The Different Shades Of Love Essay Research

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In Silas Marner by George Eliot, she wrote of Silas Marner’s different changes of love. In the beginning of the book, he focused his love on the lady who had captured his heart but then it turned to money. As the story ends, he found true love in his daughter Eppie. She greatly displayed how love can change from greed to the true, eternal love.

When living in Lantern Yard, Silas’s attachment to the community and belief in the church made him an average guy who everyone liked. At this time in his life, he had “another attachment of a closer kind”, his love for Sarah. He was going to marry her when they had a “little increase to their mutual savings.” He cared enough for her that he wanted to provide a nice marriage ceremony and living standard for her. When he had been banned from the community, he was afraid the “she [would] cast [him] off too.” As she did leave him, he lost so much faith in the word of love because Sarah did not believe the truth of the stolen money. A person he had loved so much had betrayed him, and it hurt him so much. He left town to go to Raveloe because of his broken heart.

He lived in the town of Raveloe as a hermit. People knew very little of him and for a good reason. Silas was isolated because he did not want to get his heart broken again. His love from Sarah grew to love of his work and eventually to money. He was so dedicated that “he seemed to weave, like the spider, from pure impulse, without reflection.” The money he earned meant very little to him. He even donated some of it, but as his worked turned from weaving to the curing of others, the money grew. The more money he had, the happier he was. He would often take the money “out to enjoy their companionship.” The money was now his life, and when someone took the money, a dark cloud covered his hope for happiness.

To fill the hole left empty by the money, he found great joy and love in raising his new daughter Eppie. He knew that “the gold had turned into the child.” He loved her so much and did anything it took to raise her normally. His love for Eppie brought him back into the community. Instead of being a recluse, the community thought of Silas as a normal person and did all they could to help him raise Eppie. He went to church for the first time in a while so Eppie could be christened. She brought meaning to Silas’s life that had once been empty. When his stolen money was found, he “would be glad if [he] could feel it” but “that didn t last long.” Silas know thought there was meaning to his life and that money was not everything. Silas’s love for Eppie made up for everything bad that happened to him in the past.

Silas showed great development of love in this book. His love grew from love of a lady to the superficial love on money, and in the end the most important love was in the joy of Eppie. The life of Silas Marner was the theme in the book. Although people go through so many hardships in life, they should never lose hope of life and love. Eppie best described the end of Silas Marner’s life by saying, “Oh, Father. I think nobody could be happier then we are.”