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![]() Silas’ wife, Persis Lapham, acts as a mediator between Silas' business and family life, as well as a constant presence of residual Puritan morality. However, his moral ambiguity is resolved at the end, as he fails to offload the mills at a premium and accepts bankruptcy, cleaning his hands of debt and returning to his rural home. At the same time, we are made to wonder throughout the novel to what extent he actually accepts Tom Corey for reasons unrelated to his upbringing and how much he secretly wills Tom to marry one of his daughters, though he says no such thing explicitly. ![]() For example, Silas contributes money to the wife of a man who saved his life, but at the novel's start, he has also left his prior business partner without a job or any money. However, he lacks social civility, cannot understand the manners required of him at dinner parties, and is questionable in morality. ![]() In moving his now wealthy family and business to the nearest hub of industry, Boston, he fancies that he has risen in social rank and is now a member of the gentry. ![]() The protagonist of the story, Silas Lapham is a materialistic businessman who discovers a paint mine on his family's rural Vermont property. ![]()
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