Analyses of the Main Characters in Uncle
Tom's Cabin
Abstract
The Bible influences western life and culture deeply. Mrs. Stowe (1811—1896）the author of Novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin is also influenced by it. On the basis of Bible, the author attempts to analyze the backgrounds of times and the purposes she composes it, and analyze several characters, such as Uncle Tom, Little Eva, Eliza and some pious christian mothers. With the analysis of these persons and the comparison with the characters in Bible to reveal the christianity in this novel. At last, the author explores Mrs. Stowe’s solution to institution of slavery and the results. However, in her times, her non—resistant policy to topple the slavery fails completely. key words : Bible; christianity; personal character 摘 要
《圣经》对西方生活及文化的影响至深，《汤姆叔叔的小屋》的作者斯陀夫人也深受其影响。本文以《圣经》原形以及基督教义精神为基础，先试图分析斯陀夫人所处的时代背景及她创作这部小说的意图，再分析小说中的几类人物形象，如汤姆叔叔、小伊娃、及几位虔诚的基督教徒母亲。通过对这些人物特点的分析,以及所表现的基督精神，揭示这部小说中强烈的宗教理念。 关键词：圣经; 基督教; 人物特点
1 Introduction 1.1 Background
Greek culture and Hebrew culture have great influence on western culture. In Hebrew culture, there is a book named Bible, which is an important literacy work in the world. It is divided into two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. It includes the essence of Hebrew culture. During the eleventh century, Hebrew people become prosperous and dominated a large area. At the same, they spread their culture, so Christianity becomes a powerful and influential religion during. Many famous
artists and writers adapted the stories in Bible to compose the immortal works. Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811---1896), a nineteenth century American female writer, was also influenced by the book. Stowe was born into a respectable family that was to become famous: her father Lyman was a clergyman who was famous for supporting abolitionism, and ever held the post of director of Lane Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio. Her husband Calvin Ellis Stowe was one of the leading professors in the seminary. Two of her brothers, Henry Ward and Edward, were celebrated preachers. And her older sister—Catherine, she is the pioneer in Women’s education. The family were all opposing to raising slaves and they were all famous abolitionists.
Coming from a family with good Christian tradition, she was deeply influenced by Christianity and became a pious Christian. As her family were all opposing to raising slaves, she was influenced by them and held the anti-slavery belief. She stood up for the belief that slavery should be abolished. Mrs. Stowe believed and loved religion and pays attention to the problems of society and morality. Influenced by Christianity, she held the belief that each man is born to be equal and should enjoy freedom, so she was strongly against slavery, which betrayed the ideas in Christianity. In Christianity, people are equal in soul and should enjoy freedom. She often tried to do something about changing the conditions of slaves. To learn more details about slavery, she even went to the South to see the miserable conditions of slaves with her own eyes. Especially when the enactment of the “Fugitive Slave Act”in 1850. Mrs. Stowe was infuriated and influenced by the innumerable anti-slavery events and persons. Influenced by the idea in Christianity that people are equal in soul and should enjoy freedom and the belief that slavery should be abolished, she decided to compose a novel to lash the slavery. The blending of pious belief in Christianity and abolishing slavery resulted in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. 1.2 The summary of novel
Tom was a slave of Mr. Shelby who was a slaveholder in Kentucky, he sincerely believed in Christianity. Once Mr. Shelby was encumbered by debt, he decided to sell Tom and another female slave and her son. Knowing the news, Eliza and her son ran
away immediately but Tom would stay to be sold to Haley－a slaver. As a result, he was sold to New Orleans by Haley.
On board the boat bound for New Orleans, Tom saved the life of young Eva.St. Clare, Eva’s father, purchased Tom with gratitude. In St. Clare’s home, Tom lived a happy life for two years. Eva and he became good friends. But after Eva and her father’s death, Tom’s fate was changed again. He was sent by Eva’s mother to an auction market to sell. Tom was bought by a slaveholder named Legree. Legree was cruel to slaves and addicted to alcohol. At last, when Tom protected two female slaves from being captured, he was beaten to death viciously by Legree. When he was dying, his former master’s son－George Shelby got the plantation and bought Tom’s body with huge wealth.
At the same time, Eliza and her son met her husband－George Harris, who disguised himself as a Spaniard and brought a gun with himself. He shot a slaver on his way to Canada. At last, he and his family got together in the Canada—a free country.
2. Character Analysis
Mrs. Stowe portrays several vivid characters with distinctive temperament. Among them, there are the white and the black, the nobles and the slaves, the kind and the cruel. In her description of all these characters, we can learn that Mrs. Stowe advocates that people are equal and is against racial discrimination. Some people think that the dark skin of African slaves externally represents negative qualities such as evil or heathenism. However, Mrs. Stowe viewed slaves that evoke these presumptions actually contrasts their internal strength and spirituality. In fact, black men are better than some white slaveholders who have intentional purposes.
Mrs. Stowe herself is deeply influenced by Christianity; she held the belief that people are born to be equal and should enjoy freedom. So the main characters she portrayed in Uncle Tom’s Cabin are all Christians to different extent. This part of the paper deals with the analysis of perfect Christian, non-perfect Christian and half-Christian in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. From the analysis, we can get a better idea on how Christianity is reflected in the novel.
Analyses of the Main Characters in Uncle Tom′s Cabin 《汤姆叔叔的小屋》主要人物分析
