Character Sketch of Nancy Lammeter in Silas Marner
Character Sketch of Nancy Lammeter: Nancy Lammeter is the pretty, caring and stubborn young lady whom Godfrey pursues and then marries. Like Godfrey, Nancy comes from a family that is wealthy by Raveloe standards. However, her father, unlike Squire Cass, is a man who values moral rectitude, thrift, and hard work. Nancy has inherited these strict values and looks disapprovingly on what she sees as Godfrey’s weakness of character. She is, however, exhilarated by Godfrey’s attention, in part because of the status he embodies.
Nancy Lammeter is Mr. Lammeter’s daughter and Godfrey’s sweetheart whom he eventually marries after the death of Molly. She is described a pretty and caring person with a remarkable strength of character and high principles. She refuses to adopt a child after the death of their only child. But, when she comes to know of the secret marriage of her husband and the child from that marriage, she willingly agrees to accept Eppie and take her home.
Nancy Lammeter as a young girl is charming. She moves with graceful movements, and lives completely up to the standards expected of a lady. She walks upright and up straight, has nice and candid manners, but she is not the smartest woman in the world. In fact, Nancy is quite aware that she is the typical country girl that comes from a wealthy, yet not necessarily sophisticated, family. Even her hands are described as coarse because they show the traces of butter-making, cheese-crushing, and even coarser work. However, the striking feature of Nancy Lammeter is her beauty, her height, her straight posture, and her moral code of ethics which she refused to waver from.
Nancy Lammeter lives her life according to an inflexible code of behavior and belief. When Nancy is younger, .this “code” of hers demands that she and her sister dress alike on formal occasions. When she is older, Nancy’s principle keeps her from adopting a child, but her love for Godfrey makes her try to make it up to him in other ways. When she discovers that Eppie is Godfrey’s own daughter, it is not the principle that governs her actions, as Godfrey had feared, but love and sympathy.
Nancy Lammeter seems to be in a despondent mood. Her father and sister Priscilla have returned to the Warrens. Godfrey has gone on his Sunday afternoon pursuit She is alone at home with the Bible. She begins to read it but soon her mind wanders off. She lives “the vacant moments by living inwardly, again and again, through all her remembered experience, especially through the fifteen years of her married time”. She always asks herself if she has done enough. She muses, as she often does, on their lack of children and the disappointment it has caused Godfrey. She also questions herself on her denial of adoption. Nancy wonders whether she was right to resist Godfrey’s suggestion that they adopt Eppie, She loves her husband dearly, but his yearning for children is something she cannot cope with and is immensely sad deep within.
Nancy’s introduction focuses on her appearance, specifically on how her beauty is still evident despite her muddy raincoat and the frightened expression on her face. She impresses the readers as a ‘ rustic beauty’, lovely and immaculate. Though blessed with natural grace and poise. Nancy is unpolished-her speech shows traces of a rural accent and she has had little formal schooling. Even her hands are described as coarse as they show the traces of butter-making, cheese-crushing and even coarget work.
Nancy Lammeter contradicts herself in the manner in which she treats Godfrey. She absolutely refuses to marry him and yet, she gets upset if he does not pay her attention. Nancy has thus created her own code of conduct and beliefs and holds stubbornly to them except in her attitude toward Godfrey.