Write a short note : Mr.st. Clare ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ by Harriet Beacher Stow

Mr. St. Clare, Eva’s father is a major character in the novel ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ by Harriet Beacher Stawe. He is Uncle Tom’s second master. This rich Southerner comes out as loving and caring father who loves his daughter more than anything else in the world. When Eva says she wants to buy Tom and take him home with her, St. Clare, even before they have reached New Orleans buys him from Haley.  

          Mr. St. Clare is a kind master. He lives in a large, comfortable house which he has inherited from his father. He is a lazy, but handsome and kind-hearted intellectual master. He does not seem to be doing any economic activity but feeds and shelters a large number of house-slaves whom he has inherited from his parents. He says that he is attached to them and can not bring himself to sell them.

          St. Clare’s views on slavery are unclear. He is very much against exploiting and ill treating slaves but he does not see an economic alternative to slavery. He sees virtues and nobility in Tom and treats him very well. At Eva’s instance, he asks his lawyer to take steps for freeing Tom from the bondage of slavery.

          St. Clare does not seem to be happily-married. Her wife Marie is very selfish and jealous woman who is jealous of St Clare’s love for her own daughter. Most of the time she is ill and specially pretending to be ill. She always complains one thing or another. She is extremely self-centred and totally insensitive to the feeling of other. In this way, St. Clare and her wife are misfits and their married life seems to be far from happy.

          On account of Eva’s death St. Clare is greatly sorry. To hide the bitterness, St Clare makes himself busy. So he talks and goes out with his friends. Thus life is empty for St Clare without Eva. St Clare is not religious man. But it is Tom who gently influences him to take solace in religion. He makes him read the Bible and pray for consolation. He becomes more and more attached to Tom; He also begins the legal steps necessary for giving Tom his freedom.

           St Clare stands for affectionate father and sympathetic master. He is who asks him lawyer to take steps for freeing Tom. But it is Tom’s bad luck; St Clare gets a fatal knife-wound and dies in a very short time when he is trying to separate two drunkards in a cafe.