Religion and Faith - silas

• • SILAS 'God will clear me' - silas


  This is in chapter 1, it also shows in Chapter 1, this also shows silas's faith in divine providence and his trust in God to intervene and show William as the culprit, but also it is criticised later on, as God proved him wrong. This leads him to reject LY and his religion
• • SILAS 'you may prosper, for all that: there is no just God that governs the world righteously, but a God of lies'


  This is also in Chapter 1, where silas is 'betrayed' by his God when it was actually the irrational justice system that LY had used, this criticises the religion subtly, as it shows that there is actually not a very important need for religion as one small event had led Silas to lose his faith in religion but it also reflects Eliot's religion crisis
• • SILAS 'was it a thief who had taken the bags? Or was it a cruel power that no hands could reach, which had delighted in making him a second time desolate'


  This is Chapter 4, it shows that silas' belief in God is still very real but he sees him in this negative light will carry out negative actions to ruin marner's life
• • SILAS ' even people, whose lives have been made various by learning, sometimes find it hard to keep a fast hold on their habitual views of life, on their faith on the Invisible'


  This is Chapter 2, this can be compared to the one in Chapter 1, where silas was 'betrayed' by God, it shows that one small event can change a person's belief in God, but Eliot's message is that it is okay to have doubts about religion as a whole
• • SILAS ' any resort to legal measures was ascertaining the culprit was contrary to the principles of the church in Lantern Yard, according to which prosecution was forbidden to Christians'


  This is shown in Chapter 1, this is before Marner's drawing of lots to determine his innocence. compared to the same quote that can be found in Chapter 1, parallelism is conveyed in the portrayal of ravaloe and LY where harsh rules and coldness which reflect LY is contradictory but similar to the factory that replaced it, suggesting that people monotously follow the religion because society deems it right
• • SILAS ' silas... was quite unable ...to identify the Ravaloe religion with his old faith' AND ' to go church every Sunday in the calendar would have shown a greedy desire to stand well with Heaven'


  these two quotes are found in part 2 of the novel when Eppie beigns to reconnect Silas to the outside world. this shows how religion can be totally different depending on the community that follows it, it shows that Eloit's focus of religion is of the community that follows the religion not the religion itself, thus warning those who place too much faith in God like Marner and him drawing lots
• • SILAS 'God was good to me'


  this is near the end of the novel, it shows how marner eventually regains his faith in God and religion, and that God was good for delivering Eppie to him, but he never fully regains a personal belief again because of the actions the people did to him