William Dane- A religious Man or not?

William Dane is one of the important character of Silas Marner.  Though he is a negative character but still his negativity reflects the positive qualities of Silas Marner. Without him the story of Silas Marner can't be interesting.  In the beginning of this novel we have seen that Marner and Dane were considered as David and Jonathan of Biblical character. Though both of them are bosom friends but Dane started feeling jealous from Marner's popularity.  That was the reason he decided to belittle Marner in the eyes of churchmen.  He constructed a master plan against Marner.  

Silas was suffering from epilepsy and often it was considered by the churchmen as spiritual visitation.  But Dane told Marner that it was not a sign of spiritual visitation rather it was the sign of Devil's visitation.  Marner felt very sad after listening the opinions of his brother like friend.  But he ignored it.  Later both Marner and Dane were appointed to take care of an ailing Deacon and his gold.  But Dane excused that he was feeling sickness.  Marner got another attack of epileptic fit and Dane took advantage of it.  He put Marner's knife on the Deacon's place and placed deacon's gold at Marner's dwelling.  He also killed deacon to fulfill his master plan.  

Because he backstabbed his brother like friend Marner, that's why we can say that William Dane was not a religious man but yes, he is one of the important character of the novel Silas Marner.

Therefore, it can be concluded from the above discussion that William Dane is one of the negative character of the novel Silas Marner but without him the story of the novel can't be interesting.  So in every kind of negativity there is some positiveness hidden inside.