"Cliff Notes - Uncle Tom's Cabin" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

^^^^^^^^^^UNCLE TOM'S CABIN: GEORGE HARRIS

George Harris, portrayed as a light-skinned and intelligent slave, belongs to a man named Harris. He is married to Eliza, who lives on the Shelby plantation, and they have a son, Harry. When Harris withdraws George from the factory where he has been working--and where he has invented a machine--and urges him to move in with another woman, George runs away. He eventually escapes to Montreal, Canada, where he works in a machinist's shop and tries to improve himself by reading. When his long-lost sister reappears and offers him money, George asks for an education. After studying in France for four years, he decides to move to Africa with his family, where he believes he can accomplish the most for blacks.

George is in some respects the opposite of Uncle Tom. Although he respects his wife's religion, he himself is not a Christian. He is not opposed to violence and vows that he will not be taken alive by the slave-catchers. George believes that he is as strong and as intelligent as white men, and therefore deserves the same rights. He claims that America is not his country because the promises contained in its Declaration of Independence and Constitution do not apply to him.

By the novel's end, George calls himself a Christian. By moving to Africa, he removes himself from the slaveowners he could never forgive in the United States. Although he agrees with Stowe's position in the end, George never embraces the instinctive Christianity of Uncle Tom. You see less of George Harris than of Uncle Tom, and he is a less significant character in the novel. But you may find him easier to understand and to respect than Uncle Tom.

^^^^^^^^^^UNCLE TOM'S CABIN: HARRY AND LITTLE ELIZA

Harry and little Eliza are the children of George and Eliza Harris. Harry, born a slave on the Shelby Plantation, is bright and cute, and sings and dances for Mr. Shelby and Haley. He is so beautiful that he is disguised as a girl in order to escape into Canada. Once there, he does very well in school. Little Eliza is born free in Canada.

^^^^^^^^^^UNCLE TOM'S CABIN: SAM AND ANDY

Sam and Andy, slaves on the Shelby plantation, provide comic relief through their mispronunciations and deliberate mishaps. Andy, who likes to make speeches, is meant to satirize politicians. But Sam and Andy make an important contribution to the novel's plot--their clowning allows Eliza to escape across the Ohio River.

^^^^^^^^^^UNCLE TOM'S CABIN: MR. SHELBY

Mr. Shelby, the owner of a Kentucky plantation, generally treats his slaves well, but he decides to sell two of them, Uncle Tom and little Harry, to pay off a debt. Although he regrets the sale, Shelby feels he has no other choice. His wife disagrees. Do you think she's right?

^^^^^^^^^^UNCLE TOM'S CABIN: MRS. SHELBY

Mrs. Shelby, a kind, religious woman, tries to raise the family's slaves with Christian values. She attempts to convince her husband not to sell Tom and Harry, and she helps Eliza escape. Warm-hearted Mrs. Shelby treats her slaves like people, crying with Aunt Chloe when Uncle Tom leaves and consoling her when they learn he is dead.

^^^^^^^^^^UNCLE TOM'S CABIN: GEORGE SHELBY

George Shelby, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Shelby, is thirteen years old when the novel begins, and eighteen when it ends. He likes to spend time with Uncle Tom and Aunt Chloe, basking in their kindness and attention. He teaches Uncle Tom to read and write, and reads the Bible at the slaves' religious meeting. On Uncle Tom's grave, he swears to do whatever he can to fight against slavery, and he begins by freeing the slaves on his own plantation.

George is one of the few characters who changes during the course of Uncle Tom's Cabin, as he develops from a good-hearted but somewhat self-centered boy into a noble and effective man. Stowe probably wished other slaveowners would follow George's example.

^^^^^^^^^^UNCLE TOM'S CABIN: HALEY, TOM LOKER, AND MARKS

Haley, Tom Loker, and Marks are among the worst villains in the novel--slave-traders. But Stowe (and a number of characters in the book) points out that slave-traders couldn't stay in business if nice people didn't buy slaves. Haley sets the plot of Uncle Tom's Cabin in motion by insisting that Mr. Shelby sell him Tom and little Harry. Haley curses, smokes, drinks, and dresses badly. He claims to be humane because he is not completely cruel to the slaves he buys. But you can see that he's a nasty person. He doesn't believe slaves have feelings, so he doesn't think twice about separating a mother and child--like Eliza and little Harry, or about the woman who jumps off the steamboat on the Ohio River after he sells her baby. Haley can't understand why these things keep happening to him.

Tom Loker and Marks are crude fellows, who make their living catching escaped slaves. You often see them in taverns. Tom Loker is shot by George Harris, but the Harrises and the Quakers forgive him, and he is nursed back to health in the Quaker settlement. He gives the Quakers the information that helps George and Eliza disguise themselves so they can elude Marks at the Sandusky ferry.

^^^^^^^^^^UNCLE TOM'S CABIN: MR. AND MRS. BIRD

Mr. and Mrs. Bird live in Ohio with their three children. Tiny Mrs. Bird is a wonderful housekeeper and mother. Mr. Bird, a senator, has just voted for the Fugitive Slave Law. Mrs. Bird tries to convince him that he is wrong, and that one must allow the heart to guide the head. The appearance of Eliza on their doorstep makes him realize that he isn't capable of turning in a fugitive. One of the Birds' children has recently died, and their loss makes them more sympathetic to Eliza.

^^^^^^^^^^UNCLE TOM'S CABIN: RACHEL HALLIDAY, SIMEON HALLIDAY, RUTH STEDMAN, DORCAS, AND PHINEAS FLETCHER

These Quakers practice their religious beliefs in their daily lives. They risk fines by helping escaped slaves. Rachel Halliday and Ruth Stedman are motherly and sympathetic; Simeon and Phineas are quietly brave. They take good care of George and Eliza and make it possible for them to escape to Canada. Dorcas nurses Tom Loker back to health after George Harris shoots him. She doesn't quite convert him to her beliefs, but she does get him to give up slave-catching.

^^^^^^^^^^UNCLE TOM'S CABIN: AUGUSTINE ST. CLARE

Augustine St. Clare, Tom's second master, is handsome, worldly, and charming. He indulges his slaves in his elegant New Orleans house and debates the issue of slavery with his cousin from Vermont. Most of all, St. Clare hates hypocrisy. Believing that slavery is wrong, he left the plantation he inherited with his twin brother because he didn't really want to be a slavemaster. St. Clare thinks black people will eventually gain their freedom, but he isn't sure how it will come about. In the meantime, he rails with equal fervor against Southern ministers who claim slavery is supported by the Bible, and Northerners who criticize slavery but won't let black children into their schools.

Although he is not religious, Augustine has good qualities. As she did with Tom, Stowe calls Augustine womanish; his elegance and love of finery make him seem effeminate. Augustine loves his little daughter, Eva, and is devastated by her death. He is moved by Tom's religious belief, and seems to respond to it when he is killed. Augustine treasures the memory of his saintly mother, who is clearly the source of his compassion, and he cries out her name when he dies. Yet for all St. Clare's decency and charm, he has not provided for his slaves in his will, and they are sold when he dies.