Silas Marner and Weavers in the Victorian Era

The novel “Silas Marner” by George Eliot is set in the Raveloe village in England during the first four decades of the 19th century.  This novel by Eliot unfolds a story regarding a linen weaver known as Silas Marner who moved to Raveloe after the accusation that he was a thief in his hometown.  This story takes place when the weaving industry was famous and largely practiced by many individuals in Great Britain. At that time weavers were important in England. However, at the same time, Industrial Revolution had started and it was threatening weavers such as Silas Marner who had focused on the weaving industry. In the story, hand-loom weavers for example Silas Marner were getting replaced by industrial workers making skilled weavers such as Silas become irrelevant. Weaving became useless because machine operators don’t need to know weaving as the machines only needed to keep on running.  

In the first chapter of the story, Silas Marner who is seen as a skilled linen weaver seems to be very gifted in this area of weaving. This is seen when he captures the attention of the Raveloe village boys every time they get to hear Silas Marner’s loom (Eliot). The boys are profoundly affected by Marner’s loom that they can even stop what they doing in order to get enough time to witness what Silas does best.  Silas Marner does his job from “a stone cottage that stood among the hedgerows near the village of Raveloe” (Eliot). During that time, linen weavers were perceived as individuals who were eccentric and lonely. Working from home depicted the bad fate of the cottage industry that was dying out. 

Between 14th and 15th centuries in Europe also knows as the European Middles ages, peasants in rural parts who mainly focused on farming the lands of the local lord of the manor, mostly utilized their spare time to get extra income through home-based crafts (Cottage Industry Vs. Factory System). The process of protoindustrialization occurred in the 1500s.  During that time, several numbers of cottage industries were opened and managed by middlemen, who made arrangements to constantly visit the cottage industries. The work of the middlemen was to provide the workers with necessary raw materials needed by the cottage industry. Most workers lived in remote parts and thus they could not fetch raw materials on their own.  These middlemen will later return to collect and pay for the products made by the workers. In the case of semifinished products for instance yarn and woven cloth were redistributed among workers to be finished, while finished products for instance worsted fabric which is firmly knit and has a smooth, slightly glossy finish, and fulled woolen cloth which is thick and dense were immediately put on sale mostly in the cities. 

The setting of George Eliot’s novel forms a backdrop as a result of the Industrial Revolution which causes an immense social change affecting weavers such as Silas Marner who has the most special abilities to spin flax into gold (Eliot).  The story appears like retelling a fairy story gone hopelessly wrong to the extent that Silas Marner is seen as a stand-in for pre-industrial England. This story also shows the change of England from old ways to a newly industrialized country through the process of the Industrial Revolution; thus the industrial age emerges in England.  The central goal of the Industrial Revolution was to transform agriculture-based rural communities into urban-based factory systems. Prior to Industrial Revolution, which started in the 1700s, production was done at the local level and on small scale basis. This method of production was referred to as cottage industry by historians.  During those times people such as Silas worked as weavers who produced goods such as wool. They usually worked from their homes or sometimes in their own firms and then sold the final products locally among neighboring communities. This was because of the absence of long-distance transport. Although this form of production was helpful to some weavers, it was slow and inefficient making it struggle to keep pace with growing demand as a result of increased population. 

During the era of the Industrial Revolution, large factories were built in city centers. This was planned like in this for easy access of labor from people who stay in urban centers. At that time, most people were relocating to cities in order to easily access jobs, and this causes an increase in population in the cities. The cities were also populated because they benefited the factory system very much since cities were mostly built around water bodies areas in order to use water to power the machine and a transport vessel as well. In the 1800s and 1900s, shipping was mostly done through the waterway, and since cities were built around bodies (Cottage Industry Vs. Factory System). As such, cities offered a convenient place for factories to carry out their activities, this is because access to means transport and raw materials needed for production is guaranteed. As these factories developed into successful big firms, more people left the countryside and moved to the cities in order to get employed in the factories. Thus, the cities exploded in population in the era of the Industrial Revolution.          

The most popular cottage industries at that time were spinning and weaving.  During that time, England was widely known for its woolens and worsteds. The wool of a long-haired sheep and not fulled was used to make worsteds.  While woolens went from the weaver to a fulling mill. In the fulling mill, the cloth is washed and then fulled.  The process of fulling involved pounding the cloth with fulling stocks while submerged in a mixture of water and Fuller’s soil which is a fine clay. This can also be done using any other substance that was able to separate fats from oils. Thereafter, the cloth is rinsed and then stretched o racks to dry in the sun that also plays a bleaching role. Lastly, the cloth is then combed to raise the nap, which is then trimmed off with large shears mechanically by use of hands. 

Although there was a rapid growth of industrialization during the era of Industrial Revolution that had started at around 1760 in Great Britain, cottage industries kept progressing however on a smaller scales Silas Marner who had specialized in weaving linen found it hard weaving linen products as woolens and worsted were common in England than how linen was. Flax from the fibrous plant was used to weave linen and not from wool-like worsteds.  This flax was harvested by pulling rather than by cutting. Thereafter, the harvested flax is put on the sun to dry in bundles, and then combing is done to help separate the seeds from flax. Separation of the outer fibers from the inner, wood-like stalks is done. Lastly, the flax undergoes through a series of combing processes that would finally lead to the production of clean flax which is always glossy, flexible fibers ready for spinning the wheel.  The process of spinning flax was the same as spinning wool and weaving flax was the same as weaving wool, albeit the fibers were quite fine than yarn. Also, linen did not undergo the process of fulling like worsteds, however, it was bleached or dyed. Even though Silas lived and worked as a weaver in England, it was weavers from the Irish that became popularly known for their linen products (Eliot).  

Conclusively, as depicted in Eliot’s story “Silas Marner”, weaving categorized under cottage industry gave in to factories that led to mass production of goods as compared to small-scale production that was practiced before the Industrial Revolution. This method of production that majorly involved the production of wool produced its products on a very small scale that were consumed locally, however, after the demand increased, a need to produce more products to satisfy everyone was raised.  As such, the factory system was developed as part of the Industrial Revolution and thus led to the replacement of the cottage industry rendering weavers such as Silas useless. The developed factories involved coming up with mechanized methods of production which were situated at a central point where everybody could access the firm. The introduction of these factory systems led to mass production of goods and relocation of people to cities which consequently resulted in increased population in cities as people moved to towns to look for jobs.                

Work Cited

"Cottage Industry Vs. Factory System". History Crunch - History Articles, Summaries, Biographies, Resources And More, 2021, https://www.historycrunch.com/cottage-industry-vs-factory-system.html#/. 

Eliot, George. Silas marner. Penguin UK, 2003.