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《汤姆叔叔的小屋》中主要人物的浅析(1)学毕(2)

2013-10-18 01:09 “Topsy. Miss Ophelia would love you, if you were good.”
Topsy gave the short, blunt laugh that was her common mode of expressing incredulity.
“Don’t you think so?” said Eva.
“No; she can’t bar me, ’cause I’m a nigger!－she’d soon have a toad touch her! There can’t nobody love niggers, and niggers can’ do nothin’! I don’t care,” said Topsy, beginning to whiltle.
“O, Topsy, poor child, I love you!” said Eva, with a sudden burst of feeling, and laying her little thin, white hand on Topsy’s shoulder; “I love you, because you haven’t had any father, or mother, or friends;－because you’ve been a poor, abused child! I love you and I want you to be good. I am very unwell, Topsy, and I think I shan’t live a great while; and it really grieves me, to have you be so naughty. I wish you would try to be good, for my sake; －it’s only a little while I shall be with you.”
The round, keen eyes of the black child were overcast with tears;－large, bright drops rolled heavily down, one by one, and fell on the little white hand. Yes, in that moment, a ray of real belief, a ray of heavenly love, had penetrated the darkness of her heathen soul! She laid her head down between her knees, and wept and sobbed,－while the beautiful child, bending over her, looked like the picture of some bright angel stooping to reclaim a sinner. [19]P289
It is Eva’s words that makes Topsy makes up his mind to serve as a missionary in Africa where his people live. Ophelia also thinks highly of Eva’s universal love. We can learn this from what she said: “Well, she’s so loving! After all, though, she’s no more than Christ-like,” said Miss Ophelia; “I wish I were like her. She might teach me a lesson.” [20]P294
The description of little Eva in the novel is similar to the seven-year old blond little girl described in the preach in England and Ireland given by clergyman Dwight Lyman Moody. The preach named Little Child Angel describes a seven-year old blond girl, who is the source of happiness. Her father is proud of her. She comes up in her father’s dream after her death. She admonishes and saves her father in the heaven. The story tells us that a child can save others by devoting her life. She gets spiritual power that she can’t get from people she loves. The spiritual power she gets after death and the holy and pure born to her makes Eva an angel that saves the world. The subject on angel who saves the world is a main subject in the religious culture of the nineteenth century. Because of the intensely religious consciousness, Mrs. Stowe endows litter Eva heavy religion mission as an angel. To some extent, the character of Eva loses a bit of authenticity. As a matter of fact, Mrs. Stowe wants to call on people to do as or more than the child does. （转载自http://zw.NSEAC.com科教作文网）
2.3 Ideal Mothers--- Mrs. Shelby, St. Clare’s mother, Legree’s mother
Maria in Bible gives us an impression of a great mother who is full of love. She supports and understands Jesus whatever happens. She is also tolerant of all her children. Although her children besides Jesus made many mistakes, she still forgives them and believes them. In her opinion, mothers can never give up their children.
Mrs. Stowe takes her novel as a kind of “tool” to realize a world that is composed by Christian universal love, but not the rights. The Utopianism in her mind shows a tendency: the realization of Christian universal love should go through the daily life, the sacrificial principle lies in maternal love. Mrs. Stowe herself is the mother of six children. When she cherishes her children, she thinks of the slave’s child who was sold to an unknown place, she feels painful, so she composes many pious Christian mother in this novel, such as Mrs. Shelby, St. Clare’s mother and Legree’s mother. These mothers have the common merits---they are all kind, moral, saintly and soon. They are all the ideal mothesr of children.
2.3.1 Mrs. Shelby
 Mr. Shelby’s wife is a deeply devoted woman who strives to give a kind and moral influence upon her slaves. “She have tried---tried most faithfully, as a Christian woman should—to do my duty to these poor, simple, dependent creatures. I have cared for them, instructed them, watched over them, and known all their little cares and joys, for years.” [21]P34 She appalls when her husband negotiates selling his slaves with a slave trader and realizes that slavery is wrong and very unchristian. When she finds things cannot turn for the better, she feels sorry for the slaves that would be sold and indignant with the slaver.
2.3.2 St. Clare’s mother
     She is a lofty and pure mother and names St. Clare’s name as her name to hope her son would be the same character of hers. Though her husband loves and pampers her, yet he does not approve of her participating in the matters of slaves. She is against slavery because she thinks that we are all men born of women, and not savage beasts, but she does not object any word of her husband or expresses any different advice on her appearance. We can find this from St. Clare’s recalling, “She never contradicted, in form, anything that my father said, or seemed directly to differ from him; but she impressed, burnt into my very soul, with all the force of her deep, earnest nature, an idea of the dignity and worth of the meanest human soul. I have looked in her face with solemn awe, when she would point up to the stars in the evening, and say to me, “See there, Auguste! The poorest, meanest soul on our place will be living, when all these stars are gone forever,－will live as long as God lives!” [22]P232 Her words greatly influence St. Clare’s attitude to slavery. She does not want to come into conflict with her husband, and she wants to fight against slavery in a peaceful way. This is also the way Mrs. Stowe advocates in liberating slaves and abolishing slavery. She strikes people by her cordial and sincere character. She also instills into St. Clare that every man, no matter Whites or Blacks, all have the spirit St Clare recalled that, “There was a morbid sensitiveness and acuteness of feeling in me on all possible subjects, of which he(my brother) and my father had no kind of understanding, and with which they could have no possible sympathy. But mother did; and so, when I had quarreled with Alfred, and father looked sternly on me, I used to go off to mother’s room, and sit by her, I remember just how she used to look, with her pale cheeks, her deep, soft, serious eyes, her white dress,－she always wore white; and I used to think of her whenever I read in Revolutions about the saints that were arrayed in fine linen, clean and white.” [23]P232 From St. Clare’s recalling, we can learn that St. Clare’s mother is full of love for her children and resembles Maria in understanding her children. （科教作文网http://zw.nseAc.com）
There is a part of St. Clare’s recalling, “She had some fine old paintings; one, in particular, of Jesus healing a blind man. They were very fine, and used to impress me strongly. ‘See there, Auguste,’ she would say; ‘the blind man was a beggar, poor and loathsome; therefore, ‘he would not heal him afar off! He called him to him, and put his hand on him! Remember this, my boy. ” [24P234]From this, we can see her trust in Jesus and educates his children with this painting. Such behavior shows that she is a Christian.
2.3.3 Legree’s Mother
    She is also a pious, gentle Christian mother. She holds Legree in her arms, singing the hymn piously and reverently. However, her son does not grow as she hopes. Her hard—working nurture cannot exterminate her son’s vicious nature. Like his father, Legree despises all her mother’s exhortations and becomes violent and peremptory. Her heart is broken when “One night, when his mother, in the last agony of her despair, knelt as his feet, he spurned her from him,---threw her senseless on the floor, and, with brutal curses, fled to his ship.” [25]P385 The next Legree heard of his mother was, when , one night, as he was carousing among drunken companions, a letter was put into his hand. He opened it, and a lock of long, curling hair fell from it, and twined about his fingers. The letter told him his mother was dead, and that , dying, she blest and forgave him. From these sentences, we can learn that Legree’s mother’s tolerant. Even though Legree treats her so cruelly, she still forgives him. This also agrees with the spirit in Christianity. Although Jesus is sold by Juda and gives his life, he still forgives Juda and prays for those who sentenced him.
A common trait among those considerate, pious mothers is that they adore Christian and all are against the institution of slavery except that it is not so obvious in the case of Legree’s mother. Slavery is a cruel action in their mind. Most of them are the spiritual guiders for their sons and husbands. To St. Clare, her mother was a direct embodiment and personification of the New Testament---a living fact, to be accounted for, and to be accounted for in no other way than by its truth. To George, when he is forsaken temporarily by the God, his wife always serves as the bright lamp to guide him and restores him. However, to Legree, “That pale, loving mother,---her dying prayers, her forgiving love” [26]P386,---wrought in that demoniac heart of sin only as a damning sentence, bringing with it a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation.

2.4  George Harris （转载自http://zw.ＮＳＥaＣ.com科教作文网）
George is Eliza’s husband who lives in a neighboring plantation. When he hears that Eliza has run away, he also does the great action. Desperate for his freedom, George escapes disguised himself as a Spaniard and finds his family in Ohio. He is very quick-witted and avoids many times to be caught. He has the tough and vehement character, he would rather die than be a slave. When he is chased by the slavers, he uses his weapon to fight against his enemies. He shoots at Tom－one of the chasers, but he still helps Tom to bandage. Though he is not a very pious Christian, he is also on his way to this direction. He still has a kind-hearted temperament and is likely to become a good Christian. When he takes his family to Canada and studies in a France university, his feelings and thoughts are reflected sufficiently, “When I wander, her gentle spirit ever restores me, and keeps before my eyes the Christian calling and mission of our race.” [27]P450 .

2.5 Qimbo and Sambo
Qimbo and Sambo are Simon Legree’s two cruel overseers who have been trained to brutalize their fellow slaves. Their characters are easy to find in Bible who are crucified at the same time beside Jesus Christ. In Bible, a criminal is moved by Jesus and believes in him; his soul is saved at that moment. In Legree’s plantation, Qimbo and Sambo follow Legree’s orders to flog Tom until Tom is beaten to death. At the last moment, Tom still believes God could save them to heaven and has not any resentment towards them. He says, “I forgive ye, with all my heart.” [28]P429 The two brutal men are all waken up to reality by Tom’s patience and fortitude and ask Tom who is Jesus. Tom poured forth a few energetic sentences of that wondrous One －his life, his death, his everlasting presence, and power to save. They finally plead God to forgive.
 
3. Character Classification
In short, Christianity in this novel reflected sufficiently. The characters in this novel can be divided into several categories: those who believe in Christianity completely, say perfect Christian figures. Those who don’t have complete faith in it, say imperfect Christians. Those who are going to adopt the belief, say half-Christians. Tom and Eva absolutely should be classified the category of perfect Christians, they are “celestial figures” in the novel.  The religious doctrine in Bible becomes the basis of Tom and Eva’s action. They always instruct others to do the charitable deeds and to be a good—natured person. Imperfect Christians should include Mrs. Shelby and so on. Generally speaking, they believe in Christianity. But once their interests are encroached, for example, Mrs. Shelby would lose family fortune if she does not sell the two slaves. Taking herself into consideration, Mrs. Shelby had to change her mind though she was unwilling to. In her habit, she was a living impersonation of order, method, and exactness. At first, she disdains Tospy a bit and she still has the racial superiority at the bottom of her heart. Through a series of contacts, they become friends. George Qimbo and Sambo should belong to half—Christians. George is a slave and lives a suffering life. He rebels until his families’ reunion in Canada. He becomes a Christian bit by bit. As Qimbo and Sambo finally plead God to forgive.

 The characters analyzed in the paper are all related to Christianity, no matter which kind of Christian he (she) belongs to. So we can conclude that the characters of the novel analyzed here are soaked with spirit of Christianity.

4.Conclusion
Since time immemorial, Christianity is an eternal subject and an essential part of western culture and art. There is no exception to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Though humanism and motherly love are also the main points of sentimentality of this novel, Christianity is still the main point that Mrs. Stowe uses in her narrative to drive the injustice of slavery across to the people.

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