ition for fifteen years until his gold is lost and replaced with something to love. When Silas loses his gold, he begins to experience happiness again after opening up to a child. The child, Eppie, replaces Silas’s gold, but unlike the gold, she requires the love and care of a person. “Unlike the gold which needed nothing . . . Eppie was a creature of endless claims and ever-growing desires” (684). The effects of this change are immense. Silas tells Eppie “If you hadn’t been sent to save me, I should ha’ gone to the grave in my misery” (710), then he adds “our life is wonderful” (710). Silas changed from being miserable to being wonderful by letting go of his gold and embracing a child with love. The lives of Silas Marner and Godfrey Cass illustrate how wealth or objects will not lead you to happiness, but that love will. Both men were on a search, but one of them got lost. ...
