The Silas Marner Miracle
by Marilyn Green Faulkner

Have you had a life-changing miracle? Share your experience with Meridian’s Best Books Club.

Silas Marner, the lonely miser, returns to his shack one day to find that his precious gold has been stolen from under the hearth of his home. Since the betrayal of his friends and the decline of his faith, the hoarding of gold has become Silas’s reason for being, and the loss of his treasure literally paralyzes him. Standing at the door of his cabin pondering the theft he is seized with a fit of epilepsy and for a crucial moment remains frozen in the “chasm of his consciousnessholding open his door, powerless to resist either the good or evil that might enter there.” (110) In the moment that the door of his home, and his soul, stand wide open, the miracle enters that changes his life forever.

A miracle is defined as ” a wonder, or a supernatural event.” George Eliot strove to redefine traditional Christianity for herself, and she examined the idea of miracles through the story of Silas and his treasure. Great pains are taken to build a scenario that illustrates the “natural” quality of miracles. Silas is nearsighted and cannot see the woman struggling toward his door with a child. He has epilepsy, which causes a lapse of consciousness at a moment when his fire beckons the cold child, stranded in the snow as her mother sinks equally unconscious to the ground. It is only natural that a cold, hungry child should be drawn to the little cabin’s bright warmth, and the child toddles to the hearth and falls asleep in front of the fire. As Silas regains his sensibility he sees something glowing on his hearth, and thinks for a moment it is his precious gold:

“Gold! – his own gold – brought back to him as mysteriously as it had been taken away! He felt his heart begin to beat violentlyhe leaned forward at last, and stretched forth his hand; but instead of the hard coin with the familiar resisting outline, his fingers encountered soft warm curls. In utter amazement, Silas fell on his knees and bent his head low to examine the marvel: it was a sleeping child – a round, fair thing with soft yellow rings all over its head.” (110)

Years later, as Silas tries to understand the marvelous gift that was left on his hearth that night, he refers to the fifteen dark years between the loss of his religious faith and the birth of his love for the child: “Since the time the child was sent to me and I’ve come to love her as myself, I’ve had light enough to trusten by; and now she says she’ll never leave me, I think I shall trusten till I die.” (180)

The shabby little cabin where Silas dwells symbolizes the man himself. As the gold is taken from the hearth (or heart) and replaced by a child, Silas turns from miser to a father. The home itself undergoes changes that reflect the changes in the inner man. Eliot was disgusted by the unrealistic portrayal of children in novels, and gives us here a very familiar picture of life with a toddler. From our unique vantage point we can see how the daily routine of service to a little child, so familiar to most of us, gradually works its magic on Silas’s soul. It is no surprise that over time the shabby cottage transforms itself into a neat, happy home.

The fifteen dark years of spiritual famine are followed by fifteen years of spiritual feasting, and Silas and Eppie form a happy circle of love that draws the other members of the community to them in fellowship. Later, Eppie’s future hangs in the balance as two men step forward to claim her – her natural father and her future husband – and Silas realizes he must be willing to share his treasure with another. More transformations in the house occur as a result of this loving gesture, and one is reminded of a lovely parable from C.S. Lewis:

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself. (Mere Christianity, 174)”

The Book of Mormon ends with an interesting discussion on the role of miracles in our lives. Mormon contends that the day of miracles has not ceased, and that angels indeed still minister to men, and will continue “as long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man upon the face thereof to be saved” (Moroni 7:36)

Silas Marner’s angel is the little child that needs his love and gives him a new life. Though there is a natural explanation for her appearance, the miraculous changes wrought by love in Marner’s life cannot be explained without looking upward toward the source of Love and Light.

Have you had a Silas Marner miracle, a life-changing moment when one treasure was replaced by another in your heart? Each of us can look back on a few pivotal experiences when our future turned in one miraculous moment, and, nearsighted though we are, these are the moments when we see God’s hand in our lives. Share your experience by writing to [email protected]. I’ll offer a sampling of these in our next discussion.

Best Books Club for May: The Chosen, by Chaim Potok. Order this book now by clicking on the its image on the right.