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Tom By Harriet Beecher Stowe: An Analysis

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Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote in a time era that was deeply troubled with two polar opposite kinds of people waging a silent war on each other. Abolitionists and Anti-Abolitionists made up most of the United States when the book was first published in 1852, and one group was against slavery, while the other was for it. Stowe uses characters in her book to display not only what life in that time era was like from two sides of the same story, but also how religion has the ability to hook itself so deeply into humans that they have the ability to go against mainstream ideas and beliefs to get back to the core of what religion really means. Mr. Shelby was an example of Stowe’s usage of betrayal because he was painted to be the nicest slave owner, …show more content…

Shelby knew what he was doing was wrong, and from the time that he finalized the transaction to the time that Tom left, the guilt was hanging in the air around him. Mr. Shelby’s actions were portrayed as immoral because even though it seemed like the only thing he could do at the time to help him pay his mortgage was to sell Tom and Harry, there were other paths that could have been taken. Even though Mr. Shelby told Haley that he wanted Tom sold to a good master, and that he expected that part of the bargain to be upheld, it was very obvious that Mr. Shelby himself had doubts about Haley’s true intentions. ‘Mr. Shelby did not feel particularly reassured by these declarations; but, as they were the best comfort of the case admitted of, he allowed the trader to depart in silence, and betook himself to a solitary cigar’ (28). The values …show more content…

Mrs. Shelby, although she likes the lifestyle she lives with her husband, is fond of her special slave Eliza. Eliza could basically be called her lady in waiting because her job is to take care of Mrs. Shelby, and the two of them although they could never possibly be known as friends, uphold the same ideas about slavery. Mrs. Shelby, after finding out what her husband did, proclaimed her beliefs clash with those that were recently preached in the church that they attend, and argues that sometimes preachers sin too, because they do not understand what they are saying goes against their religion. Mrs. Shelby seems to be the kind of woman that other Christian women claim that they are, but do not follow through with their actions. She always seems to have a strong sense of empathy and knowing right from wrong. ‘“I’ll be in no sense accomplice or help in this cruel business. I’ll go and see poor Tom, God help him, in his distress! They shall see, at any rate, that their mistress can feel for and with them. As to Eliza, I dare not think about it. The Lord forgive us! What have we done, that this cruel necessity should come on us?”’ (31). Even though Mrs. Shelby does not gain her utopian wish of turning back time and fixing everything that her husband had done, she shows her determination to voice her opinion to her husband so that

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