“how was a man to be explained unless you at least knew somebody who knew his father and mother.”
Another appearance shown by this declaration is that newcomers were not accepted into society. By using verbs such as “lounging” Eliot sets the image that the villagers are leading a slow life.
George Eliot uses eye-dialect as a method to present the character of the villagers to the reader. She portrays them as lower-class and uneducated when she abbreviates words such as “would” to “’ud” and changes the spelling of some words such as “January” to “janiway”. Eliot also writes words phonetically e.g. “contradicking” to do this. She shows the villagers to be lower-class and uneducated when she uses inverse grammar in the villagers dialogue “red it was” instead of “it was red”.
George Eliot also presents the characters through foregrounding such as, when introducing Squire Cass, Eliot foregrounds him with the superlative “greatest”.
“The greatest man in Raveloe was Squire Cass”
This presents a good image of Squire Cass to the audience before the audience itself can make their own judgement of him. When describing Squire Cass’s house, the author uses the definite article:
“Squire Cass, who lived in the large red house.”
This informs the reader that it is the only one of its kind in the area, therefore showing that the Cass family is extremely wealthy. The author shows Squire Cass to be even more superior by using words such as “honours” and “lord” when describing him.
Eliot directs the reader to focus on Cass’s wealth when only describing him through material possessions. She then explains to the reader how the rich enjoyed life. She uses the adverb “freely” in relation to their diet, which suggests they had no restrictions in life. To support this she suggests that the rich are very privileged:
“Kept all his sons at home in idleness”
This portrays the rich to be spoilt and lazy.
The author also uses foregrounding to introduce Silas Marner to the novel because she foregrounds his occupation to the reader followed by a brief description of weavers and then introduces him declaring:
“such a linen worker named Silas Marner.”
This also creates an image of Silas Marner in the readers mind before she describes his characteristics personally. The audience learn that Marner is a low class weaver who is uneducated and alienated by his fellow workers. By using the technique of foregrounding Eliot directs the reader to think about and analyse the factors related to Marner which she deems are most important for the reader to acknowledge, meeting the aims of her novel. The reader is therefore able to detach his disposition of being a miser from his social standing.
George Eliot describes to the readers that the weavers are “alien-looking men”. The connotations of the word “alien” in this context, show weavers to be abnormal and social outcasts, illustrating the views held regarding these low- class citizens in the society of that time. The use of the word “alien” makes the reader feel that Silas Marner has some kind of physical disfigurement but when George Eliot describes Silas physically, he is described as a normal person. However, she links his description to being “alien-looking” because she describes him as pale faced with protuberant eyes. George Eliot reinforces the fact that Silas Marner is isolated by explaining that:
“He never strolled into the village to drink a pint at the rainbow, or to gossip at the wheelwrights. He sought no man or woman.”
This shows that Silas Marner chose to be isolated from society and did not try to insert himself into society to socialise.
Eliot also describes Silas Marner by using similes; she does this when she compares him to a spider:
“he seemed to weave, like a spider”
Then when she compares him to an insect:
“...a spinning insect.”
This causes the reader to picture Silas Marner as a mysterious and dark natured person because of all the connotations associated with a spider and an insect. It could also be argued that comparing him to arthropods indicates lack of respect. She may have used this technique to highlight the lack of respect and importance attributed to him by the villagers.
In the chapter “claiming Eppie” the author, unusually, portrays Silas Marner as the hero of the novel in order to deal with the moral theme that everybody receives what they deserve in life. In Victorian novels the upper class are usually portrayed as heroes, therefore Silas Marner attributed as hero in this novel is unusual because he is of a lower class. Eliot uses love to substantiate the moral of the story further by plotting Eppie to choose to stay with Silas Marner even though Godfrey Cass could make her life easier. Silas Marner is emphasized as the hero when he and Godfrey Cass discuss Eppie. Silas describes the loss of Eppie as an emotional loss:
“You might as well take the heart out o’ my body?”
Whereas Godfrey Cass talks of Eppie in relation to ownership:
“But I have a claim on you, Eppie – the strongest of all claims.”
The moral theme that everybody receives what they deserve is shown throughout the novel. Silas Marner looses all his money but is blessed with Eppie. Godfrey turns his back on Eppie and in the end cannot have children with his second wife. Dunsey Cass is a thief therefore loses his life. This novel informs the reader that no matter what class you are in, you will receive what you deserve in life.
To conclude, one can see that George Eliot uses a variety of methods to present characters and their social class. She also uses a variety of methods to show how rigid the class system used to be.
