Characterization in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Minister without a Pulpit Harriet Beecher Stowe uses characterization and a tragic situation to portray the contrast of the bourgeois and the proletariat classes and the social movements within the class structure. The first character appearing in the story is a little girl whose mother has just died. The descriptions of her are vague, and the name of this child is not revealed until late in the story. Throughout the story, the little girl is referred to as “ ‘ere,” “beautiful little girl of seven years,” “little girl,” “little one,” and “child.” Only when she is asked for her name do the readers learn that it is Eglantine Percival. Even after her name has been revealed, none of the characters use her name. This absence of a name indirectly reflects Eglantine’s position in society after her mother’s death. Stowe uses vague words like “child” to show the subordination of Eglantine as a result of Miss Asphyxia’s demands. Before Eglantine is taken in, she held a high status with her mother and brother Harry. Her mother dies, and her brother is taken away from her along with “money enough” to pay for her mother’s funeral. The loss of these material possessions must coincide with a loss of high status according to Karl Marx. Dropping from bourgeois, Eglantine falls into the proletariat status. She does not submit entirely to the social structure at first. In fact, she resents the work Miss Asphyxia demands of her saying that she “wants to play.” Eglantine still dreams of her previous leisurely lifestyle where she had no responsibilities, where flowers were beautiful, and where her mother “always brushed them [her curls] out everyday.” She refuses Miss Asphyxia’s authority on a few occasions, but her efforts end with her own tears and eventual obedience. As her possessions escape her, Eglantine becomes more and more submissive to Miss Asphyxia and more proletariat status-like. Contrasting Eglantine is her benefactor Miss Asphyxia. She is a working woman, older and stronger. Miss Asphyxia is a “working machine, always wound up and going.” She understood that “nature had made her…entirely for use.” She described herself having nothing but bone and muscle, purely with practical and efficient uses. The use of Miss Asphyxia’s name is quite interesting. The short story is unexpectedly named after her although it seems that Eglantine is the main character of the story.
Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. “Stowe, Harriet Beecher”. Date of Last Revision Unknown. 6 Jan 2002. <http://www.encyclopedia.com/printablenew/12373.html>.
“Winter lies too long in country towns; hangs on until it is stale and shabby, old and sullen” (“Brainy Quotes” 1). In Edith Wharton’s framed novel, Ethan Frome, the main protagonist encounters “lost opportunity, failed romance, and disappointed dreams” with a regretful ending (Lilburn 1). Ethan Frome lives in the isolated fictional town of Starkfield, Massachusetts with his irritable spouse, Zenobia Frome. Ever since marriage, Zenobia, also referred to as Zeena, revolves around her illness. Furthermore, she is prone to silence, rage, and querulously shouting.
Stowe and her siblings were involved in various reform movements and even “...reformed Puritanism itself by challenging some of its harshest creeds” (Reynolds, 2011, p.6). Stowe was uninterested in the political issue created by slavery, she wanted to bring light upon the emotional and religious problems caused by it. Stowe was able to receive testimony from former slaves because of the close interaction she had with them. One of her housekeepers, Eliza Buck, was a fugitive slave and was able to tell her story. Eliza Buck, along with Stowe’s mother’s sister, were able to influence Stowe in her creation of the characters for Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The immense cultural importance produced by Uncle Tom’s Cabin is created through its emotional appeal. Stowe’s book aid “...rectify
Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, for centuries to come will be seen as a huge contributing factor to the occurrence of the U.S. Civil War when it happened. As people’s views change about things over long periods of time, what people believe about the moral rightness of the institution called slavery may also change. It is possible that slavery could one day be counted by the majority as proper. Uncle Tom’s Cabin could find itself on center stage in importance again in a debate over slavery. Until then, it is safe to say that its impact on society was massive in its time and will now be studied as a great contribution to our history.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe is a classic novel that some people claimed evoked the American Civil War. Stowe motivated people to take sides over the issue of slavery by discussing the issue and showing the cruel aspects of it. The main focus of the novel was to show whites that African American’s have souls and feelings like any other human; it was common for whites at the time to view blacks as cattle. Families were separated, and the white people’s reasoning was that blacks did not feel the loss the same way a white person would. Stowe’s basic argument is that it is wrong to mistreat blacks because they suffer just as much as whites.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, and Christopher G. Diller. Uncle Tom's Cabin, Or, Life among the Lowly. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview, 2009. Print.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom’s Cabin or, Life Among the Lowly. Ed. Ann Douglas. New York: Penguin, 1981.
The above quotation is stamped on countless refrigerator magnets and embroidered on dishtowels across the world; and yet, how many of us ever stop to think about what it really means? After all, why is it important that a concept as ethereal and abstract as love should have significance in the kitchen, a place supposedly reserved for preparing that which is necessary only to maintaining the physical body? This question can perhaps be best answered by the “little woman” named Harriet Beecher Stowe, in her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin – written before we even had refrigerators, much less magnets bearing heartwarming little proverbs.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom's Cabin, Or, Life among the Lowly. Pleasantville, NY: Reader's Digest, 1991. Print.
For instance, the way the social classes in the novel are being represented is an example of the presence of the Marxist theory in the novel.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom's Cabin, Or Life Among the Lowly. New York: Sterling, 2012. Print
Emily was kept confined from all that surrounded her. Her father had given the town folks a large amount of money which caused Emily and her father to feel superior to others. “Grierson’s held themselves a little too high for what they really were” (Faulkner). Emily’s attitude had developed as a stuck-up and stubborn girl and her father was to blame for this attitude. Emily was a normal girl with aspirations of growing up and finding a mate that she could soon marry and start a family, but this was all impossible because of her father. The father believed that, “none of the younger man were quite good enough for Miss Emily,” because of this Miss Emily was alone. Emily was in her father’s shadow for a very long time. She lived her li...
Stowe was inspired by the literary period of realism, which was comprised of stories that depicted the harsher scenes of life (Campbell). Portraying the hardships of living in the 1850s, Stowe’s writings reflect realism. With brutal and gruesome details, she paints the picture of slavery in order to convince the readers of its evils. In Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Stowe writes, “[He] struck him across the face with his riding-whip, and, seizing one of his arms, forced him on to his knees, and beat him until he was out of breath” (Stowe 225). Similar scenes fill the novel, creating a realistic account of slavery in the South. Stowe’s works are realistic representations due to the literary period’s influence.
Austen’s novel focuses on the social class known as the rural landowning gentry, and the people whose education or family connections enable them to associate with the gentry. Austen uses Marianne Dashwood to represent the "sensible and clever; but eager in everything; her sorrows, her joys, could have no moderation, she was everything but prudent" counterpart to her sister Elinor Dashwood who had "strength of understanding and coolness of judgment," neither of whom belong to the land gentry any longer. Austen juxtaposes the two sisters journeys as a way to shed light on the corruptness and instability of the social class system. By surrounding Marianne and Elinor with social climbing characters such as John Willoughby, John Dashwood and Edward Ferrars, Austen illuminates the ruthlessness that surrounds the sisters. The three men are too preoccupied with either getting...
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a well-known anti-slavery novel written in 1852. The story shows readers the reality of slavery while also asserting the theme that Christian love can overcome something as destructive as slavery. The main point of this book, along with exposing the true evil behind slavery, was to also spark an anti-slavery movement, for Stowe herself was an abolitionist. She wanted to reveal, mainly to the northerners, the ghastly points of slavery, including the whippings, beatings, and forced sexual encounters brought upon slaves by their masters. Through the events and actions that happened with the characters in Stowe’s novel, she hoped to enlighten the public and eventually sway people against slavery.