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What Is Fear Irrational

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There are many fears that have rooted themselves deep into the human psyche. Fears of darkness, heights, spiders, and an assortment of even the most ludicrous of things including clowns. However, there is one fear that permeates throughout all of humanity: the fear of the unknown. This is a catch-all term that describes humanity’s disdain of unpredictability and longing for security. In Silas Marner, George Eliot utilizes the stories of Silas Marner’s isolation from Raveloe and Godfrey’s affair with Molly Farren to convey that the fear is futile yet damaging, that fear is irrational, and that everyone needs to be willing to take a risk to overgome this.
Many examples of fearing the unknown being useless but harmful exist in Silas Marner, but …show more content…

Godfrey feared that Nancy would not accept Eppie being borne by another woman, so he kept her ancestry a secret from her while trying to adopt her. In the end, after Godfrey finally confessed to Nancy his secret, “((he) felt all the bitterness of an error...he had not measured this wife with whom he had lived so long (179)”. By letting fear control him, Godfrey was his own greatest adversary. This could have been averted if Godfrey had taken a rational standpoint and not viewed Nancy in a patronizing light. In contrast to Godfrey’s inaction, Silas proves his fear of the unknown irrational by both responding to the community reaching out to him and giving Eppie all of his human affection.
Silas only overcame his fear of other people by taking a risk and expressing himself to them and Eppie. By keeping Eppie who gave him a “vision of the old home and old-streets leading into Lantern-Yard (122)”, Silas reopened an old wound in hopes that it would finally heal. He was scarred; but by taking care of Eppie, Silas finally overcame the stinging feeling of rejection left by William Dane’s betrayal and was able to become close to another human being again. If Silas had not taken Eppie in and instead given her away to another family, he would never have been able to overcome his fear of the

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