Silas Marner was a linen weaver in the town of Lantern Yard, he is unjustly accused of two crimes; and in this process he loses his faith in God, his best friend and his fiancée. So he moves to another town, where he fails to establish any human relations, but does grow an interest in gold which he counts everyday, its loss is replaced by a small girl, he then realises that gold is not the only thing that matters. George Elliot is in fact a woman who is sort of writing from her own perspective, she lived with a married man whose wife had deserted him and people who met her said she was very ugly. Mary Ann Evans (George Elliot's real name) wrote with a mans name because old men were allowed to write women were forbidden. .
Silas Marner was written in 1861 at the time of the expansion of the British Empire and the industrial revolution. This was the time when Britain and its people got richer and richer because of big businesses, this book reflects on that and it says that money is not the only thing that matters because in most cases money only brings more grief and problems and it can ruin a life, and no matter how much money a person had it could never buy him pleasure except the self satisfaction in making the money because in actual fact Silas "seemed to weave, like the spider, from pure impulse, without reflection-. With just the satisfaction of him making the money.
The themes of the story are based around love, money and redemption. Silas Marner is accused of murdering the oldest deacon of the Church and stealing his money, he later discovers he was framed by his best friend William Dane, he loses his faith in God, he believes that God has let him down by not proving his innocence he soon loses his fiancé and leaves town. He moves to town called Raveloe where he does not make any friends but starts collecting gold he makes by weaving, every night he counts his gold, which was his only pleasure.