A study of characterisation in the novels of George Eliot

177.
him or his distrust of the whole world.
It is not until the theft of his gold and the arrival of Eppie that
he is shaken out of his habitual apathy and total separateness from his
neighbours. The need to oare for the child, and to establish oontaots
with his neighbours, especially Dollio Winthrop, restores him. He rediscovers
his past life and a sense of continuity between the past and
the present. "With reawakening sensibilities, memory also reawakened,"
and, as a result, "he had begun to ponder over the elements of his old
faith, and blend them with his new impressions, till he had recovered
a consciousness of unity between his past and present. II 30 The most explicit
description of this occurs when George Eliot is contrasting
Eppie t S and Silas t growth. She is integrating her personality J laying
down the foundations of self; Silas is re-establishing his identity and
his selfhood as his memory revives and provides him with the needful
sense of continuity between past and present. "As the child' s mind was
growing into knowledge, his mind was growing into memory; as her life
unfolded, his soul, long stupefied in a cold narrow prison, was unfolding
too, and trembling gradually into full consciousness." 31
Silas emerges from his "cold, narrow prison," this state of stupefaction.
Hetty Sorrel in an earlier novel is literally in prison, although
this, of course, is to be taken symbolically as well. Hetty, we
are told, is "sinking helpless in a dark gulf"; 32 she has reached a
state of blind despair where she has become virtually dehumanised.
Silas' existence is described as "insect-like"; 3301d Mr Transome in
Felix ~ is also compared to an insect. 34 Hetty has become an "anine.l
that gazes, and gazes, and keeps aloof." 35 Silas' sufferings are
brought on by an external agency; they express his bewildered reaction
to his rejection by those he trusted. Hetty is a partial agent in her
ovm suffering. She may have been deluded by Arthur's charm, but her