A Comparative Analysis of The Scarlet Letter and Uncle Tom's Cabin - Essay Example

? A Comparative Analysis of The Scarlet Letter and Uncle Tom’s Cabin Novels have been read by people for enjoymentand reflection regarding the realities of life. Authors take advantage of that opportunity to share their thoughts, ideals and values to the readers. Although novels are mainly fictional, their stories can be from real stories of real people, real societies and real issues. In the case of reflecting real life issues, the novels The Scarlet Letter and Uncle Tom’s Cabin will be analyzed in the study. Comparison between the two novels will also be undertaken specifically in terms of themes, characters, authors, values, settings and historical relevance. The study will start with the short biographies of both authors and some background information about the novels. Also included are the short summaries and comparative analysis that will explore the different pertinent points discussed in the two literary works. The Scarlet Letter was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. He came from Massachusetts and born on July 4, 1804 (Meltzer 15). He was accustomed to live with his relatives from his mother side when his father died (Meltzer 22). His maternal relatives also paid for his education that allowed him to attend Bowdoin College where some of his classmates became prominent figures later on (Meltzer 29). Those famous classmates of his assisted him by providing him some jobs in the government that honed his skills as a writer. During his beginnings in the writing career, he used to copy the styles of famous writers but was not seen publicly as he withdrew those writing products. In terms of the prominent belief in his works, Hawthorne was greatly influenced by the Transcendentalist movement that promoted individualism. Ralph Waldo Emerson led the movement and influenced Hawthorne with the belief of a Utopian community that led to Transcendentalist ideals being included in the works of Hawthorne (Meltzer 105). With those ideals, Scarlet Letter was created. The writer of Uncle Tom’s Cabin is Harriet Beecher Stowe. She was born on June 14, 1811 to a popular religious leader named Lyman Beecher and she was the seventh child in the family of fifteen (Hedrick 6). Her career started as an instructor or teacher together with her sister named Catharine (Hedrick 63). She then started writing and published her first work about geography targeting children as readers (Hedrick 70). Later on she married Calvin Stowe, a widower (Hedrick 98) and they had seven children. In her lifetime, she was able to write books for children, books for travels, biography, poems and novels. One of her famous novels is Uncle Tom’s Cabin that reflected her ideals regarding the issue of slavery (Hedrick 235). The next portion will be dealing with the summaries of the two novels as they reveal their themes and intentions of the characters while uncovering and solving the problems and issues that may have been based from the real world. The Scarlet Letter set its story in the beginning of United States of America. It brought out the moral issues during that time. As Hawthorne believed in the ideals of the Puritans, he made the novel dramatize those in ways that the protagonists went against the norms. The novel then showed how the characters changed their weakness into positive parts of themselves as they became strong. The plot opened with a prologue entitled The Custom House that revealed how a fictional post worker found a document and made a story out of it. In the story, the scene opened with an adultery punishment for a woman named Hester Prynne who was carrying her baby named Pearl. As a punishment, she was put to jail and was interrogated publicly. She was also required by the townspeople to wear a Scarlet letter “A” to inform people of her crime as an adulterer. With that scene, she noticed her husband to be amongst the crowd while being in disguise. She never expected him to come that time as he was reported to be dead from a voyage beforehand. Her husband named Roger Chillingworth was surprised to see Hester with a child. He then looked for the father of Pearl as Hester committed adultery while he was gone. After the prosecution, Hester and Pearl lived in the outskirts of Boston as the former earned a living by being a seamstress while the latter slowly grew into a wonderful child. The government tried to take Pearl away from her mother, but a church minister named Arthur Dimmesdale interfered with the issue and let Hester keep Pearl with her. Later on it was revealed that Dimmesdale was the father of Pearl. He just started with a heart disease but it aggravated as he carried the sin of adultery as he contradicted what he had been preaching. To relieve his sickness, he hired Chillingworth as his personal doctor who slowly tormented him that led to a greater sickness and general weakening as Chillingworth discovered the truth. Next, Dimmesdale and Hester met secretly in the forest and made a plan to escape and start a new life as a family. Chillingworth knew about it and tried to follow them. Before they went to the ship, a scheduled preaching occurred where Dimmesdale admitted that Pearl is her daughter and after the revelation, he died. Being disgusted by the situation, Chillingworth died the next year as he was filled with frustration. After that event, Hester and Pearl went somewhere else until years later Hester returned alone to Boston to continue her charitable activities. Occasionally Pearl sent her letters while being away with her wealthy husband. When Hester died, she was buried in the same tomb where Dimmesdale was placed and their stone marked a scarlet letter A (Bloom 14-18). The story of Uncle Tom’s Cabin is different from The Scarlet Letter A as the former dealt with slavery. The novel started with the farmer family Shelby who were facing financial loses. The couple had been very kind toward their slaves, but Arthur Shelby decided to sell two slaves to a harsh slave trader named Mr. Haley. He chose to sell Uncle Tom who had a family in the farm and Harry who was still young and son of Eliza the maid. Emily Shelby was surprised with that decision and immediately warned the families of the two slaves. Eliza and Harry were able to escape via Ohio River while Uncle Tom was sold successfully. The mother and son were able to reach the Quaker settlement where they sought help for transport. They were reunited with George, the father of Harry and husband of Eliza. Meanwhile, Uncle Tom was in a boat together with other slaves. On the way, he became close to a young girl named Eva St. Claire. Her father then decided to take Uncle Tom with them. In the house of the St. Claires, Uncle Tom was treated well. He met a relative of the father of Eva who liked to go against slavery through an institution though that relative despised the slaves. When Eva died, her father decided to release all slaves including Uncle Tom, but sadly he died before the declaration. His wife decided to sell Uncle Tom to a bad plantation owner. In the plantation, he met sex slaves whom he helped to escape. With that, he was interrogated by the plantation owner but preferred to be silent. He was bitten to death and the Shelby tried to rescue Uncle Tom by buying him back, but it was too late. George Shelby then decided to free his slaves and to commemorate Uncle Tom for his religious martyrdom (Bloom Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin 23-32). With both stories presented, it can be deduced that both of them talked about issues that existed in the American history specifically in the early days of America. The Scarlet Letter A talked about the views of religion, morals and sins on the issue of adultery while Uncle Tom’s Cabin focused on slavery, discrimination alongside with religion. The main characters of both novels showed martyrdom as they felt the harshness of the world towards them. They both chose to be in the right path though they differ in experiences as Hester became a “sinner” first before she repented. She later on made some efforts to rebuild herself after she had committed adultery. On the other hand, Uncle Tom had done something against the authority or the plantation owner when he helped two sex slaves to escape. Both of them experienced tragedy in their lives though Hester had a natural death while Uncle Tom had gruesome death in the hands of the plantation owner and his men. Both stories also involve religion which is Christianity and the society had opposing forces to liberate people from the traditional chains of the said religion. The main theme revolves around change as people fight discrimination. The ideals of both authors can be seen in their works. Differences between the two novels are evident as The Scarlet Letter only had fewer characters than Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The former focused on only one setting while the latter had more than two settings that occurred simultaneously as characters got separated. Also their themes were quite different even though they both dealt with ideas opposing the traditional ones. Uncle Tom’s Cabin had the death of its primary character, an even that acted as the focal point in the story. On the other hand, the Scarlet Letter had the death of the main character in a subtle manner which is after the highest point of the story already occurred. Works Cited: Bloom, Harold. Nathaniel Hawthorne. USA: Chelsea House Publishers, 2000. Print. Bloom, Harold. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. USA: Infobase Publishing, 2008. Print. Hedrick, Joan. Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life. USA: Oxford University Press, 1994. Print. Meltzer, Milton. Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Biography. USA: Twenty-first Century Books, 2007. Print. Read More