I have decided to explore the role of women in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, especially in the context of the time period of this book. Women obviously were not particularly powerful at this time, as they could not vote or make important decisions for themselves without the permission of their husbands. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s awareness of this definitely shaped her writing. You can see that the female characters are influential and strong-willed, but these character traits are portrayed through their influence over their husbands. In our modern age, this portrayal of women would be viewed as sexist or degrading, but in this particular book, that type of female character is perfectly written. The issue is that the men of this time were not accepting of powerful women, and therefore may have dismissed the book if the feminine power has been directly expressed. This roundabout way of showing the strength of the women in this novel certainly did them justice and made the context of this book more acceptable to the people who really needed to read it.
Before I started reading this novel, I would have expected very sexist and outdated portrayals of women. Perhaps it is just because I have a preconception of this time period that women were viewed as simple people without any significant depth to their personalities. Stowe certainly proved me wrong. I think this book is about a lot more than just the dangers of slavery, but the dangers of oppressing anyone at all. This book was ahead of its time in this way. I respect Stowe for being brave enough to use her influence to show people a range of issues.
There are many examples of strong actions committed by women in what we have read so far. For example, when Eliza makes the decision to run away for the sake of her child, she makes an extremely strong and selfless decision. The strength that she is portraying is highlighted by her leap across the river to relative freedom. This certainly would have been a frightening thing for her to do, but she did it against all odds. Another example of strong women influencing the plot of the story with her good will is when Mrs. Bird argues with her husband about the morality of the “Fugitive Slave Act”. Though the opinion that held weight in society was ultimately her husband’s, Mrs. Bird still felt that her opinion was the correct one. Ultimately, I believe her actions and strong will was vital in keeping Eliza safe when she showed up at their doorstep. We see this in the passage from chapter IX when Mrs. Bird says; “I put it to you John- would you turn away a poor, shivering, hungry creature from your door, because he was a runaway? Would you, now?” This challenges her husband, and I believe reminds him of what his morals are.
I believe this portrayal of women made this book accessible to the people of its time. Gender equality wasn’t the battle Harriet Beecher Stowe was trying to fight in this book, but I believe her strong sense of morality couldn’t help but show women as the capable and equally valuable people they are. Now that we live in a different time, we can appreciate that. I think this helps this book to continue to be relevant as we are always dealing with the issues of people being oppressed. The cruelties of racism and sexism may not be completely gone, but this novel shows that they have been fought against by brave people for over a century.
