Analysis of Jealous Mistress by Harriet Jacobs - Essay Example

 The book is a collection of short stories based on the small yet troubling and grieve incidents that took place in the life of Harriet since her childhood as a slave in her master’s house struggling and surviving the cruel clutches of her master, time and again until she escapes through extreme process of torment to finally achieve freedom. The story bearing the title “The Jealous Mistress” appears as the sixth story in the book and clearly reinstates the survival strategy and struggle of Harriet as a young, pampered slave who was hinted and was sexually abused by her master since the age of fifteen.

In the story, “The Jealous Mistress”, Mrs. Flint, the mistress of the poor slave girl, was well aware of her husband’s character. But very surprisingly, the mistress never used her pre-cognition about her husband’s character in rectifying or saving the poor girl from the cruel and lustrous clutches of her husband. The mistress quite ridiculously never tried to display any sense of sympathy or mental counseling to the poor girl to come out of the trauma of the situation.

Instead, she exercised her constant malevolence on the poor girl and put a consistent eye of suspicion and vigilance on her husband. The complete ignorance of the mistress from the fact that the poor slave girl is being completely exploited and seduced by her white master who happens to be Mrs. Flint’s husband, is a pertinent indication that the black slave girl is treated as a mere commodity, who is possessed by the master of the house and his family. This derogative perspective again opens and unfolds a subtle facet on the racial issue which pervades the entire chemistry between the mistress and the poor slave girl at the house.

The slave girl refuses to accept the provocation from her white master and tries to resist her master to the optimum extent possible. She even plans to bring her grandmother as a protective shield but her strategy fails and her refusal to the proposal of her master almost threatens her to be getting thrashed, killed or meet undesirable predicament.