Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe

Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe is the third novel penned by George Eliot, a pseudonym for Victorian author Mary Anne Evans, first published in England in 1861. It is a dramatic tale of a reclusive weaver, which in strong realism depicts the author’s sophisticated treatments of her attitude toward religion. In a script set in the early 19th century, Silas Marner is a member of a small Calvinist congregation in Lantern Yard, a slum street in an unnamed city in the North of England. He is falsely accused of stealing the congregation’s funds while caring for a very ill deacon. A pocket-knife belonging to Marner and the bag formerly containing the money are found in his house. It appears evident to Silas that his best friend, William Dane, has framed him, because he had lent the pocket-knife to William a short while before, and had not seen it since. Silas is proclaimed guilty by the members of his church and the woman he was to marry rejects him, and later weds Dane. With his life and his heart ripped apart, Silas leaves Lantern Yard and the city he has long called home. Marner heads south, settling near the village of Raveloe, where he lives as a recluse, plying his trade of weaving, and hoarding his earnings. When his gold is stolen by Dunstan Cass, the dissolute young son of a squire, who is the town’s leading landowner, Silas sinks into a deep depression, despite the villagers’ attempts to aid him. Dunsey Cass disappears, and once again no association is made between the thief and the theft.