Uncle Tom's Cabin Chapter 27 Summary

Summary

In Eva’s chamber the household moves with hushed ceremony around the child’s dead body: statuettes and pictures are shrouded, curtains are drawn, and the room is arranged with white flowers and simple touches by Adolph and Rosa. Augustine St. Clare stands watching the calm, saintly visage of Little Eva, unable to make the loss real to himself. Topsy and other servants, overcome, bring flowers and grief; Topsy’s wild cry and declaration that she wishes she were dead reveal how deeply Eva’s kindness affected the enslaved children. Miss Ophelia comforts Topsy and promises patient love and guidance, beginning a new influence over the child.

A small funeral is held at the garden grave beneath the mossy seat where Eva and Uncle Tom had spent time together. Marie St. Clare’s theatrical mourning contrasts with Augustine’s inward withdrawal: she demands sympathy and publicly laments, convinced he shows insufficient feeling. After the mourners leave and household bustle resumes, Augustine withdraws to his library with Little Eva’s open Bible. Uncle Tom follows and finds him prostrate and despairing; Tom pleads with him to believe, testifying from personal experience that he feels Christ in his soul. St. Clare confesses a habit of doubt and asks Tom to pray and to read. Tom reads aloud the eleventh chapter of John—the raising of Lazarus—and prays, pouring out his faith. The chapter ends with St. Clare moved by Tom’s simple, sincere devotion, admitting gratitude and a desire to talk again later, while Tom departs silently, still full of love and hope for his master.

Key events

1. Eva lies dead in her room, dressed and arranged; household prepares her body for burial.
2. Adolph and Rosa place flowers; Topsy sneaks in and breaks into bitter weeping.
3. A brief funeral is held and Eva is buried in the garden by the mossy seat.
4. Marie’s dramatic grief contrasts with Augustine St. Clare’s inward sorrow.
5. Uncle Tom finds St. Clare in the library; they speak about faith and doubt.
6. Tom reads John xi and prays, comforting St. Clare and stirring his emotions.

Analysis

This chapter functions as both a turning point in emotional tone and a moral focal point. The death of Little Eva removes the novel’s chief moral exemplar from the immediate action, forcing other characters—especially Augustine St. Clare—to confront the implications of her faith and goodness. The funeral scenes juxtapose different responses to loss: Marie’s performative self-centered grief, Miss Ophelia’s steady Christian consolation, Topsy’s raw, childlike mourning, and Augustine’s silent, inward rupture. That contrast exposes character: Marie’s vanity, Miss Ophelia’s deepening compassion, Topsy’s attachment to Eva, and St. Clare’s intellectualized unbelief.

Symbolically, Eva’s white garments, the shrouded statuettes, and the mossy garden grave reinforce themes of purity, Christian hope, and the boundary between earthly loss and heavenly assurance. The chapter’s centerpiece—the intimate scene between Uncle Tom and St. Clare—advances the novel’s spiritual argument by staging a debate between lived faith and skeptical reason. St. Clare’s doubt and Tom’s steady testimony illuminate the class and cultural divide in forms of knowledge (learned skepticism versus experiential faith). Narratively, the episode advances plot by removing Eva as an active moral agent while planting the seeds of possible change in St. Clare through Tom’s influence, and it deepens emotional stakes by making Eva’s absence palpable in both private and public realms.

Important quotes

“The bed was draped in white; and there, beneath the drooping angel-figure, lay a little sleeping form,—sleeping never to waken!”

NarratorOpening image describing Little Eva’s body and setting the solemn, reverent tone of the death scene.

“O, dear Mas'r, there is! I know it; I’m sure of it," said Tom, falling on his knees.”

Uncle TomTom’s confident declaration of faith as he comforts St. Clare, showing the contrast between experiential belief and St. Clare’s doubt.

“Tom’s heart was full; he poured it out in prayer, like waters that have been long suppressed.”

NarratorNarratorial comment emphasizing the depth and fervor of Tom’s prayer, which touches St. Clare emotionally and spiritually.

Characters in Chapter 27

• Augustine St. Clare
• Little Eva
• Adolph
• Rosa
• Ophelia St. Clare
• Topsy
• Marie St. Clare
• Uncle Tom
• Mammy