When Lewes died after continual bad health in 1878, Eliot was devastated, but she still married an old friend, John Cross. Seven months later, in 1880, George Eliot died. She was buried next to Lewes.
The early part of Silas Marner is set during the Napoleonic Wars of 1793 to 1815. The war did not much affect Eliot’s fictional, small town of Raveloe; in fact the farmers saw it as a positive thing: “It was still that glorious war-time which was felt to be a peculiar favour of Providence towards the landed interests.” During the war period the farmers could farm badly and still earn enough money to live off.
The first part of the novel is also set before the Industrial Revolution so there were no factories as such. Most people were either under an apprenticeship or self-employed (known as ‘cottage industry’). Weavers were a fairly common example of cottage industry; Silas Marner was a weaver himself. The weavers mostly used hand power looms and the mechanical loom was only introduced later, even though it was invented by Cartwright in 1794.
At the end of the novel, about 35 years later, the Industrial Revolution had begun and Silas’ former home, Lantern Yard, had been affected dramatically. Most of the shops and buildings were industrialised and the old chapel was knocked down to make space for a factory: “Lantern Yard’s gone… they’ve made this new opening and see that big factory!” Most of the people who lived in the industrialised Lantern Yard had only moved there after the Industrial Revolution, so didn’t know what it was like before. For Silas this was bad news because it meant he couldn’t find out if the people from the chapel ever discovered the truth about the stolen money.
The community of Raveloe was very suspicious of strangers or any travellers who might have skills that were unknown to the agriculture-based society of Raveloe. “Emigrants were to the last regarded as aliens by their rustic neighbours and usually contradicted the eccentric habits…” Silas was also treated with trepidation, as he rarely left his house, and only went out to deliver his linen or buy food. Hence he was, if not maliciously, shunned by the rest of the community, and certainly in his early years in Raveloe this didn’t seem to bother him; he was brooding over his past and lost faith: “…year after year, Silas Marner lived in solitude … desire and satisfaction that had no relation to any other being.” The only person he had any kind of contact with was one of his customers, Dolly Winthrop. In fact, many of the inhabitants of Raveloe saw weaving as some sort of Devil-aided profession, as indispensable as it was. Really, they only feared strangers because they knew nothing about them: “The world outside their own direct experience was a region of vagueness and mystery.”
The squire was the most important person in most towns and villages at the time. Squire Cass was Raveloe’s squire and he lived in the grand Red House with his two sons Godfrey and Dunstan. The Red House was used for social gatherings, such as parties. Squire Cass also had tenants. The doctor, vicar and magistrate fell just under the squire in importance, all being essential for village life; the doctor for health, the vicar for religion and the magistrate for law. In Silas Marner Dr Kimble is mentioned quite often, which could be to emphasise that he was an important part of Raveloe. The lowest tier of the hierarchy was, of course, the working class, including Silas Marner. Whereas the Squire’s house was a large, handsome building, embellished with a grand flight of stone steps and with the high stables behind it, opposite the church, Silas’ house at the edge of the stone pits was a tiny, ramshackle affair, probably with only two or three rooms. It just shows the great social divide in those times, even in such a small place as Raveloe, although in Silas Marner the working and upper classes, Silas and the Casses, are brought together through Eppie.
The chapel in Lantern Yard and the church in Raveloe are very different in Silas Marner’s mind. The chapel was a strict, non-conformist community, open only to a select few. If anyone wanted to join Lantern Yard chapel their lives were overwhelmed by the life of the church, and it would be a lifelong commitment. Non-conformist churches were more popular with people like Silas because many did not have as long a tradition of orthodoxy as the Anglican church, where people like the Squire and doctor would probably have gone, and were therefore more welcoming to poor people. Eliot suggests that Anglican churches were much less severe than non-conformist. Attendance was not obligatory day in, day out. Most people only went on Sundays, and even then it was not essential if you wanted a break. There was no such forgiving nature with non-conformist churches.
The non-conformists would have had to pay tithes to the Anglican church without benefiting from services like burial rights. The non-conformists could not serve in government like the Anglicans. In the case of Raveloe Silas felt “that the Power in which he had vainly trusted among the streets and in the prayer-meetings, was very far away from this land in which he had taken refuge, where men lived in careless abundance…”
The main method of transport for the working class was walking. People thought nothing of walking ten miles or so to the neighbouring village and then walking back again in time for dinner. For the middle class, like the doctor, going by horseback was possible as they could afford it, but it still took an hour or so to ride to the nearest turnpike. For the upper class, such as the Squire, gigs and carts were available. Raveloe was, therefore, an isolated society, quite different from Lantern Yard.
The clothing worn varied greatly in style from the working to the upper classes. Silas’ coat was a piece of old sacking, and he probably wore the same outfit for several days in a row. However, the wealthier lavished themselves with all manner of fancy ball gowns and suits for special occasions, such as parties at the Red House. When Silas brought Eppie to the Red House, Mrs Kimble holds her, “hesitating, however, to take those dingy clothes into contact with her own ornamented satin boddice.” It was accepted in the days that Eliot was writing about that there would be this kind of poverty contrasted with wealth, and even the churches accepted it.
In the days of Silas Marner medicine was not, obviously, the same as it is now. Dr Kimble did treat most people, but shows the ignorance of the age by suggesting to Silas that he smoke in order to cure his cough. However, Silas had his own medicines which he made from herbs and flowers, a skill inherited from his mother. He cured Sally Oates using his herbal remedies “and made her sleep like a baby, when her heart had been beating enough to burst her body…” Unfortunately for Silas, the news of his skills spread quickly, and soon many people from all over Raveloe were coming to Silas to have him cure their rheumatism and other ailments, adding more darkly “that if you could only speak the devil fair enough, he [Silas] might save you the cost of the doctor.” So witchcraft was still in people’s minds. Drugs were also used in that time, and Godfrey Cass’s wife, Molly, was addicted to opium, the drug which finally killed her.
The life that George Eliot was depicting in Silas Marner was one in which poverty and wealth lived side by side, and people accepted that that was how things were. Religion was very important to all, whether it was non-conformist or Anglican. By the time George Eliot wrote Silas Marner she had lost her Christian faith, and this could have inspired her to write about somebody who also loses their faith although, unlike George Eliot, Silas regains his.