Silas Marner Essay

1051 Words5 Pages
Herbert Otto once said, “Change and growth take place when a person has risked himself and dares to become involved with experimenting with his own life.” Silas Marner had one of the biggest changes of his life after he opened his home and his heart to a little girl. The novel, Silas Marner, takes the reader through this experience and other changes of this character’s life. Silas Marner, an unlikely candidate for change, surprises the town and the reader when he goes from a secluded man to a very well-liked member of society. The novel shows the reader that Marner is an extremely dynamic character through telling the story of his personality changes, the fluctuations in what he came to rely on, and the story of how certain people changed him. Throughout the novel, Marner’s personality transforms from that of an entirely isolated, enigmatic man into an open and even admired neighbor. In his earlier days in Raveloe, Marner was not accepted by other members of the community. They had a “half-fearful fascination” (p. 10) about his loom, and its “questionable sound” (p. 10). In general, they didn’t talk to him, and he made no effort to talk to them. However, during the course of this novel, something and someone begin to change Marner. When his gold was stolen, the villagers started to reach out to Marner and show pity for him. Marner, although still secluded, began to demonstrate more openness toward the villagers. For example, when Dolly Winthrop came to the door, “he showed no impatience as he would once have done at a visit that had been unasked for and unexpected” (p. 81). After the alteration of Marner’s environment, he became a changed man. After spending many years with Eppie, “his large brown eyes seemed to have gathered a longer vision, as is the way with eyes that have been short-sighted in early life, and they have a less vague, a more answering gaze”
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