silas and marner - urgent

As a young man, Godfrey believed that all his cares and woes would disappear if he could only marry Nancy, but their marriage ends up coming short of both their expectations. Eliot is very clear about the reason for this: Godfrey does not cultivate an honest relationship with Nancy. He withholds the troubling secret of his parentage of Eppie from her for sixteen years. During this time he does everything he can to live as though he has no secret, but he is disappointed again and again when he and Nancy are unable to have a child. Their barrenness symbolizes their unfruitful, deceptive relationship. When he later asks to adopt Eppie, he has made himself unable to declare his reason. His innermost feelings are intensely private, as all secrets must be, so he has become socially maimed. Keeping so much of himself a secret has made his marriage unhappy. When he finally does accept his responsibility to come clean about his past, he does not meet the redemption that Silas Marner did; the result is more disappointment. For him it is too late to cultivate his ideal community, and he must resign himself to isolation--ultimately he will have to move on to a new community or family and start over, but even then, can there be another redemption like Marner's? Godfrey's lack of connection with Nancy, who wants nothing more than to love him, thus leaves him as isolated as Marner for about as long as Marner is isolated.