Silas Marner: The Growth of Silas

It is quite interesting to watch little children grow up. Sometimes, of course, it is also quite disappointing, because the child may not develop the good character traits that his parents desire. Moreover, the child might even develop some shocking traits. However, at the end of the ‘process’ one acquires the opportunity to look back on the past years and understand what events influenced the character of that particular person; thus, being able to, at least, somewhat control the character of the next child.

In the book Silas Marner by George Eliot, the reader is presented with this extraordinary opportunity. Though, unlike the above example, the ‘child’ is already a grown up. Silas Marner starts out as a normal man living a normal life in a normal town called Lantern Yard. All the events in his life seem pretty normal: he has a home (Lantern Yard), he has a best friend (William Dane), he has a lovely fiancée (Sarah). Life in general is good. However, in every person’s life there comes a time when things change – drastically.

Silas gets falsely accused of thievery. You ma...