At this point, we already begin to recognise the differences between Raveloe and Lantern Yard. We understand that Lantern Yard is educated and analytical about their religion whereas Raveloe’s approach is simpler and more humble. Normally, we would perceive the educated to be at an advantage but Eliot presents the simpler villagers to be friendlier and warmer. She is showing that people should not always be judged by their education and sometimes preconceptions can be wrong. By doing this, Eliot is exploring ways of getting rid of stereotypes.
In each community, a robbery occurs but Eliot presents the two communities reactions as very different. In Lantern Yard, Silas is accused of stealing the church money. The church use ‘drawing of lots’ to deem whether Silas was guilty. Although Lantern Yard is presented as very educated and forward thinking, they still fail to use an educated and just method to try Silas. We, as the readers, know that Silas is innocent throughout this trial. The Lantern Yard community uses a method where God decides whether Silas is innocent or not and ‘the lots proved Silas Marner guilty.’ This shows how the Lantern Yard community put their religion and faith in God before their knowledge of Silas as a person. After deciding that Silas is guilty, the community ‘suspend’ Silas from the church and leave him to ‘ rely on his own interfaces.’ The people within the community knew Silas to be a man of ‘exemplary life’ and ‘ardent faith’ but despite this, they still neglected to understand that Silas was not the sort of man to commit crimes. Even though Silas was a part of the community, they were still insensitive and turned against him. This suggests that the community desert him when he is really in need of sympathy and warmth. As a result of this, Silas has lost faith in his community, in his religion, in his best friend and in people.
In Raveloe, the villagers were very reasonable when Silas reported the robbery of his money. The landlord of the inn is patient and asks Silas to ‘speak it out sensibly.’
He defends Jem by saying he was the ‘decentest man in the parish.’ Unlike Lantern Yard, the villagers used their knowledge of Jem as a person to defend him.
Mr Macey in the pub says to Silas that he must not ‘accuse the innocent.’ This is a very logical and calm way of thinking as opposed to Lantern Yard’s quick accusations and false assumptions. The fact that Mr Macey is just a simple villager adds to the fact of how calmly and sensibly the villagers deal with the robbery. This reaction is a huge contrast with the Lantern Yard reaction as the villagers were all very sympathetic towards Silas and they wanted to help him. The villagers then dealt with the situation in a calm and orderly manner, with the landlord ‘appointing the sensiblest men’ to help Silas and instructing villagers to ‘examine the premises.’ This is a huge contrast to Lantern Yard. In Lantern Yard, the accused Silas was badly
treated and deserted whereas in Raveloe, the accused Jem Rodney was defended because the villagers dealt with the situation rationally and used their knowledge of Jem to defend him.
The Raveloe villagers are very suspicious of the outside world. This is mainly because most of them were born and had grown up in the same area and therefore did not have much education outside their own environment. However, the Raveloe villagers were caring and helpful with Eppie. Dolly Winthrop in particular had an urge to help and care. This is a contrast with Lantern Yard as although the community still cared for their members, it is presented as more of a duty rather than voluntary.
In Raveloe, to be considered of good origins, you had to know ‘at least somebody who knew their mother and father.’ This implies that family and origins are important in knowing whether you can trust someone or not. This reinforces Raveloe’s traditional customs and superstitious approach to life. This may have been because of their lack of education, forcing them to sharply question any newcomers or people who they did not know. When Silas brings some of his knowledge of herbs to the village, the villagers associate this with the magical remedies of the wise woman of Tarley. They did not understand that Silas’ knowledge was not magical or miraculous. This again suggests that they have little education. When Silas refuses to offer more herbal remedies, the villagers do not understand him. This again reinforces their lack of intelligence and simple mindedness.
There are changes that occur in both communities. As a result of the Industrial Revolution, Lantern Yard has changed a great deal in the time Silas was living in Raveloe. When Eppie visits Lantern Yard she is shocked by the ‘dark, ugly sky’ and says that the community was ‘worse than the workhouse.’ This suggests that there was no place in Raveloe worse than Lantern Yard. Lantern Yard has changed to become a cramped, polluted factory and the general state of the town is described as foul, confined and overcrowded. Silas talks about his old community and says ‘the old place was all swept away.’ The darkness in the Lantern Yard community is reinforced by Silas saying that his time in Raveloe had given him ‘light enough to trusten by.’ Here Silas realises that he is lucky to have left Lantern Yard and to live in a community such as Raveloe. This change to Lantern Yard is portrayed as very negative. Again, Eliot plays with the options of a modern but poorer quality of life or a more simple, but comfortable life.
The change in Raveloe on the other hand is presented as a positive change. Godfrey Cass, now the Squire, has changed his form of income from solely renting out land to dairy farming. The villagers agree that the change is ‘something fresh’ for the community. Although Raveloe had a slow pace of life, the change suggests that the community was learning, moving on and gaining more knowledge of their surroundings. This is good for the village as throughout the novel, it is shown as a community where ‘old echoes were undrowned by new voices’. This suggests that there was hardly any change happening and that old traditions always lingered. The change that occurs in Raveloe is a good change as it is a more sustainable method of farming and allows Raveloe to survive in a changing world.
In conclusion, Eliot shows that although the town seemed like the modern forward thinking community, it still failed to see Silas’ innocence. You would expect an educated society to use proper trials and a just system but their methods of trial still depended upon chance, which is obviously the most uneducated way. Although Lantern Yard had an ordered lifestyle, Eliot shows that this way of life stripped them of their warmth, feeling and instinct. Raveloe on the other hand, is conveyed as warm and with a genuine caring for Silas’ well being. The villagers are portrayed as simple minded and humble but seem to have the sensitivity and true kindliness that Lantern Yard lacks. Eliot tries to show that perhaps more traditional, simpler ways of living are better than modernised, forward ways of living. She breaks boundaries of education and religion to prove that despite having hardly an education and being simply religious, the villagers were the better people. Throughout the novel, the reader’s sympathy lies with Raveloe, feeling that it was the community that supported Silas Marner through difficult times and deserved to survive the Industrial Revolution. Inevitably, at the end it is Raveloe that survives and Lantern Yard we see swept away in the tide of Industrialisation.
