Chapter 18- SILAS MARINER Summary Notes and Extra Questions

CHAPTER 18: Summary

Godfrey returned to Red House visibly shaken. He told Nancy that the disturbance in the village was caused by the discovery of Dunstan’s skeleton in the Stone-pit, which has been drained of its water. Dunstan fell in, Godfrey explained, after robbing Silas’s cottage 16 years ago. The two sacks of money were found beside his skeleton. Godfrey decided that he should confess everything to Nancy. He told her that the woman Silas found in the snow 16 years ago was his wife and that Eppie was his child.

Godfrey expected Nancy to be horrified, but instead, she reproached Godfrey for not telling her when they were first married. They could have adopted Eppie, she said, and her presence would have eased the pain of losing their child.

Godfrey replied that he could not have told her because she would not have married him. Godfrey thought Nancy would leave him immediately after learning his secret. He has long feared her `simple, severe’ Christian morality. Nancy replied that she would have adopted Eppie if Godfrey had told her six years ago. Godfrey realized his error. Nancy forgave Godfrey and urged him to recognizeEppie as his daughter. They resolved to go to Silas’s cottage that night.

Q1.What was Nancy’s reaction to Godfrey’s revelation?

Ans. Godfrey, having returned from his walk. Godfrey made a painful revelation. He finally confessed to Nancy that the woman found dead in the snow outside Marner’s cottage sixteen years before was his own wife and that Eppie was his biological child. Nancy heard the news with surprising calmness. She told Godfrey that if he had only worked up the courage to tell her this news six years ago when he was so eager to adopt Eppie, she would have supported him wholeheartedly. Better yet, she could have married him knowing that Godfrey had a daughter, and she could have raised Eppie as her own child. Godfrey finally felt the full weight of his error. In failing to trust his wife, he had to live without Eppie. Godfrey had not realised, or ‘measured’ his wife’s emotional intelligence. He had underestimated her.

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