Silas Marner is a masterful piece of Victorian literature, written by Mary Ann Evans under the pen name George Eliots about a young man who used to have a deep faith in God, but lost it after his best friend framed him and betrayed him, stealing his fiance in the process. He moves to Raveloe, and is very depressed for a long time. He hoards his gold, becoming a miser who only takes pleasure in the amount of gold he’s been amassing. But one day, a man from the Cass family is low on money, so he spies Silas leaving his house unguarded, and then he takes all of Silas’s gold. Silas is incredibly sad and down, but one day, he finds a girl in the snow, and he takes her in, informally adopting her and treating her as his own. He lets go of his depressing past, and instead focuses on his future with Eppie as his daughter and his new son-in-law, Aaron. He has many phases of religious belief, starting with believing in God because he’s following what everyone else does, then he stops believing because of the horrors that happened to him, but once his life changes for the better, he decides God is real once more. This reflects the author's real life beliefs, and her changes in her thoughts. This moving book reflects changing times and the balance between gain and loss.
Religious beliefs can be very powerful and help us through difficult times by giving us something to rely on. When we believe something, then we can choose to think that everything happens for a reason, and it’s always God’s will. Often, belief in God is strongest when life is happy and cheerful. In Silas Marner, Silas always had a swaying belief in God. When he had been betrayed and his fiance stolen, he stopped his religious faith. But when he found Eppie, he thought maybe it was all worth it, and he started believing again. Eppie filled Silas up with love, and Silas thought that God’s will was real, and he decided to restart his faith, in order to get the best life possible for his daughter. This reflects the author's changing beliefs, as she started off as a young child, and just followed her father, but once she became more rebellious, she was influenced by Darwin’s theories, and finally, her life changed and became very enjoyable, so she thought God willed it. Believing in God is respectable, and it can be a sort of emotional barrier for many people, helping them deal with loss and change.
Good people are rewarded with life, but evil people are paid with punishment. This is a religious proverb that explains an important life lesson that we should always strive to be better and avoid being villainous. Good people live longer and happier, but evil people die young and have their reputations torn apart. In Silas Marner, this proverb was reflected quite often. Silas Marner was a good man who unluckily got betrayed and lost everything, but he stayed alive, and eventually he was rewarded with an adopted daughter and a happy life. But Duncan Cass, a conniving young man who stole all of Silas’s money, eventually died young, without anyone around him, alone, and everyone thought of him as a malevolent thief. Our actions define our fate, and we should always hope to lead a happy life by committing kind actions and friendly remarks. Villains always end up alone and unhappy, but good people live long and proud lives successfully.
In each loss there is a gain, as in every gain there is a loss, and with each ending comes a new beginning. This is a Buddhist saying that teaches the importance of rewards and punishments, and how each of them are always in balance. Religions can often have lots of knowledge about change, happiness and pain. In Silas Marner, everyone always gained something, but they also lost something in the process. Silas Marner lost his fiance and his best friend, but he gained a daughter and a second chance. Godfrey Cass gained a wife, but he lost his daughter. Duncan Cass gained a good amount of money, but paid with his life. And finally, Eppie lost a lot. She lost her mother, and her father was too ashamed to admit she was his. But Eppie managed to gain a new family and eventually, a husband. When we lose something, we will always get something back to balance it out, and vice versa. This means that everything has an opposite and is always in balance. When things change for the better or for the worse, you will always have something else to comfort you or make things less problematic.
Silas Marner is an amazing book written by Mary Ann Evans that teaches crucial lessons about religions and cleverly reflects the author's real conflicting feelings toward her religious beliefs. It teaches important vestiges of different religions, such as how karma makes it so that good people lead better lives and have a happier life, but evil people end up rejected and alone, with no good memory left behind. It introduces the idea that everything happens for a reason and that evil acts will be balanced out by good ones. It embodies multiple proverbs that teach valuable lessons. It does this by using many symbols and characters in order to show the difference in the fates of those who acted maliciously and those who acted kindly. Silas Marner is a very mature and entertaining story, and I highly recommend it to all ages.
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