NovelGuide: Silas Marner: Novel Summary: Chapter 10

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Chapter 10

Chapter ten serves as a transition chapter. There has been no progress regarding the robbery. The clue of the tinder-box, though seemingly very important, has now ceased to be a topic of major discussion around the town. Dunstan’s continued absence has also gone virtually unnoticed.
Eliot describes Silas as a man more confused and desolate than ever, spending most of his time bent over in a chair, holding his head in his hands. She continues, "The loom was there, and the weaving, and the growing pattern in the cloth; but the bright treasure in the hole under his feet was gone; the prospect of handling and counting it was gone: the evening had no phantasm of delight to still the poor soul’s craving." Silas is now seen by his neighbors as more crazy than ever.
Despite the urging of Mr. Macey and Dolly Winthrop to go to church and seek refuge in his faith, Silas ignores these ideas, already disillusioned with the religion he formerly trusted in. Eliot continues, "And so, notwithstanding the honest persuasions of Mr. Macey and Dolly Winthrop, Silas spent his Christmas-day in loneliness..."
On New Year’s Eve, the Cass family is having a huge annual party at the Red House, so Godfrey nervously awaits the arrival of Nancy.