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dominant thematic concerns in silas marner
critical analysis of silas marner
critical analysis of silas marner
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In the novel Silas Marner, by George Eliot, the characters are in a search for happiness. One character named Godfrey Cass is disappointed in his search when relying on wealth and luck, instead of love, does not lead him to happiness. Another character, Silas Marner, looks first to a pile of gold that only consumes his life until he starts loving and caring for a child, who finally brings him happiness. The lives of these characters show that wealth or material objects do not bring as much happiness as love.
Godfrey Cass believes that he can use his wealth to buy happiness in place of love that he has neglected to give. In the novel, he has a daughter named Eppie whom he disowns for eighteen years. After eighteen years, Godfrey wants her back to fill a hole in his life and make him happy. He believes that his wealth can replace his missing love. He admits this when speaking to Eppie, “though I haven’t been what a father should ha’ been to you all these years, I wish to do the utmost in my power for you for the rest of my life and provide for you as my only child” (714). However, Eppie “can’t feel as [she’s] got any father but one,” (715) meaning Silas Marner, who cared for and loved her for sixteen years. The lack of love that Godfrey has given Eppie can not be replaced with wealth, and Godfrey’s life must remain incomplete.
Silas Marner was once incomplete and unhappy also when he was “cut off from faith and love,” (602) and lived only to collect a hoard of gold. He shut out the rest of the world and any love he had for anything with it. “His life had reduced itself to the functions of weaving and hoarding” (602). In this life with only gold, and without love, Silas was an unhappy and lonely man. Later in his life when he is happy, he recalls counting his gold every night and “how his soul was utterly desolate”(710). He remains in this bleak position for fifteen years until his gold is lost and replaced with something to love.
When Silas loses his gold, he begins to experience happiness again after opening up to a child. The child, Eppie, replaces Silas’s gold, but unlike the gold, she requires the love and care of a person.
Silas’ self-sacrifice is the main cause to his true happiness. His morals also played a vital role in the novel causing him to realize he does not need material things in life to be happy. By the end of the story he moves back to the farm and goes back to be a normal person once again. He no longer feels the need of acceptance from everyone because he doesn’t need to change who is in order to fit in.
“Money doesn’t buy happiness.” Most children learn this proverb and immediately try to disprove it, or simply do not believe it. However, age allows one to see the truth in this phrase. In My Antonia, a novel by Willa Cather, the protagonist, Jim Burden, reflects on his childhood in the American frontier. Despite achieving wealth and an elevated social position, benefits most associate with attaining the American Dream, Jim Burden eventually realizes that true success, and happiness, is found in strong emotional connections.
“Money doesn’t buy happiness.” Most children learn this proverb and immediately try to disprove it, or simply do not believe it. However, age allows one to see the truth in this phrase. In My Antonia, a novel by Willa Cather, the protagonist, Jim Burden, reflects on his childhood in the American frontier. Despite having achieved wealth and an elevated social position, benefits most associate with attaining the American Dream, Jim Burden still longs for the happy days of his youth.
Rostow, Eugene V., "Great Cases Make Bad Law: The War Powers Act" (1972). Faculty Scholarship Series. Paper 2143.
It is then, when Gatsby emerged from F. Scott Fitzgerald. A true character of 1920’s America, the parties, the young-money, the helplessly in love, the pursuit of happiness. Darrin McMahon’s “In Pursuit of Unhappiness” explores the topic of seeking felicity and encountering barriers that we would not preoccupy ourselves with if we existed in an otherwise empathetic society. “Secular culture since the 17th century made "happiness," in the form of pleasure or good feeling, not only morally acceptable but commendable in and of itself.” (para. 4). As this quote exemplifies, there is a cultural notion of happiness being expected to be our default state of being. Due to this ingrown conception, we are riddled with the demand of forcing our path to contentment, as Gatsby, a character dumbfounded by a love he thought unmatched with a young debutante,
...ward understanding the cost benefit of telemedicine applications. Hospital Topics: Research and Perspectives on Healthcare
... lavishness now seemed to beckon her with open arms to a life a where she could live expensively. Despite she sadness she was facing Lily knew she could not return to the realm of elites, “it was happiness she still wanted and the glimpse she had caught of it made everything else of no account” (449). At this stage of the novel, the demise of the Lily whose most ardent desire was money, power and prestige was complete. Lily’s loneliness and lack in what Lawrence show Lily that there is a fate that will cause greater pain than lack of wealth. Near her tragic end, Lily finds herself without both of her competing desires. It is then she finally understand that a life without love, happiness and freedom causes greater misfortune that a life without wealth.
In the beginning Silas is a rich and powerful man, greed and selfish ambition had just started to take its toll on his decisions. Throughout the novel Silas continually does wrong by buying out his partner and becomes greedy to the point of money being the only thing that mattered to him. In result Silas loses everything, it is not until Silas loses his home and his company that he is forced to change. By the end of the novel Silas “rises” to become a good moral man that exemplifies honesty and humility.
Within the real world individuals constantly ask: Does money actually equal happiness? Money doesn’t equal happiness, money equals superiority or privilege and happiness equals desire. Similarly, in Scott Fitzgerald's’ The Great Gatsby, Tom, Daisy and Gatsby portray money equals superiority and happiness equal desire by the actions they chose to make as well as their deep sentiments.
The acquisition of material wealth is often equated with happiness in this country. This is true today, and it was true during the 1920's, the setting of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. That the majority of Americans believe that wealth and happiness are the same is a result of our market economy that encourages consumption and conditions us to think that we need material possessions to be happy. According to Andrew Bard Schmookler, "Wealth and human fulfillment have become equated in the predominant ideology of liberal society, even though the great spiritual teachers of humanity have all taught otherwise." (17)
First, Godfrey Cass makes unsound decisions and causes problems for people. Initially, Godfrey secretly marries Molly; he would have been better off if he had married her in the open or had not married her at all. Dunstan uses Godfrey’s marriage to threaten him and says, “‘I might tell the Squire how his handsome son [is] married to a nice young woman, Molly Farren and [is] very unhappy because he [can’t] live with his drunken wife’”(24). Godfrey’s disgraceful marriage was a bad decision. Later, Molly is unhappy about their marriage because Godfrey resides in his fine house while she dwells in a dingy, small room. Molly hated that “her husband would be smiling and smiled upon, hiding her existence in the darkest corner of his heart” (108). Then, many years after Molly succumbs to her drug addiction, Godfrey unwisely decides to try to adopt his daughter Eppie who grew up with Silas. When Godfrey breaks the news to Eppie that he is her father, she “turns quite pale” (171) and replies, “But I can’t leave my father” (170). She is shocked that Godfrey had neglected her all of her life. It would have been nobler of Godfrey to claim Eppie as his own and reveal his marriage, but he was afraid of losing his reputation. Godfrey’s decision to marry Molly and not to claim Eppie creates turmoil in Raveloe.
Ridge, John Rollin. The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta, the Celebrated California Bandit. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1955.
Silas' background consisted of poverty, hardships, and hard work. He acquired his own wealth and that opened doors that were unknown to him or his family. The Colonel's background and attributes led him into an awkward situation of always attempting to appear in society as something that he is not. He is a common, vulgar man, doing his best to appear sophisticated, educated, and knowledgeable, when, in fact, it is only his wealth that connects him to the upper class. His incredible wealth places within him the motivation and false sense of obligation to conform to the tastes and pre...
keep as far away from people as possible. As he had nothing to do with
Another main character, which is in the sub-pot of the novel, is Godfrey. His fall is his believe in the "god of chance". Godfrey is weak and always hesitates. It is obvious because he leaves every thing for chance. He does not tell his father about his marriage to Molly, Eppie's mother, nor he acknowledges his daughter when he recognizes her after Silas founding her. His selfish self and his weakness stop him from admitting the truth. Even in earlier incidents, when he decides to tell his father about his secret marriage, he does not, because: