Silas Marner :: essays research papers

A Comparison of Silas Marner and Godfrey Cass Godfrey Cass and Silas Marner are perfect foils. They each developed along similar lines but each differed at certain points. Both were affected by Eppie but Silas was the one who benefitted the most from it. Eppie’s interaction with both also shaped the way they love each’s closest people. Godfrey and Silas were both self imposed loners. Godfrey had a to keep his first wife a secret from everybody especially, Nancy Lammeter. This meant he had to keep more than a polite distance away from her. Cass had a traitor near to his heart. His brother, the theif and all around scoundrel blackmailed poor Godfrey to keep his secrets hidden. Silas was betrayed by his whole previous life. The church had let him down and his closest freind had robbed him. This supposed freind even set him up for an accusation of murder. To top it all off, Silas’s wife to be was also taken by this wolf in sheep’s clothing. This type of betrayal makes a person hate humanity especially in such a close knit community. Silas moved himself to the fringes of civilization. He cared for no one and wanted no to care for him. Both of their attitudes changed when Eppie arrived. Godfrey knew that he could marry Nancy now beacuse his old wife had died. This also showed how shallow he was. Godfrey thought he could throw money at Silas and he would be very compliant to give Eppie back to her ‘rightful’ father. Yet at the final moments of ths confrontation Eppie’s arrival unleashed a side of Silas not seen for fifteen years. He became a caring human being again. Silas took great steps to insure Eppie’s happiness even going to church again and associating with the other villagers. While the Church part was somewhat bewildering to him, the villagers were much worse. It took him months to understand what they were saying and then months more to be able to hold a conversation with them. Yet through the growth of Eppie, something took over Silas. He made more freinds and worked less on his loom. The loom was the symbol of his old life, the time when he could undterstand nor trust any one. Breaking away from the loom Demonstrated that he was human again and oculd be a part of society too. The quality of love was directly shaped by Eppie.