Happiness of Eppie, Emma & Anne

In George Eliot's "Silas Marner", Eppie, after the death of her mother, is abandoned by her wealthy father, for social reasons. Silas Marner, a weaver, brings her up as his own daughter. After she grows up, her natural father, claims her, promising her wealth & social position. But Eppie replies to him "Thank you Sir, but I can't leave my (adopted) father, nor own anybody nearer than him. And I don't want to be a lady, thank you all the same, I couldn't give up the folks I have been used to." Later she marries a working class man who loves her & continues living with Silas Marner.

In Jane Austen's "Emma", the eponymous girl lives with her father, Mr. Woodhouse, having lost her mother. Because of their wealth, she is the social queen of Hartfield & not a little spoiled. Her father is a self centred man & even averse to losing her by marriage. When she decided to marry Mr.Knightley, her father's best friend, she soothes the anxiety felt by her father by saying that she should always be there, she was introducing no change in their numbers or their comforts but for the better. Did not Mr.Woodhouse like Mr. Knightley very much? So she married without abandoning her father to his loneliness.

In L. M. Montgomery's "Anne of the Green Gables", Anne Shirley, an orphan, is taken in by elderly siblings Matthew & Marilla to help them around their house, Green Gables. She becomes indispensable to them. Matthew passes away due a heart condition. Marilla, plagued by age, contemplates selling Green Gables & the farm. Anne, being brilliant academically, wins a scholarship to a college in another town. But Anne tells Marilla, "I am not going to take the scholarship & leave you here. We will rent out the farm & continue to live at Green  Gables. I am going to teach at the school here. You shan't be dull or lonesome. We'll be real cosy & happy here together, you & I".

In all three cases, the girls did not think they were sacrificing themselves, but were really happy to live with those whom they loved.