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"He Hath Wrong'd Himself": Satire As The Driving Force In Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, Jennifer Reisch

The Journal of Undergraduate Research

The words of Shakespeare's character, Jaques, reflect the power of the best and deadliest kind of satire. Robert Harris claims that this kind of satire does not seek to do harm to any individual but to the vice itself (par. 3). The best satire creates "a shock of recognition" within oneself, and as Jaques tells his audience "If it do him right,/ Then he hath wrong'd himself." This is the mode of satire found in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Yet most critics do not see Uncle Tomas satiric; rather they consider it tragic, didactic, or sentimental. Indeed, Stowe's …