Similarities Between Shelby And St. Clare

As the owners of Tom, Shelby, St. Clare, and Legree are probably the three most distinctive characters in this book. The three are all astonishingly alike to some extend, but their deep nature are not the same.

Exploring the similarity of the characters, it’s not hard to find out how they are analogical selfish. For Mr. Shelby and St. Clare, though they may care about slaves and consider about the morality issues, they fail to enact any actual movements. As in Mr. Shelby’s case, he concerns about his own financial issue over the lives of slave. Broking his promises and ethical rules easily when interest is involved, Mr. Shelby actually causes the miserable events that Tom experiences later on his life. As in St. Clare’s case, he ignores his true recognition that slavery is wrong and maintained slavery just because of his fear — he is afraid that being an abolitionist could cause great difficulties. He confines the freedom of slaves just so that he can make his own life easier.

For Legree, it’s not arguable that he is a selfish character. All he sees is profit and he treats slaves’ lives as nothing. To achieve greater profit for himself, he overworks slaves and whip them; he buy new slaves when the previous ones are dying because medication causes too much; he dehumanize slaves and treat them as pure tools which can make money.
Clare, and Legreeare all evils. In the book, they do not only occur in chronological order, but also in the order of decreasing morality. The former two characters are generally kind deep inside. Most slaves would feel fortunate to have Mr. Shelby as the owner, and they are even allowed to marry and live with their family. For St. Claire, he does consider the slavery system as evil and unjust. One of his biggest reason of not converting into a Christian is actually his fear about having to feel morally compelled — if he becomes one, he would consider abolishing slavery as the necessary and righteous