Raveloe.

- between Superstition and Evangelicanism Superstition In the beginning of the early 19th century, where the story is set, superstition clung easily round every person or thing that was at all unwonted. (cf. Eliot 4) The shepherd who had good reason to believe that the bag Silas was carrying held nothing but flaxen thread, doubts that the trade of weaving could be carried out entirely without the help of the Evil One, because he cannot explain otherwise the alien-looking figure of the pallid, undersized man, compared to a remnant of a disinherited race. The function of the shepherd s belief, solely based on outward appearances, is thereby suggested and a few lines later confirmed by the question how was a man to be explained unless you knew his father or mother? The villagers of Raveloe that live in rural areas, know the signs of the weather and partook of the nature of conjuring, two forms of practicing superstitious belief. The questionable sound of Silas loom is only questionable, because the rural neighbours are not used to it and are not clever enough to explain things they are not accustomed to wisely. The Anglican Church in Raveloe While superstition is predominant among the peasantry, Anglicanism is linked to the center of Raveloe: it has a fine old church and large churchyard in the heart of it (6) and the inhabitants of Raveloe celebrate Christmas, Whitsun and Easter tide (7), which are the highest Christian feasts. Contrary to Lantern Yard, Raveloe was not a place where moral censure was severe (24) and thus represents a belief system which is an utter contrast to the form of belief practiced in Lantern Yard. In chapter two, ... Puritanism in Lantern Yard The belief system of Silas home town Lantern Yard differs significantly from that in Raveloe and there are several clues in the text that might let the reader associate the narrow religious sect (9) with the Puritan ideology. While Silas cataleptic fits feed

the superstition in Raveloe, the meaning of these fits changes in the puritan community: To have sought a medical explanation for this phenomenon would have been held by Silas himself, as well as by his minister and fellowmembers, a wilful self-exclusion from the spiritual significance that might lie therein. Silas was evidently a brother selected for a peculiar discipline and though the effort to interpret this discipline was discouraged by the absence, on his part, of any spiritual vision during his outward trance, yet it was belieeved by himself and others that ist effect was seen in an accession of light and fervour. (ibid.) This passage illustrates the puritan belief in Calvinistic Predestination which says that God has chosen the ones who will receive salvation and made Puritans seek for signs to find out if they would be elected. Silas friend William Dane can be seen as the Personification of Puritanism in two ways: On the one hand, William declared that he had possessed unshaken assurance [of salvation] ever since, in the period of his conversion, he had dreamed that he saw the words calling and election sure standing by themselves on a white page in the open Bible (10). This dream represents the puritan habit of seeking for signs. On the other hand William Dane, characterized by the narrator through imperativeness and lean on contradiction embodies the problem of the puritan doctrine: the noun imperativeness alludes to the strictness and intolerance towards other religious beliefs. The puritan doctrine was contradictious because the belief in the Calvinistic doctrine on the one hand and the belief in receiving God s grace through hard work on the other hand which is a selfdetermined action. is in itself contradictory. Another example for the narrowness of the Lantern Yard community is Sarah s reaction when Silas asks her if she would like to break off their engagement (11) Though she is presumingly shaken by Danes turn of Silas fits from a proof of divine favour into a visitation of Satan (10) , she refuses to cancel the engagement that was known to the church and therefore could not be broken off without strict investigation, and Sarah could render no reason that would be sanctioned by the feeling of the community. (11) Silas desperate sentence God will clear me (12) and the fact that he is relying on his own innoncence being cerrified by immediate divine interference represents the puritan per-

suation that God is connected to every individual. A significant difference to the Raveloe belief is demonstrated by the habit of drawing lots to convict somebody of a crime, because any resort to legal measures for ascertaining the culprit was contrary to the principles of the chruch in Lantern Yard, according to which prosecution was forbidden to Christians. (13) After the lots declared that Silas Marner was guilty he is immediately excommunicated from the community which represents the typically puritan strict sanction of members that seem to act against the Puritan doctrine. Conclusion Through linking certain belief systems to a certain social class, Eliot gives a deep insight on her own view of religion. Superstition, for example, is close-knit to the rural region of Raveloe...