Uncle Tom's Cabin Quotes About Women

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According to Goodreads, Harriet Beecher Stowe declared, “Most mothers are instinctive philosophers.” In this quote, Stowe speculates that mothers naturally think more ethical than most people in similar circumstances. In fact, the majority of mothers shown in Uncle Tom’s Cabin would be considered as “most mothers” as mentioned above by Stowe. In this novel the women could influence their husbands with their own opinions since they thought for the better of mankind. As a result of their reasonable and logical thinking they could easily sway their husband’s opinions and actions. More importantly, they could persuade them to make the right choice in all things considered moral. Which depicts that “most mothers” had more moral integrity than “most fathers” during the 19th century. Throughout Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Stowe portrays several mothers in the novel as intellectual figures with high morality that could convince others to make wise decisions; one character being Mrs. Bird. In Chapter 9, the narrator introduces two characters that provide evidence that Uncle Tom’s Cabin conveys women to have a substantial amount of moral integrity. The vital characters are Mr. Bird, an Ohio senator, and his wife, Mrs. Bird who lives in a free state where slaves …show more content…

Bird’s perspective is that women should be taken seriously: particularly about their own opinions. However, women were unable to fully express their opinions on crucial issues without being ridiculed and were forbidden to hold government positions. When Mrs. Bird asked about her husband’s day at the Senate, the narrator explains, “It was a very unusual thing for gentle little Mrs. Bird ever to trouble her head with what was going on in the house of the state.”(81). This quote portrays that it was uncommon for women to have a stance about governmental matters. Mrs. Bird was avidly interested in what she thought was an immoral law but Mr. Bird was simply mocking his wife when she gave him her articulated

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