The Role of Women and Children in the Book Uncle Tom's Cabin - Essay Example

       It is a common feature in all the works of literature that a writer's perspectives, approach and solutions to the alarming social issues find place or get reflected in their works. The time at which "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was written, is noted for the beginning of the movement for the equality of women to that of men. The year of 1848 is of remarkable significance in the history of Women's Movement, known as the event of Declaration of Independence, which was the first women's rights convention that took place at Seneca Falls, New York.

The women participated in this movement asserted that "all men and women are created equal" (Blythe). The thesis statement of this study is that Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” though appears to be an anti-slavery novel, is in fact, a feminist fiction that stressed the need of women’s empowerment and their emergence as public citizens.        During the nineteenth century, women were subjugated by the patriarchal society. Women, who played the mere roles of daughter, wife and mother, were confined to the hearth of their homes.

They were denied of higher studies as their only duty was to fulfill the pre-assigned role of homemakers. The ideas of true of womanhood were deeply imprinted in the minds of Americans, which constructed a code of conduct for the women. Her duty was to cook and care for her family. A woman was exempted from the events working outside of her home as she belonged only to the domestic environment of her home. Stowe has implicated this in the story by stating “O, ridiculous, Emily! You are the finest woman in Kentucky; but still you haven’t to know that you don’t understand business -- women never do, and never can” (Haug para. 1). Though the central theme in Uncle Tom’s Cabin is anti-slavery, Stowe also speaks about women's rights and their place in the society.

The women participated in the Declaration of Independence voiced for the political and economic rights of women such as voting and holding property. They demanded equality of women to men in both domestic as well as public sector. The middle class white American women during the 1850’s were submissive to their husbands. The women were considered silly and were unaccounted for even in decisions related to the domestic domain. The sole duty of these women, as assigned by the traditional norms, was to look after their children.

The women writers of the era stated that American women should instill Christian faith in their family and that they should foster children with strong foundations in good values, to ensure that they become good social beings.        Stowe has portrayed many mothers in her book Uncle Tom’s Cabin. These mothers are represented as the virtual embodiments of motherly love. These mothers include Eliza Harris, Rachel Halliday, Cassy, Prue, and Mammy. Among these mothers, Cassy, Prue, and Mammy are the slave women who are grieving the loss of their children, who were snatched away from them while they were infants.

       The women and children presented in the book shows the strongest bondage of love, which itself is restricted to slave women who are doubly marginalized from the white male patriarchal society. The women portrayed in the book belong to different worlds as they share different sentiments regarding slavery. But the mothers portrayed by Stowe are ‘