In the novel "Silas Manner" by George Eliot, the moral themes are relative to current social .
issues of the Victorian Era, and play a crucial formative role in the development of individual .
characters. Eliot's conception of realism in literature, is due largely to his styles use of descriptions, .
places readers in the novel. Eliot evokes the pastoral English countryside "in the days when he .
spinning-wheels hummed busily in the farmhouses." of the early nineteenth century, emphasizing .
Raveloe's isolation from other towns, an isolation causes the town's people to embrace belief system .
that is distant and alien. In "Silas Marner," Eliot is therefore describing a lost world, and part of his .
purpose in the novel are to evoke what he feels has been lost.
The main character of the novel is Silas Marner, a linen-weaver, who is exiled due to the .
town folks, assumption that he is evil and betrayed the town of Lantern Yard. He is wrongly accused .
by William Dane, his most trusted friend, of killing and robbing the town's deacon. As result, Silas .
Marner leaves his hometown and settles in Raveloe, a country village whose inhabitants stay true .
to their traditional customs and ideas. Before Silas comes to Raveloe he is a respected young man .
of Lantern Yard, primarily for his devotion to his religion and his church, which are prevalent issue .
during the 19th century. Silas becomes engaged to a woman named Sarah, who breaks .
off their engagement when Silas is found guilty. She later marries William Dane. Silas tells the .
church that William is setting him up and declares "there is no God that governs the earth righteously, .
but a God of lies, that bears witnesses against the innocent." As result, Silas goes to live in Raveloe, .
with its sense of "neglected plenty," completely unlike the world which he is accustom to. Having .
lost faith in both, God and man, he seeks a new life with acquaintances in Raveloe, but finds that his .