Joey Fore 5-23-12 The Influence of Community

P4 C.P. English Silas Marner Essay Final

There are many themes in Silas Marner, such as rebirth, greed, retribution, faith, solitude and acceptance. However, most of these mentioned are not obvious or prevalent enough to be considered the main theme of the story. Out of all the themes in the novel, the theme of community stood out the most. In Silas Marner, George Eliot uses symbolism, foil, and imagery to establish the theme of community and its powerful influence on an individual. When Silas Marner is living in Lantern Yard, he is very involved in his community there and has a good life set before him. When he is betrayed by his best friend William Dane, however, he says, You stole the money, and you have woven a plot to lay the sin at my door. (pg. 17) The fact that Silas uses the word woven here is interesting because his loom, which also weaves, could be considered a symbol of community. A loom connects threads together, just like a community connects people. And yet the way that the word woven was being used in this instance took on a bad connotation and ended with Silas being estranged from his community. Another way that the loom is a symbol of the power of community is determined by when and how long Silas sits at it weaving. After Silas is found guilty of stealing the money in Lantern Yard, he goes home and sits in despair for a whole day. The next day, he took refuge from benumbing unbelief, by getting into his loom and working away as usual (pg. 18) Silas sits at his loom weaving so he can cope with being excommunicated from his Church, or being separated from his community. In Raveloe,

before his gold is stolen, all Silas does is sit at his loom weaving, and at the same time he is still separated from his community. However, when his money is stolen and Eppie comes to Silas, he becomes more involved in the Raveloe community. Consequently, he starts weaving less and less. The loom fulfills a need for Silas to connect with something. The more he is connected with real people, the less he needs the loom. George Eliot also uses foil characters as links to community. In Lantern Yard, Silass best friend is William Dane for ten years. However, William betrays the weaver and causes the excommunication and cutting off of Silas from the Lantern Yard community. When Silas moves to Raveloe and has his money stolen, Dolly Winthrop helps Silas by encouraging him to become more involved in the community. When Dolly first visits Silas she says, Well, whatever the letters are, theyve a good meaning and Ive allays put it on too; for if theres any good, weve need of it i this world. (pg. 96) One can see here that Dolly is genuinely good and only wants more good things in the world. William shows qualities of wickedness that contrast the qualities of Dolly, and therefore makes him her foil. Where William is the cause of Silas being separated from community, Dolly is the one who brings Silas back in to the community. When Silass gold is stolen, he goes to the Rainbow. This is where Silas interacts with the community of Raveloe for the first time. This strangely novel situation of opening his trouble to his Raveloe neighbours, of sitting in the warmth of a hearth not his own, and feeling the presence of faces and voices which were his nearest promise of help, had doubtless its influence on Marner, in spite of his passionate preoccupation with loss. Our consciousness rarely registers the beginning of a growth within us any more than without us: there have been many circulations of the sap before we detect

the smallest sign of the bud. (pg. 67) George Eliot uses brilliant imagery in the last sentence of this quote by likening Silas to a budding plant. Silas is influenced by being around his Raveloe neighbors and his coming to the Rainbow is definitely the first step to him becoming part of the community in some way. Of course there are many circulations before Silas will begin to bud and really become a solid part of the community. This starts happening when Silas is raising Eppie and she is growing up. As the childs mind was growing into knowledge, his mind was growing into memory: as her life unfolded, his soul, long stupefied in a cold narrow prison, was unfolding too, and trembling gradually into full consciousness. (pg. 145) Once again, Silas is likened to a flowering plant, only this time, he is trembling gradually into full consciousness, like a blooming flower. Eppie is Silass final link to the Raveloe community. George Eliot draws attention to community many times throughout Silas Marner. It is a solid and intrinsic theme that can be found both completely out in the open and also buried deep within the text. Eliot uses her philosophies and ideas of human sociality to show how everyone is connected and how their lives influence each other. Everyone is linked in some way, and George Eliot illustrated that idea of connection through her fundamental theme of community in Silas Marner.