Wrtie an essay in which you address Harriet Beecher Stowe`s treatment of gender.

Uncle Tom 's Cabin

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Your Class ? November 2005

The novel Uncle Tom 's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe is a compelling look at the dynamics involved in the interactions of slaves and their masters . It offers personal insight into the irony of a situation that forces one race to be subordinate to another while living closely enough together to attest to the fact that the differences between them are few . The role of genders in all this and the way they are portrayed

by Stowe is an interesting idea to explore . The cause of women and that of slavery have often been embraced together , as the injustices to both groups have been seen to be similar . The liberation of the two groups also occurred in about the same time frame , and both still have struggles today that are relics of their enslaved past . Stowe , being a woman , has the authority to portray them , and she does through several characters , show women to exist in humanity . She also portrays men as providers who had to make the difficult choice between their morals and their duties . Stowe portrays the sex (indeed both sexes ) as subject to evil and good , and to more specific frailties and strengths . In doing this , she ascribes one or more traits to each of the main characters in to expose the multifarious tendencies of the universal Adam

The first of the women to enter the novel is Mrs . Shelby , the owner of Uncle Tom and young Harry , two slaves her husband proposes to sell . She is outraged at her husband 's decision , as they had previously promised freedom to Tom and security to Harry 's mother . She proves to be a virtuous and pleading woman , who shows a trace of napvety . She seems to have expended a lot of energy in trying to blind herself to the evils of slavery , with marginal success . Now , the shock of the sale of her slaves , whom she considers her protectorates , has brought home to her the ineffectiveness of her attempts to shield them from the evils of the very institution responsible for their being placed in her care . She exclaims , I was a fool to think I could make anything good out of such a deadly evil . It is a sin to hold a slave under laws like ours (39 Her virtue is in her distress for both her slaves and her disillusioned self . She represents woman as the subordinate Though she possesses a very high moral conscience , her position in her family and in a society that values pecuniary qualities above morals , forces her to accede to a plan that goes much against her conscience

He husband plays the opposing role in this episode , and his is the unfortunate position of man as breadwinner whose moral interests conflict with monetary ones . He is less emotional than his wife however , and finds it rather easier to choose his livelihood over his slaves , though...