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INTRODUCTION
I am going to talk about religion in Silas Marner, the weaver of Raveloe, whose author is George Eliot, and it was written in 1861. To being able to understand the novel, I think it is important to know who its author is. After that, I am going to show a little summary of the novel, because by this way the topic which I am going to talk about later will be easier to understand.
GEORGE ELIOT
George Eliot is the name behind which Mary Ann Evans is concealed. She was born on November 22nd 1819 in Southfarm, Warwickshire. She studied in a local school of Nuneaton and after that she went to Coventry to study in a boarding school. At the age of seventeen, when her mother died, she came back home to take care of the household. Since then, she was self-taught. In 1841 Mary Ann met the Brays, who introduced her to R.W. Emerson. This friendship took her to discover a new literature what made her to lose faith in Christianity, which caused some problems with her father because he had instilled in her a strict religious education.
In 1851 she travelled during two years around Europe and when she returned to London, after her father’s death, she began to work to Westminster Review. It was during this period when she put in touch with the most important literary figures of England, like Harriet Martineau, John Stuart Mill, James Froude, Herbert Spencer and George Lewes. Meeting this last man was one of the most important events in her life. Despite he was already married, they fall in love and they decided to live together.
In 1856, motivated by Lewes, Mary Ann started to write novels under the pseudonym of George Eliot, to ensure her works would be taken seriously in those hard times to women, century in which they began to fight for their fair rights. She wrote novels like Adam Bede (1859), Silas Marner (1861), Romola (1862-63), Felix Holt (1866), The Spanish Gypsy (1868) and Middlemarch (1871-72).
So, we are going to focus on Silas Marner, the weaver of Raveloe.
SUMMARY: SILAS MARNER
Silas Marner, a Christian weaver, was forced to leave his puritan community, called Lantern Yard, and his faith in Christianity, because his best friend William Dane had robbed some coins and had blamed him for the theft.
Marner decided to move to Raveloe, a small village in the Midlands. In spite of villagers that though he was a weird loner, for fifteen whole years he was content with his work and the money he earned, which he looked at every night and he hid under the floor.
On the other hand, some wealthy families lived in that place, like the Cass family, for who things was not going well in those moments. The head of the family, Mr. Cass had two sons: Godfrey, the eldest; and Dunstan, the youngest. The first one was secretly married to an alcoholic girl, Morry Farrel, although he realized that actually he wanted to marry to a pretty lady, Nancy Lammeter, but, of course, he could not and he felt depressed.
One day, Dunstan persuaded Godfrey to sell his horse Wildfire to pay a debt, but he made a mistake. Dunstan took the horse off hunting before getting the money, but Wildfire died because of a stupid jump. When that happened he realized that he could not come back home without the money of the sale, so when he was walking home, he observed Silas’ cottage and finally he decided to steal the money that all the village supposed he had.
When that happened, the weaver returned home and he realized that his money was not at the place it used to. After look for it around the house he thought that someone had stolen it, so Marner ventured into town to tell the villagers, who were met in Rainbow, what had happened, and he asked them for help. Silas, devastated by his loss, received support from his neighbors.
One day, one of Godfrey’s friends told him about the Wildfire’s death and he decided to tell his father about the money and horse.
On New Year’s Eve, during the yearly party organized by the Squire Cass, Godfrey tried to woo Nancy, although she withheld her affections. Moreover, Godfrey’s brother, Dunsay, continued disappeared.
After that, one Christmas night, Silas Marner found a death woman, Molley Farrell, with her little daughter in front of his cottage. Actually, the child was Godfrey’s daughter and he knew it. She was dead, since that moment, he was relieved and he was single again, then he could propose Nancy.
the life of an artisan early incorporated in a narrow religious sect, where the poorest layman has the chance of distinguishing himself by gifts of speech, and has, at the very least, the weight of a silent voter in the government of his community. Marner was highly thought of in that little hidden world, known to itself as the church assembling in Lantern Yard; he was believed, to be a young man of exemplary life and ardent faith. ”
( Silas Marner, the weaver of Raveloe. Chapter 1, page 14).
Although he also believed in some practises which diverted from his beliefs and the supernatural.
“ but Silas was both sane and honest, though, as with many honest and fervent men, culture had not defined any channels for his sense of mystery, and so it spread itself over the proper pathway of inquiry and knowledge. He had inherited from his mother some acquaintance with medicinal herbs and their preparation—a little store of wisdom which she had imparted to him as a solemn bequest — but of late years he had had doubts about the lawfulness of applying this knowledge, believing that herbs could have no efficacy without prayer, and that prayer might suffice without herbs; so that his inherited delight to wander through the fields in search of foxglove and dandelion and coltsfoot, began to wear to him the character of a temptation.”
( Silas Marner, the weaver of Raveloe. Chapter 1, page 15).
Through out the novel we can see that one of the author’s biggest worries is the way that people believe in God, so its main character considers that how we treat people is more important than the religion we follow, itself. What is more, in this book we can see how the author focuses more on the way in which God manifests himself in popular beliefs rather than a direct attack toward him.
Our author seems to suggest that the religious point of view lived in Raveloe is better than in Lantern Yard. Then she points out that if one has a lot of faith in God and everything revolves around him, whichever unfortunate event that occurs will be God himself as guilty, and this is what happens in the Lantern Yard, and more specifically, what happens to Silas Marner. This loss of faith in God will be recovered later, only in part, when Eppie appears on Christmas night, which could be interpreted as an allegory of Christian salvation.
The conclusion that any reader could get about this reading, focusing on the religion’s fear, is that the author could be warning that focusing too much in God can have negative effects on our lives, as it happens to Silas Marner when
he is betrayed by his best friend. All of that in contrast to the positive aspects offered by life in Raveloe, where the community interacts not only with God.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Wikipedia: George Eliot
- http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/silas/summary.html
- George Eliot, Silas Marner, The weaver of Raveloe, Penguin Popular Classics, 1994
