NovelGuide: Silas Marner: Novel Summary: Chapter 16

Chapter 16

This chapter fast-forwards to the future— sixteen years after Silas found Eppie. Mr. and Mrs. Godfrey Cass (Godfrey and Nancy) have taken over the Red House and received much of the Squire’s inheritance.

As Silas and Eppie walk out of church, Aaron Winthrop approaches them, saying he is willing to help them build the garden they are planning. It soon becomes evident that Aaron and Eppie have a special relationship, and the two are hoping to get married soon.

There are changes to Silas’s lonely stone cottage. There are plenty of pets, both in and out of doors, and more furniture given them by Godfrey. In fact, the Red House has helped Silas and his daughter considerably in the last few years. Eliot explains, "Godfrey Cass, as everyone said in the village, did very kindly by the weaver; and it was nothing but right a man should be looked on and helped by those who could afford it."

By this time, Silas has come to terms with his past, even being willing to share the story of his supposed guilt in Lantern Yard with Dolly. Eliot narrates, "...with reawakening sensibilities, memory also reawakened, he had begun to ponder over the elements of his old faith, and blend them with his new impressions, till he recovered a consciousness of unity between his past and present. The sense of presiding goodness and the human trust which come with all pure peace and joy, had given him a dim impression that there had been some error, some mistake, which had thrown the dark shadow over the days of his best years."