Being brought up by a single weaver living by himself on
the outskirts of the village and with no experience of bringing up children must have
been an interesting experience for Eppie, however when we are presented with the
grown-up Eppie of Book II of this great novel, it is clear that Silas Marner, aided by
Dolly Winthrop perhaps, has done a good job at bringing her up. Not only does Chapter 16
show that she is now a beautiful young woman, but that she is very selfless and
attentive to the needs of her father, Silas, as shown by her quickness in clearing away
the dinner things so that Silas can have his smoke. However, the text also gives us more
information as to the kind of woman she now is:
The tender and peculiar love with which Silas
had reared her in almost inseparable companionship with himself, aided by the seclusion
of their dwelling, had preserved her from the lowering influences of the village talk
and habits, and had kept her mind in that freshness which is sometimes falsely supposed
to be an invariable attribute of rusticity. Perfect love has a breath of poetry which
can exalt the relations of the least-instructed human beings; and this breath of poetry
had surrounded Eppie from the time when she had followed the bright gleam that beckoned
her to Silas's hearth: so that it is not surprising if, in other things besides her
delicate prettiness, she was not quite a common village maiden, but had a touch of
refinement and fervour which came from no other teaching than that of tenderly-nurtured
unvitiated feeling.
So, in
addition to her great beauty, Eppie's curious care arrangements have made her grow up
not as "rustic" as her peers would be, but being somewhat more
"refined."
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