There's a reason people are afraid of the dark. To anyone who has ever seen a single horror movie, it is clear that when the lights go out, the bad guys and monsters come out, and simply turning the lights back on makes them go back into hiding. In the novel Silas Marner by George Eliot, Silas's life is reflected in this same idea. His life is thrown into darkness when he is accused of theft and leaves his hometown, Lantern Yard, only to be excluded and even more alone in his new home, Raveloe, turning him towards the companionship of money rather than people . However, his inner demons disappear when he adopts an orphan girl, Eppie, returning his life to light and community. The move from darkness to light characterizes the initial exclusion and eventual rebirth in Silas Marner's life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay When Silas's life takes a negative turn, many symbols represent his life in darkness. His life is initially characterized by darkness due to his life in Lantern Yard. Silas, a native of Lantern Yard and a devout Christian, watches over his town's dying deacon at night when he has a cataleptic attack, preventing him from moving, seeing what is happening, or knowing that time has passed , when his ex-best friend William Dane enters the house, steals the church money from the deacon's bedside and plants Silas' penknife in exchange to frame Silas for the theft. This represents the first of many evils in Silas's life, all of which occur in the night or darkness. Silas is kicked out of the church and his fiancée calls off their wedding, causing him to leave Lantern Yard for another town, Raveloe, in which his life consists of seemingly endless solitude, causing him to eagerly seek companionship in his winnings in gold from weaving. The name of the town of Lantern Yard is ironic but meaningful because although it seems like a place of light, it actually only brings Silas darkness as he loses everything and everyone he has ever known, saying that “The little light that [Silas] possessed has spread. its rays are so narrow that frustrated belief was a curtain wide enough to create for it the darkness of night” (Eliot 14). Silas felt close to God until the coin toss declared him guilty, and Lantern Yard symbolizes the dying light of Silas's faith, which turns into a dark soul when he moves to Raveloe, a place that rejects newcomers. In his new city, Silas believes that “nothing called forth his love and companionship toward the strangers among whom he came; and the future was all dark, for there was no invisible love that cared for him” (Eliot 14). This is how Silas's life in Raveloe continues for 15 years: no kinship or religion to bring light and joy into Silas's life, but only darkness and despair. In the midst of all this, another evil rises from the darkness: greed. Silas spends his days mindlessly at his loom, but “the night came his rejoicings: at night he closed his shutters, locked his doors, and took out his gold” (Eliot 19). Silas begins to worship and obsess over his gold, sending his mind into an endless loop of greed over his love for money and anxiety over losing it. However, one dark and stormy night, he neglects to lock his door while going on an errand, and Dunsey Cass slips unhindered into his cottage and steals his money. Shortly after, Silas discovers the absence of his idol and: "The sight of the empty hole made his heart leap violently, but the belief that his goldhad disappeared could not come immediately – only terror and the strenuous effort to put an end to its activity. end to terror” (Eliot 40). Once again, Silas's life is plunged into darkness as the one thing he has to hold on to is ripped away from him. All the torment in Silas's life comes from the darkness in which thieves can go unnoticed and there is no accountability to distract from lust and sin. However, it is these dark events and Silas's desperate reaction that bring him the most light. Silas's life changes for the better as a new light comes to him through companionship. He first finds company among his neighbors in Raveloe, despite their pity for him because of the theft. They are more able to relate to him now that he is as poor as the others, and they comfort him in the Rainbow when he tells the story of the theft of his gold. Doing their best to find the culprit of the crime and bringing Silas meals to make up for those he can no longer afford, they welcome Silas into the ranks of their community, and although he still feels like an outsider to some, Dolly Winthrop is kind to him and becomes his best friend, and even the vain parish clerk, Mr. Macey, defends him to the other townspeople. However, the true light comes into Silas's life through Eppie, his adopted daughter. Molly Farren trudges to the Red House in the snow when she overdoses on opium and dies with her child in her arms. Her child, seeing the hearth light in the open door of Silas's house, stumbles and falls asleep in front of the fire. Silas has another cataleptic attack as he opens the door because he hears the sound of Molly and Eppie walking, leaving. the door wide open so that Eppie can enter unnoticed, and when he recovers and sees her, his immediate thought is that her golden curls are in fact his returned guineas. Although he is initially disappointed that she is not, she brings more light into his life than his gold ever had when he adopts her and they develop an incredibly close bond. His cheerful presence excites the neighbors when Silas and Eppie arrive, and any remaining thoughts of Silas as a creepy old miser disappear when they see the good deed he has done in taking in the child and loving him like the his. Eppie distances Silas from exclusion and despair just as “men are distanced from the threat of destruction; a hand is placed in theirs, which gently leads them towards a calm and bright land, so that they no longer look back; and the hand may be that of a little child” (Eliot 134). This allusion to the story of Lot being led out of Sodom and Gomorrah by an angel shows the complete turnaround that Eppie brings to Silas's life – from solitude to community, from darkness to light. Although Silas's questions about God and the coin toss in Lantern Yard will never be answered, Silas is content, saying, "Since the time the child was sent to me and I came to the 'loving myself as I had light enough to trust' (Eliot 181). By this Silas means that even though the coin toss made him lose his faith in God, he trusts the Lord again because He blessed him with Eppie, who brought new meaning and love to his life. Keep in mind: This is just a sample.Get a custom paper from our expert writers now.Get a Custom EssaySilas's life, once in darkness representing isolation, turns into light and in camaraderie. Although the darkness in Silas's life initially brought him nothing but pain, he is eventually able to accept the darkness and not let it go..