Whether it's a cold or the loss of a loved one, suffering is an experience everyone knows. Ironically, suffering is one of the main reasons we are happy; even if we suffer, our pain will eventually be resolved. Many stories have been created based on this concept, such as the story of Job in the Old Testament. Job's faith was tested by God, and after enduring great suffering and loss, Job's life was restored when he proved his faith to be true. A book demonstrating this idea is the novel Silas Marner by George Eliot. In this story, Silas Marner looks like a similar scenario to Job. Silas's constant loss and deep depression are finally healed with the arrival of Eppie, much like how Job's trials ended when he proved he could keep his faith in God. Silas Marner channels the earlier figure of Job through his suffering, loss and redemption. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The first way Silas represents Job is through the suffering Silas experiences in the story. At the start of the novel, Silas is betrayed by his "friend" William Dane, abandoned by his wife Sarah who then marries William Dane, and is subsequently cut off from the church, so that he feels betrayed by his friends, family and above all God. Even the all-knowing, all-powerful loving God doesn't want Silas in his life, Silas concludes. The narrator remarks on Silas's loneliness, saying: "Thus his movement of pity towards Sally Oates, which had given him a passing feeling of brotherhood, increased the revulsion between him and his neighbors and made his isolation more complete. » (Eliot 16). As Silas begins to sympathize with Sally Oates, a lady with a heart condition, he realizes how alone he really is. He is completely and utterly cut off from all being. Another quote also demonstrates Silas' loneliness and suffering. Eliot compares Silas’s life to that of an insect: “There were calls of hunger; and Silas, in his solitude, had to provide for his own breakfast, dinner, and supper, fetching water from the well himself, and putting his own kettle on the fire; and all these immediate inducements contributed, with weaving, to reduce his life to the unquestioned activity of a spinning insect” (Eliot 14). Silas's life is compared to that of an insect because he essentially feels useless and powerless in the world. He has no one to go to and no one will receive him. He performs these tedious tasks without assistance, showing that he is like a robot performing work without thinking and without any real purpose. The suffering caused by his separation from society must have been almost unbearable for Silas. But this suffering experienced by Silas also represents the suffering of Job in the Bible. In Job's second trial, he is tormented by boils and painful sores in order to test his faith in God. The Bible says: “Then Satan went out from before the Lord and afflicted Job with painful plagues from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head” (New International Version, Job 2:7). Job must resist this agony of Satan, while keeping his faith in God. Job and Silas' situations are similar, however, Job endures more physical suffering while Silas experiences mental and emotional suffering. The second way Silas describes Job is Silas' loss. As mentioned above, Silas loses his family, friends, and faith early on in the story. The narrator describes these losses by saying: "Poor Marner went out with thisdespair in his soul – that shaken confidence in man which is almost madness to a loving nature…his whole faith must be shaken, as his was” (Eliot 11). As he discovers that his friend and God have betrayed him, he concludes that his own fiancée will leave him as well. This short sequence of losing everything took Silas away from happiness and left him in despair. At a time when he had absolutely no one to turn to, Silas clings to his money because it literally becomes the only thing he cares about in his life. This money, which mainly belongs to Silas's family, is stolen by Dustan Cass. Eliot describes Silas's pain when he discovered his money was lost, saying, “He could see every object in his house and his gold was not there. Again he raised his trembling hands to his head and uttered a wild and heartbreaking cry, the cry of desolation” (Eliot 41). When Silas realizes his money has been stolen, he cries as if he had just lost a family member. At this point, Silas has absolutely nothing: no friends, no family, no faith, and none of his significant possessions. In the same way that Silas loses everything, Job also experiences the same situation. During Job's first trial, all of his animals and brothers and sisters are taken from him by Satan. “A messenger came to Job and said to him: “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, and the Sabeans attacked them and carried them away”… The fire of God fell from heaven and burned the sheep and the servants… Your sons and the girls were celebrating and drinking wine in the elder brother's house, when suddenly a powerful wind blew from the desert and hit the four corners of the house. It fell on them and they died, and I am the only one who escaped to tell you” (New International Version, Job 1:14-19). In these verses he describes all the possessions and loved ones that Job loses as part of his ordeal. His animals, his servants, and his family are all taken from him, just as Silas's family, friends, faith, and possessions were taken from him. Both Job and Silas are in despair as they lose everything that is meaningful to them. A final way in which Silas is similar to Job involves the redemption they both ultimately receive. For Silas, he finds his happiness again thanks to his meeting with Eppie. Once Silas finds Eppie and comes to care for her, he realizes that he doesn't need her money, he just needs someone to love to find happiness. Once Eppie enters his life, Silas begins to assimilate into society. Eliot symbolizes his acceptance into the community with the pipe, saying, "Silas had taken up the habit of smoking the pipe daily for the past two years, having been strongly encouraged to do so by the elders of Raveloe" (Eliot 143). This pipe symbolizes his assimilation because it shows that he is doing things that are also done by the community, and that he is finally integrating into society. After the beginning of the second part of the novel, we see that Silas has changed a lot during the 16 years he spent with Eppie. He is now a family man, has a daughter, a house full of pets, friends in his city, a newfound faith, etc. After going through so much pain and loss, Eppie brings him back and redeems him from his misery. In fact, at the end of the story, Eppie exclaims, “Oh father, what a lovely house ours is!” I think no one could be happier than we are” (Eliot 183). This is an incredible comeback for Silas. At the beginning of the book we see that he is in the darkest place in his life, but by the end he is described as the happiest man in the world. This transition shows the redemption that Silas ultimately achieves, and it represents the same.