Analysis: Chapters XXIV–XXVIII
Critics of Uncle Tom’s Cabin often find
fault with the novel’s excessive sentimentality and melodrama. These
chapters, dealing with the deaths of Eva and St. Clare, figure among
the most sentimental in the book; over the scene of Eva’s death
in particular, Stowe intones with overbearing force:
Farewell, beloved child! the bright, eternal
doors have closed after thee; we shall see thy sweet face no more.
Oh, woe for them who watched thy entrance into heaven, when they
shall wake and find only the cold gray sky of daily life, and thou gone
forever!
Stowe emphasizes repeatedly Eva’s perfection, her exemplary
Christianity, her true innocence, her angelic nature. However, Stowe
renders Eva in this way not merely for the sake of indulging in
the thrill of histrionic grief, or to infuse her book with spectacle.
Rather, Stowe idealizes Eva in order to raise issues of religion
via the vision of heaven and the immortal soul. Indeed, Eva appears
as a Christ figure as she lies dying—a perfect being without sin,
she allows others to find salvation through her death. In asking
Ophelia to clip her curls, Eva asks to be “sheared,” thus again
referencing Jesus Christ. Ophelia even says outright that she hopes
to be more like Eva, because Eva is like Christ. The use of Christ
figures becomes a minor motif in Uncle Tom’s Cabin,
underscoring some of the book’s religious themes. The motif will
appear again during the scene of Uncle Tom’s tragic death in Chapter
XLI.
After Eva’s death, Stowe briefly explores the conflict
surrounding St. Clare’s religious skepticism, as his persistent
inability to find God clashes with Tom’s earnest desire to see his
master find salvation. And this brief conflict paves the way for
another climatic moment of intense sentimentality, this one as overtly
religious as the last. As St. Clare lies dying, he finally discovers
a religious sign, as he apparently sees his mother, an idealized
being like Eva. In this way, Stowe emphasizes the moral power of
Christianity to transform and save the soul—a power that Stowe hoped
would eventually alter the hearts of the slaveholders and lead to
the eradication of slavery.
This section witnesses not only St. Clare’s conversion,
but Miss Ophelia’s as well. Ophelia finally acknowledges her prejudices,
realizing the truth of Eva’s words. She knows that she must love
Topsy as a Christian in order to help her. St. Clare’s comments
also contribute to the conversion. When he asks Miss Ophelia what
good her faith is if she cannot save one child, she realizes that
the love modeled by Eva constitutes the next step in her work with
Topsy.
