George Eliot states in her opening line to Silas Marner, the Weaver of Raveloe. (1861): ‘In the days when the spinning wheels hummed busily in the farmhouses…’ creating an interior scene of pastoral efficiency.
Silas Marner (the main character) is introduced to the reader. ‘In the early days of this century, such a linen-weaver … worked at his vocation in a stone cottage that stood among the nutty hedgerows and the neighbourhood of Lantern’s Yard. This is described as ‘nestled in a snug well-wooded hollow,’ with a church nearby. Setting the scene of an industrious pastoral landscape, somewhere nearer the 1810s, which is fifty years prior to the story’s publication.
To show how quickly the industrial revolution cascaded over those living through this era, there is a scene where Eliot depicts Silas’s return to his old neighbourhood at Lantern Yard after fifteen a year absence. There, he finds that old houses have been ‘swept away’ and in their place is a large factory. Silas states that the place has become ‘a great manufacturing town.’
His shock at the new factory emphasises the dehumanisation effect factories had on the workforce cannot be understated. A place where men and women were ‘streaming for their mid-day mean.’ Silas’s daughter, Eppie, describes the place as a ‘dark, ugly place,’ and it ‘hides the sky from view.’ The change that has occurred in Lantern’s Yard exemplifies the dread with which the industrialisation process was witnessed and depicted in realist fiction.
As with other fiction writers at this time, Eliot focuses on the ‘crowding’ of women and men at the factory gates, and when Silas returns that evening to his cottage in the Midlands, he tells how ‘The old place is all swep’ away.’
What’s interesting in this section of the novel is Eliot’s depiction of the new ways of factory working. Most notably she could have been influenced by the many spinning and cotton mills springing up over the countryside at that time. Another facet of this is the abject horror as to what was happening with regard the location of work and the changing landscape.
The way in which traditional craft and skilled work in the home was replaced with large factories as places of work and the pace at which this change happened could perhaps be synonymous with the scale of change we see again today. As we move from the heavily industrialised reliance on factory work and the way in which large factories paved the way for even bigger offices traditionally used in much the same way as factories. A move which now capitalises on new technologies and more remote ways of working. Could it be that the way in which businesses operate are turning a corner once again. It’s too early to tell how working lives will be shaped in the near future, but of interest may be remote robotics and virtual reality.
Current ideas surrounding WFH virtual reality teams: https://www.zmescience.com/research/technology/vr-companies-create-interactive-virtual-offices-and-event-solutions-for-a-new-era-of-remote-work/
UK-based start-up Extend Robotics VR controlled robotic arm: https://www.theengineer.co.uk/extend-robotics-unveils-new-vr-controlled-robotic-arm/
And because we need a work/ life balance. https://mercecardus.com/how-virtual-reality-will-supplant-the-film-going-experience/?utm_source=ReviveOldPost&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ReviveOldPost
Postcards from the edge 