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  • Essay / Creating a Stereotype: Silas Marner's Profession

    Whether a businessman or a chef, a writer or a teacher, the profession often reveals insight of a person and immediately creates a stereotype for a person. While some jobs enjoy a prestigious position in societal stereotypes, others may wrongly harm a person's image without any connection to the real person. In the novel Silas Marner by George Eliot, the homonym character works as a weaver, which conceals a kind of mystery for others. Ideas about what a weaver is and how weaving is woven into literature and one's own life story are dominant themes throughout the novel. Thus, the significance of Eliot's choosing Silas as a weaver rather than another profession reveals complex and hidden nuances. Although much of Silas Marner's life remains a mystery to the people of Raveloe, he remains a subject of discussion and tradition due to his profession as a weaver. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayA weaver's life, full of travel and isolation, was often accompanied by traditions created by the residents of the town where the weaver was currently residing. Such a reaction is detailed by describing that "the sheepdog barked violently when one of these alien-looking men appeared... the shepherd himself, although he had good reason to believe that the bag contained only linen thread, was not entirely sure. that this craft of weaving, as indispensable as it was, could be carried out entirely without the help of the Evil One” (Eliot 1). Weavers were considered aliens, no matter what city they were in. Despite the near certainty that they were simply transporting equipment for their important work in society, men like Silas Marner were still considered outcasts and friends of the Evil One. Silas was an outcast from the moment he first weaved, forcing him into an isolation from which he would likely never escape. Therein lies the importance of Eliot creating Silas as a weaver, he undoubtedly becomes an outcast regardless of his character. Silas Marner is not Silas Marner and cannot tell his story without beginning in isolation, surrounded by skepticism. Silas might have many professions that breed stereotypes about him, but the significance of the weave lies in the social nuances of isolation and societal rejection. However, the fact that Silas is a weaver is not an insignificant fact, it becomes his whole life to the point that “he seemed to weave, like the spider, by pure impulse, without reflection. The work of each man, pursued with constancy, thus tends to become an end in itself, and thus to bridge the loveless gulfs of life” (Eliot 14). Silas is not a man who weaves, his entire existence is found in his craft, thus allowing him to fully fulfill his professional title and stereotype and move his life story forward. If Silas Marner's weaving is necessary to his life, his craft also reveals the nuances of classic literature woven throughout the novel. The Fates of Greek mythology controlled the metaphorical thread of every human being's life, from birth to death, cutting the thread. Fate often has a negative connotation due to the feeling of futility and weakness it brings into life. Silas recognizes that his own life is not his own when he recognizes “a cruel power which no hand could reach, which had pleased to make him a second time desolate…” (Eliot 42)..