Helen Payton
How does the community of Raveloe respond to Silas at key moments in the novel?
The community of Raveloe responds to Silas differently at key moments during the novel. The community Silas moves into evolved from centuries of interdependence. The villagers depended on each other for everything. Raveloe is a remote village where everyone is suspicious of newcomers. The village community is proven to be dependent upon each other.
The class structure in Raveloe consists of the working class and the upper class. Class divisions are very important, The villagers consider Squire Cass to be a bad father. The squires' sons also have problems, Godfrey loves Nancy Lammeter however his marriage to Molly, to whom he once had been attracted is a secret. Molly's lower social class would make her unacceptable to the proud Squire. The structure is shown through village custom, leisure, travel, dress and housing. The working class of Raveloe would often meet in the Rainbow the local pub for a drink and they did not often socialize with the upper class. At Christmas the working class would spend time with the family, whereas the upper class went to a ball at Squire Casses house. In addition the Upper class rode everywhere on horseback. When Dunstans horse dies and he has to walk he hoped that none of the villagers saw him because they would know that something was wrong. Some members of the upper class see themselves as superior, because others who were "every bit as refined as he," but had "slouched" their way through life with a consciousness of being in the vanity of their "betters", wanted the authoritativeness, which the squire had. The Upper class felt superior because they did not work with their hands.
Silas decided that God could not exist, and, after his move to Raveloe, he lives only for his work and the money it brings. His earlier trusting and generous personality is contrasted with his present character. Silas's continued his unfriendliness and his refusal to help others with herbal cures, apart from Sally Oates, combine to keep the superstitious villagers continually distant and afraid, despite Silas's growing wealth. The villagers' old fashioned, superstitious villagers continually distant and afraid, despite Silas's growing wealth. The villagers avoid of fear Silas for various reasons. Some of these are not of Silas's making, but result from Raveloes isolated position. Silas appears like the ghosts the villagers have been discussing in the rainbow the night he was robbed. The discussion of ghosts shows that the villagers are superstitious. Silas moves into a community whose suspicions and fears he increases by inviting "no comer to step across his door-sill". He also never "drinks a pint at the Rainbow" nor enjoys "gossip at the wheelwright's". The villagers of Raveloe are superstitious because of the children because of his look view Silas, as evil. He is thought to have an "evil eye" which could harm them if Silas looked at them. People in Raveloe are cautious around the unexplainable because they do not know about it. If it does not show goodness or kindness towards it they fear it. When Silas arrived because the villagers could not explain his fits they believed him to in league with the devil and they thought of him as being a "dead man come to life again", because of his trances. They thought that Silas's trances were his soul leaving his body for a while, this medical condition made the villagers vary wary of Silas. In addition Silas's knowledge of herbs scared the villagers. When Silas healed Sally Oates the villagers started to talk nicely about him. They did this because they feared that he would put a curse on them if they were horrible to him. Silas drove the villagers even further away when they asked him to cure imperfections or colds and he refused.
