So far while reading Uncle Tom's Cabin, I've been thinking about the public versus private spheres and the roles of men and women. We've had a brief discussion in class about the spheres so in this blog post I'll be focusing mainly on the spheres.
I don't know much about what it was like living back in the 19th century or about the life of slaves, but I do know that women were often silenced. Last week I mentioned in class that religion was given to women like a toy is given to a child. The main purpose of the toy is to keep the child quiet and busy. Little do we know that the toy can also be used as a tool for manipulation. A woman is given religion because it's their "duty" as a housewife, along with other "duties" like house work, taking care of the children, and cooking and cleaning. As we see in Uncle Tom's Cabin, the main characters that are women always refer back to an event in the Bible. Unfortunately, their opinions don't seem to matter to their husbands.
On the bottom of page 72 and the top of 73, where John and Mary are arguing about how fugitive slaves should be treated, Mary makes a point using religion as a weapon. "Obeying God never brings on public evils" (73). Throughout the course of the argument, Mary is told to keep her opinions to herself because they won't be helpful against the law (the fugitive slave law). Mary makes very good points about the public and private spheres during the argument with John.
Mary's private opinion is considered nonsense when it involves the law and anything to do with the public. Ultimately, in this time, it is the men's job to make the final decision. In class we've discussed the topic of these spheres and how they impact the lifestyles of not just the slave owners, but also the traders, the women, and the slaves themselves.
The general assumption was that women could influence their husbands decision making, but as I have also noticed in Uncle Tom's Cabin that any time an important decision is reached, the wife only finds out after the deed is done. How can anyone influence a decision that has already been finalized. Truly, I think women were only a step above slaves in those days, they had no power to do anything unless it was granted by her husband. Women in a slave owning household were left with nothing to do except reading and gossiping, as the slaves would have taken care of all of the domestic work. I don't envy the position of women at any point in time until recently, and I agree with you that Stowe does a good job of illustrating this.
ReplyDeleteThat's one area I'm struggling with in this book this far. The various women vary in the story, which is good since it gives us a better view of different opinions, but it's challenging to read how bland they are. They stay home to tend to the house and cook, and when necessary, remind their husbands that faith is important. We've seen that the women have tried to manipulate their husbands with religion, but so far it hasn't seemed to work (other than Mrs. Bird, but then again Mr. Bird probably put religion in front of politics anyway).
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to see how women's views are received by the men in their lives--do any of these men change their mind, their actions, based on what their wives are telling them?
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