Eppie is
the beautiful daughter of Godfrey Cass and Molly Farren. She wanders into Silas Marner’s cottage during a snowstorm in
which her mother perishes. She is a beautiful and golden-haired child.∆
Before the pretty little
Eppie crawled into his dismal cottage, Silas Marner was a man who had lost all
motivation to live. For, it was his gold that Silas cherished above all else
because he divorced himself from the human race after he was denounced by
friends and loved ones in Lantern Yard.∆
“The livelong day he sat in
his loom, his ear filled with its monotony, his eyes bent close down on the
slow growth of sameness in the brownish web....But at night came his revelry:
at night he closed his shutters, and made fast his doors, and drew out his
gold....He loved the guineas best, but he would not change the silver....”∆
After Marner loses his
money, there is a sympathy that grows for the weaver. Then, after he discovers
the golden-haired babe in his cottage, “the gold had turned into the child,”
and Silas vows to care for her as his own. Having done this, he finds that
there is a "softening of feeling" towards him by the residents
of Raveloe, especially among the women. Dolly Winthrop, a neighbor, visits
Silas and tells him she has everything he needs for the child.∆
“Marner took her on his lap,
trembling with an emotion mysterious to himself, at something unknown dawning
on his life.”∆
Without doubt, Silas Marner
is spiritually renewed through the reawakening of human love and fellowship
with his neighbors and townspeople. He names the beautiful child Hephzibah
for his mother and sister, but the baby only learns to say Eppie, so this
nickname stays. After a time, Marner becomes a true member of the community and
is rewarded for his love when Eppie refuses to go with her natural father,
Godfrey Cass. Instead, she remains with Silas, and even after she marries Aaron
Winthrop. “O father,” said Eppie,
“what a pretty home ours is! I think nobody could be happier than we are.”∆
The love between
Silas Marner and Eppie reestablishes Marner’s interest in the village ofRaveloe, in faith, and in community.
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