Rural Community In Mid-19th Century Industrialized England

George Eliot is a famous English novelist in the 19^thcentury whose medium-length novel Silas Marner is set in the 19th-century English countryside and tells the life experiences of the protagonist Marner,an ordinary rural weaver.The storyline revolves around almost the same village,and Raveloe can be regarded as the author’s metaphor for the idyllic rural community in the novel.Cultural materialism attaches importance to literary texts and historical contexts,and focuses on the historical contextual meaning of literature through intensive reading of the text.The thesis examines the condition of rural community in the novel with the help of Raymond Williams’theory on cultural materialism.In addition to introduction and conclusion,the thesis is divided into four chapters.The first chapter explains the origin of community theory,its sociological and cultural definition,the different states of rural community in different stages,and its current situation in the mid-19th century England as the historical context of the novel.In literature,rural community refers to a collection of human relationships formed on the basis of a specific historical context,determined by rural economic production relations and influenced by rural cultural ideology.The second chapter analyzes Raveloe as an idyllic and harmonious rural community in the novel,including the analysis of family love,village culture,and the overall harmony of rural community.The third chapter discusses the collapse of rural community in the novel.In the mid-19th century England,human relationships were eroded and alienated by capitalist money values,and the traditionally harmonious idyllic rural community collapsed as a result.The character Marner is framed as a suspect,reflecting the alienation and collapse of rural neighborhoods,and the lantern square at the end of the story is replaced by a large factory,serving as a metaphor for the collapse of idyllic rural community in the industrial society.The fourth chapter explores nostalgia for the idyllic rural community in the novel Marner’s final choice to return to Raveloe and to the peaceful and harmonious country life is the author’s own yearning for returning to idyllic rural community.Eliot has a strong nostalgic feeling for the idyllic country life.The development of industrial capitalism in England in the 19th century has alienated human relationships and ruined traditional values,which makes the author nostalgic for the idyllic country life,look for a way out of the problems brought about by the rapid development of capitalism and yearn for returning to the simple and natural relationship between people in the previous idyllic rural community.This has a certain significance for how to find the original inner peace in today’s rapidly developing society.