mentioned earlier will be explained with more details. Silas love of money was replaced by Eppie's love. It is only a symbol to the replacement of materialism and loss of faith to human kinship and trust in a new religion based on love, not religious myths and supernatural elements. Eppie is the message for Silas and the reader:

The 'message' the child brings is the all-importance of natural human affections, and Silas is receptive because his affection has survived the fifteen years of isolation. [Carroll, David.197]

It cannot be said that Silas is a villain character, or else he would not have changed. He was in loss, when the lot that should have announced him not guilty, gave an opposite answer. This incident happened in Lantern Yard; he was then a part of a religious group. He was accused of stealing the dead man, who he was looking after that night. Their custom is to draw lot, so that God show them the right answer. It came negative; he lost faith in man and God as a result to this incident. When he moves to live in Raveloe, he worships money. He stay lonely for fifteen years; it can be said that it is his penance for losing faith in human kind, and disbelieving in a righteous "mysterious Power". The penance ends, and the "re-generation" start with Eppie's appearance in his life. She makes him trust again humans, and trust a new believe in a new God he never knew.

Another main character, which is in the sub-pot of the novel, is Godfrey. His fall is his believe in the "god of chance". Godfrey is weak and always hesitates. It is obvious because he leaves every thing for chance. He does not tell his father about his marriage to Molly, Eppie's mother, nor he acknowledges his daughter when he recognizes her after Silas founding her. His selfish self and his weakness stop him from admitting the truth. Even in earlier incidents, when he decides to tell his father about his secret marriage, he does not, because:

... ,he could now feel the presence of nothing but its evil consequences: the old dread of disgrace came back - the old shrinking from the thought of raising a hopeless barrier between him and Nancy - the old disposition to rely on chances which might be favourable to him, and save him from betrayal. Why, after all, should he cut off the hope of them by his own act?... [Silas Marner. Ch.8]

His carelessness and his weakness to take the consequences of his actions, his goal to marry Nancy, and his depend on chance, are all his faults. He will pay his penance, as Silas did, when he marries Nancy and have no children. His penance starts, when Silas's one ends. Godfrey's refusal to acknowledge Eppie, is only a refuse of a second chance given by the "mysterious Powers", to correct his mistakes. The result of his actions will be severe. His punishment is divided into three parts: his childless marriage, his wife's love, who could not accept the idea of adoption, while he wanted to adopt his child, and then his daughter refusing to live with him when he acknowledged her the truth.

As a result, it can be said that "Both stories reveal a world ruled by the law of consequences; Silas's fifteen years of very real bitterness and isolation rule out the suggestion that his is a different kind of world from Godfrey's, a world in which the logic of the everyday is suspended. Both men suffer for their mistakes; Silas recovers completely from his transgression and is suitably rewarded because his affection has preserved him, whereas Godfrey's lapse is more criminal and his punishment more severe" [Carroll, David. 198 & 199].

In one way or another, this novel, as Silas Marner, calls for a universal theme of love and kinship. Life cannot be based on reason, and materialism. It can be based on kindness and friendship. To have the mind and heart in peace.

Works Cited:

Austen, Henry. A Qualified Redemption of Ordinary and Fallible Humanity. 1970. 225,229,230.

Carroll, David. Reversing the Oracles of Religion. 1967. 197,198,199.

Eliot, George. Silas Marner. London: Penguin Books. 1996. Ch.8: 66, ch.14: 130