The Feeling of Justice at the End of George Eliot's Silas Marner

The Feeling of Justice at the End of George Eliot's Silas Marner

George Elliot uses dark and light ideas in each of the characters

lives. She shows that too many rules darken Silas' life, shown when he

lived as a miser in Lantern Yard, which has high morals and is inward

looking. When Eppie is discovered by Silas, she brings light and

happiness into his life. There are also many dark shadows in Godfrey's

life including; his dishonourable marriage, his concealed daughter,

his brother who blackmails him and his series of debts. Light is

returned to his life when his brother dies and he is able to tell his

wife everything that he has hidden from her.

Lantern Yard is a closed community, with life driven by its rigid

rules. Silas' first injustice takes place in this religious

neighbourhood, where his fits are seen as both a blessing and a curse,

when it suits the inhabitants. "…How do I know what you may have done

in the secret chambers of your heart, to give Satan an advantage over

you?" Silas' suffering begins when "the lots declared that Silas

Marner was guilty," leaving Silas with no faith in God or trust in his

close friend, William Dane. With his reputation destroyed, "Poor

Marner went out with that despair in his soul- that shaken trust in

God and man, which is little short of madness to a loving nature." He

is left feeling betrayed, with a knowing that injustice has occurred,

and as a consequence of this he leaves Lantern Yard for a better life.

Having lost his faith in God, Silas leads a life of despair and

torment in Raveloe, until, one day he loses his money, which due to

its ability to not let him down, he adored. "The sight of the empty

hole made his heart leap violently, but the belief that his gold was

gone could not come at once- only terror, and the egger effort to put

an end to the terror." To him, the stealing of the money is unjust

until he finds "… a sleeping child- a round, fair thing, with soft