Ophelia St. Horne Character Analysis

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” Frederick Douglass said these words concerning the topic of change. Coincidentally, the social reformer is the subject of change throughout his life. However, in his acclaimed memoir of the South during the climax of slavery, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, one of the people he encountered during his life also went under some major alterations. One of these people was Sophia Auld.

Sophia is the wife of the slaveholder, Hugh Auld, who takes in Frederick as a young boy and throughout the account, her personality and demeanor shift drastically making her the ideal, dynamic character. During the time of his childhood, when Mr. Douglass first encountered the Auld family,

he sincerely believed that they were kind masters and they were like a blessed gift from none other than God. Sophia, at first, was very much so against the harsh treatment of slaves as she particularly treated them with immense kindness. In fact, she even took the liberty upon herself to educate a young Frederick Douglass when he was comparably illiterate to the average white-colored person. Sophia often found the horrid treatments of the slaves “disturbing” (Douglass 41). Before owning Frederick, Sophia and her husband never owned any bondservants. This was more than likely the reason for her unearthly kindness and equality to her slaves; she merely saw them as ordinary people, despite the color of their skin, and thought they should be treated as such. With this being said, over a time of social indifference, her opinions and treatment of slaves transform drastically. She is ultimately corrupted by having owned Frederick and contracting “irresponsible power” so, as a result, he describes her as having a “harsh and horrid discord” (Douglass 41). It is certainly intriguing and also disheartening to see such a sympathetic, caring character join the sea of slavery and all the corruptions that ensue with it.
With the mention of corruption, in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, there is a particular character that was primarily corrupted by racial prejudice, but was then set free of such inhibitions.

The character in question is the conflicted Ophelia St. Clare, cousin of Augustine St. Clare who harbors the title character on his property until his death. Ophelia is the most interesting yet personally conflicted character in the entire novel. She is corrupted in her thoughts primarily because of her utter ignorance of owning a slave. Theoretically, she believes the owning and maltreatment of slaves is ultimately wrong. However, when in the presence of such a being, she is almost disgusted and even refuses to touch one. This corruption of the mind is not entirely her fault, though. Ophelia was raised in the North where all forms of slavery were prohibited at the time; she hears tales of slaves and their exploitation and feels sorry for them. But when confronted with bondservants on her cousin’s plantation in the South, her sympathy is hollow. Ophelia feels the need for black servants is merely customary. However, all these disheartened feelings gradually begin to disintegrate as Augustine places a small slave child, Topsy, in her care. Ophelia is not too thrilled when she has to be in contact with a slave all the time, but as said previously, her negative feelings fade away. Then, the major catalyst of Ophelia’s transformation occurs when her niece, Eva, dies

unexpectedly. The death of her beloved niece makes her come to love Topsy as a human being instead of a slave, just as Eva did. This leads to Ophelia St. Clare overcoming her racial prejudice and corruptions.
Between the two characters of Sophia Auld and Ophelia St.

Clare, there is very little in common. The only that they had in common was that primarily, they were both very ignorant of what it is like having owned a slave. Sophia saw how other women were treating slaves at the time, but did not know why there was such need for maltreatment until she owned one herself. Ophelia was from the North, thus providing her with little understanding of the ownership of slaves. This is the only object of comparison between the two female characters. On another note, the two women contrast greatly against each other. To start off, Ophelia is from the North in Vermont whereas Sophia is from what is considered a Southern state: Maryland. The place of their origins affect the way their minds understand the concept of slavery because of their regional society’s understanding of the topic. Ophelia’s understanding of slavery is quite hazy as she is very conflicted with her ideas while Sophia is very definite in her ways and either feels strongly against slavery or all for it. Ophelia is not used to slavery around her as much as Sophia is, making her beliefs somewhat hypocritical. When in regards to their transformations, the women are exact opposites. Sophia goes from kind, gentle, and loving to slaves to cold, heartless, and somewhat demonic. On the other hand, Ophelia goes from being disgusted by slaves to loving them dearly. Ultimately, these main characters contrast greatly, so greatly in

fact, that if they were in the same novel, they would be considered foils.
The term foil is a use of figurative language used to describe two characters within a novel who, when taking into account their personality and appearances, are opposites. In both novels from which these characters belong to, there is a terrific amount of figurative language within them.