How Does Eliot Portray The Class System In The Novel "Silas Marner"

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How Does Eliot Portray The Class System In The Novel

"Silas Marner"

Marian Evans, who adopted the pseudonym of George Eliot, lived in a predominantly patriarchal society and therefore believed that society would not accept a female writer who wrote anything other than trivial novels. Victorian novelists aimed to educate their readers as well as entertain; as a result, they mostly used morals as the theme for their books.

George Eliot wrote the novel Silas Marner in 1861. The moral theme of this novel is that everybody receives what they deserve in life. To present the characters and their social class the author uses many different methods, such as the way she describes the villagers in the novel. The villagers are superstitious; George Eliot informs the audience of this by expressing that:

"Superstition clung easily round every person."

Eliot implies that the villagers are feeble minded and reliant on their beliefs by using the verb "clung". She accomplishes this by using abstract nouns such as "mystery" to show that the villagers are ignorant and oblivious to the things that they do not understand.

The novel is based