How far is "Silas Marner" a product of its time?
How far is "Silas Marner" a product of its time?
George Elliot has given the villagers of Ravaloe the typical strongly knit community characters. In the early nineteenth century, a person's village or town was all-important, providing the sole source of emotional support. She elaborates on the fact that they all know each other and know one another's place, "the more important customers, who drank spirits and sat nearest the fire", "the beer-drinkers, chiefly men in fustian jackets and smock-frocks". She also gives them the well known farmers accent as well "Some folks 'ud say that was a fine beast you druv in yesterday, Bob?'' All this creates the image of a close community who don't like change and where small changes happen they have an effect on Ravaloe's conversation "Every one of Mr. Macey's audience had heard this story many times, but it was listened to as if it had been a favourite tune, and at certain points the puffing of the pipes was momentarily suspended". Chapter six in "Silas Marner" is simply there as an introduction too the villagers of Ravaloe. It helps in getting the feel of what the community is like in the village and gives a kind of flavour of how they will react to the outsider Silas Marner because Elliot is constantly giving you that image of superstitious, close and nosy villagers. Much of the novel's dramatic force is generated by the tension between Silas and the society of Ravaloe. Silas, who goes from being a member of a tight-knit community to utterly alone and then back again, is a perfect way for Eliot to explore the relationship between the individual and the surrounding community.
Religion is used frequently in the story. When Marner lives in Lantern Yard he visits church regularly. It was during a prayer meeting that Silas fell into a cataleptic fit where his fellow villagers created the idea that he was to do with Satan. They described Silas as though the devil was entering his body "this trance looked more like a visitation of Satan than a proof of divine favour, and exhorted his friend to see that he hid no accursed thing within his soul." In one sense "Silas Marner" can be seen simply as the story of ...
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Religion is used frequently in the story. When Marner lives in Lantern Yard he visits church regularly. It was during a prayer meeting that Silas fell into a cataleptic fit where his fellow villagers created the idea that he was to do with Satan. They described Silas as though the devil was entering his body "this trance looked more like a visitation of Satan than a proof of divine favour, and exhorted his friend to see that he hid no accursed thing within his soul." In one sense "Silas Marner" can be seen simply as the story of Silas' loss and regaining of his faith. But you could just as easily describe the novel as the story of Silas' rejection and embrace of his community. In the novel faith and community are closely linked. The community of Lantern Yard is united by religious faith, and Ravaloe is likewise introduced as a place in which people share the same set of superstitious beliefs. When Silas loses his faith, he is isolated from any sort of larger community. Silas' regained faith differs from his former Lantern Yard faith in significant ways. His former faith was based first and mostly on the idea of God. When he is unjustly charged with murder, he does nothing to defend himself, trusting in a just God to clear his name. The faith Silas regains through Eppie is different in that it is not even explicitly Christian. Silas does not mention God in the same way he did in Lantern Yard, but bases his faith on the strength of his and Eppie's commitment to each other. In his words, "since ... I've come to love her ... I've had light enough to trusten by; and now she says she'll never leave me, I think I shall trusten till I die."
Throughout the novel, Eliot draws on the natural world for many images and metaphors. Silas in particular is often compared to plants or animals, and these images are used to trace his progression from an isolated loner to a well-loved father figure. As he sits alone weaving near the start of the novel, Silas is described like a spider. Just after he is robbed, Silas is compared to an ant that finds its usual path blocked, an image of confusion, but also of searching for a solution. Later, as Silas begins to reach out to the rest of the village, his soul is compared to a plant, not yet budding but is soon too flower. Finally, as he raises Eppie, Silas is described as "unfolding" and "trembling into full consciousness," imagery describing the growing change of an insect and the blooming of a flower. This nature imagery also emphasises the pre-industrial setting of the novel, reminding us of a time when the natural world was a bigger part of daily life in England than it was after the Industrial Revolution.
Ravaloe, like most of nineteenth-century English society, is organised along strict lines of social class; the forms of address the characters use with one another, their habits, even where they sit at social events. While the Casses are not nobility, as landowners they sit on top of Ravaloe's social pecking order, while Silas, an outsider is at its base. Nonetheless, Silas proves himself to be the better man than his social superiors.
The hearth represents the physical centre of the household and symbolises all of the comforts of home and family. When Godfrey dreams of a life with Nancy, he sees himself "with all his happiness centred on his own hearth, while Nancy would smile on him as he played with the children." Even in a public place such as the Rainbow, the villagers' importance is measured by how close they sit to the fire. Initially, Silas shares his hearth with no one, at least not intentionally. However, the two intruders who forever change Silas' life, first Dunsey and then Eppie, both drawn in by Silas' glowing fire. Silas' cottage can never be entirely separate from the outside world, and the light of his fire attracts both misfortune and redemption. In the end, it is Silas' hearth that feels the warmth of family, while Godfrey's is childless.
Silas Marner is a product of its time because it represents things like religion, loss and regaining of faith, also the industrial revolution. It shows life in the 18th century very specifically with typical villagers used and suspicions to create a very imaginative picture of who, what, and where is going on.
