Silas Marner Part 2
Word Count: 280
Silas Marner by George Eliot
"The vindication of the loved object is the best balm affection can find words for its wounds: - 'A man must have so much on his mind,' is the belief by which a wife often supports a cheerful face under rough answers and unfeeling words" (Eliot, 135).
This quotation expresses Nancy's thoughts when she soothes herself. It seems that many wives during this time live under the impression that their husbands must always be correct, and any problem that arises is the fault of the woman. While this might not have been true, it is the impression Eliot creates throughout this novel when depicting traditional marriage. The only woman who crosses her husband was Molly, and she dies while trying to expose her unconventional and secret marriage. This directly demonstrates the consequences a woman suffers once defying her husband.
Nancy experiences extreme guilt about her lack of siring a child for her husband. For both Nancy and Godfrey, their feelings around their lack of children come less from wanting an heir, but more because they actually want children in their home. This situation directly contrasts with the one in the film, The Duchess. In the film, the husband only desires children, specifically a male, because he needs an heir for his estate once he dies. He shows no loyalty or love toward any of his children at any point in the film. While Godfrey denies fathering Eppie, he stills yearns to have children in his home and attempts to fix his mistake when offering to house Eppie.
The reader also sees this deviation from the norm of men not wanting or caring for their children in the relationship between Eppie and Silas. Silas takes her in and raises her as his own without any ulterior motive. He raises her with love and Eppie reciprocates his love and loyalty when she chooses to stay with him after she is offered a more comfortable life with her biological father.
Eliot, George. Silas Marner. Hertfordshire, Wordsworth, 1999.
I completely agree that women are usually the first to blame rather than men. During this time period, this is was normal in a marriage and was not considered uncommon if women were blamed more than men. When reading the novel, I didn't realize the differences between this novel and The Duchess. Expressing the differences gives a good understanding of both marriages portrayed in each story.
ReplyDeleteI like how you brought many ideas from our class into your blog concerning women's role in society. I agree that women, especially wives, during this time went through a lot of internal conflict due to the fact that they could never do anything right and that their husbands were always the one's who were right. This was hard for women to deal with emotionally because it constantly tested their worth.
ReplyDeleteYou brought up an excellent point when describing the quote you chose and that was the fact that women back then seemed to take the blame for anything and everything instead of it being the fault of the husband. Women faced many conflicts during this era, but this was perhaps the greatest of them all. Marriage nowadays is anticipated to go well and a solid marriage should consist of two people loving each other, supporting each other, but most importantly not blaming each other as much as it existed in marriages back then. In addition, the fact that you connected this text to the Duchess was a really smart idea as it allowed me to further analyze this text as well as the Duchess even further. Godfrey was trying to make up for a mistake he made earlier and it seemed as though men should have blamed more than women for their mistakes, but they never did. I always found that interesting considering men are supposed to be these strong and powerful individuals that own up to anything, but I guess they did not want to own up to their mistakes because they were afraid to admit to failure. Nevertheless, this text does a tremendous job of touching on this subject of marriage and the typical norms in marriage back during this time period, and the quote you chose in addition to your analysis of it was stellar and really drove home one of the more important concepts in the story. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI too agree that women would take the blame for everything during that time period. Although Molly does die once crossing Silas, her death was not necessarily his fault. However, that could just be a message Elliot is trying to send in the story; don't cross another woman's husband or you will face the consequences. Also, I really like your comparison to the Duchess. I feel that there was always an expectation of a woman to produce a baby, specifically a male. This gave women an unbearable amount of stress which is quite unfair.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your entire analysis. To begin, it is so sad that women felt the way they did during this time in how their husbands are always correct. This creates a major power barrier between the two sexes, and although sad, this was the time they were living in. Eliot describes these traditional marriages throughout the novel and shows what happens when women did not obey their husbands and go with social norms through the character, Molly. Continuing on, I really liked your comparison between this novel and "The Duchess." Both men in these were upset with their wives for not being able to give them heirs, yet they both also did not treat children well. The men being mad at their wives is a direct correlation to the beginning of your analysis with how women were not treated well by their husbands at times, but there was nothing they could really do about it.
ReplyDelete