USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Eva asks Miss Ophelia to cut off her beautiful golden curls. Eva then calls all the slaves to her room to say goodbye. She gives them each a lock of her hair to remember her by and commands them to love each other and God. Her father, mother and cousin stand by her bedside as she dies.

Detailed explanation-2: -Eva then asks Ophelia to cut off some locks of Eva’s hair, which she distributes among the servants, telling them she will wait to see them in heaven. Eva speaks to her father, trying to get him to say he is a Christian, but although St. Clare recognizes the saintliness of his child, he has no such feeling in himself.

Detailed explanation-3: -Eva has told Tom that she wishes she could give her life for slaves, whose own lives are made so unhappy by their condition. In the sense that her life has a special purpose, she is indeed giving it for that purpose, as Tom will give his.

Detailed explanation-4: -Eva wishes to cut her hair off to give it to friends and loved ones after she is gone.

Detailed explanation-5: -Eva’s death isn’t a martyrdom; she dies of natural causes, and Stowe gives us the sense that she’s gently being taken up to Heaven. Nevertheless, she’s so much of a Christ figure that we can’t help feeling her death foreshadows Tom’s.