Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Characteristics of Melodrama in Uncle Tom's Cabin

Melodrama is a play form that does not observe the dramatic laws of cause and effect and that intensifies sentiment and exaggerates emotion (893).

Written by George L. Aiken, Uncle Tom's Cabin is an extremely good example

for melodrama that emerged towards the end of nineteenth century. By then, the demand for

more realistic works was on rise. With more realism in it, the work would appeal to any rank, any race, and any sex, mostly to middle and woking class. Melodrama not only aimed to entertain and to put money into the pockets of the manager but also to realize thoroughly the problems taking place in society.

In Uncle Tom's Cabin realism exposes itself with the issue of slavery in the South. The slaves, though not all of them (because it was up to their masters), were oppressed and treated in a cruel way, tortured for nothing. Considered as inferior, the black men were emasculated. We can witness it with the case of George, one of the slaves in the play, who could not even