Silas Marner
Silas Marner was a skilled handloom linen-weaver, of simple life who had come to live in the village of Raveloe. The sound of his loom was very different from anything the villagers were used to and the village boys would stare in at his window until he chased them away: Silas´s Loom, so unlike the natural cheerful trotting of the winnowing-machine, or the simpler rhythm of the flail, had a half-fearful fascination for the Raveloe boys, who would often leave their nutting or bird´s- 'nesting to peep in at the window of the stone cottage, counter balancing a certain awe at the mysterious action of the loom, by a pleasant sense of scornful superiority, drawn from the mockery of its alternating noises along with the bent, thread-mill attitude of the weaver'.
The boys of the village were afraid that Silas had an 'evil eye' and that he could harm them by just looking at them. There was a belief that he had some sort of connection with the devil because of his healing powers. When Silas came to Raveloe he did not make any new friends preferring to keep himself busy by just doing his work. The reason for this was because in Lantern Yard he had been betrayed by his 'friend´, William Dane, who had accused him of theft resulting in the lost of his beloved Sarah and his expulsion from the chapel. In fact Dane had conspired with his fiancée whom he wished to marry and framed Silas by taking advantage of his loss of consciousness due to hin having an epileptic fit. Although this was bad enough, the church elders found him guilty by the drawing of lots. In Silas´s young mind not only his fellow man but God himself had abandoned him.
Silas Marner was a skilled handloom linen-weaver, of simple life who had come to live in the village of Raveloe. The sound of his loom was very different from anything the villagers were used to and the village boys would stare in at his window until he chased them away: Silas´s Loom, so unlike the natural cheerful trotting of the winnowing-machine, or the simpler rhythm of the flail, had a half-fearful fascination for the Raveloe boys, who would often leave their nutting or bird´s- 'nesting to peep in at the window of the stone cottage, counter balancing a certain awe at the mysterious action of the loom, by a pleasant sense of scornful superiority, drawn from the mockery of its alternating noises along with the bent, thread-mill attitude of the weaver'.
The boys of the village were afraid that Silas had an 'evil eye' and that he could harm them by just looking at them. There was a belief that he had some sort of connection with the devil because of his healing powers. When Silas came to Raveloe he did not make any new friends preferring to keep himself busy by just doing his work. The reason for this was because in Lantern Yard he had been betrayed by his 'friend´, William Dane, who had accused him of theft resulting in the lost of his beloved Sarah and his expulsion from the chapel. In fact Dane had conspired with his fiancée whom he wished to marry and framed Silas by taking advantage of his loss of consciousness due to hin having an epileptic fit. Although this was bad enough, the church elders found him guilty by the drawing of lots. In Silas´s young mind not only his fellow man but God himself had abandoned him.
