Internal Roots of Tragedy: An Interpretation of Tom’s Blind Loyalty and Submissiveness in Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Uncle Tom’s Cabin is a reputed anti-slavery novel in American literary history. Tom, an unusually loyal and submissive slave, was sold to different slave masters again and again until he was tortured to death. Tom’s tragic fate had multi-faceted roots. This paper tends to give an objective interpretation of Tom’s personality so as to promote a better comprehension of this character and the intention of this novel. It’s found that his blind loyalty and submissiveness are the defects in his personality leading to his tragic fate.