Topic > The role of female characters in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain shows a view of women that was widely accepted by society during the period described by the novel. All of Huck Finn's women, who are alternately despised, distrusted, and revered by the title character, have one obvious similarity: they are aliens, creatures with a mind and spirit foreign to Huck's. These women fall into three categories: sweet girls, mother figures and older women. Huck's relationship with each group is different, but he brings all three together with typical stereotypes about women's abilities and limitations. Huck sees women not as human companions, but as well-intentioned nuisances or childish creatures in need of care, with good hearts but not enough intelligence to understand his world. However, although Huck's women's perspective is limited, women are crucial to the novel because they bring compassion to the cold world that Huck has fallen into. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The young women of Huck Finn share common characteristics: they are loving, pious, innocent, and gullible to the point of madness. Mary Jane Wilks and her two sisters are the epitome of Twain's girl hyperbole: kind, trusting, and naive. The bad gesture implemented by the king and the duke immediately deceives them: after the king presented her with her father's money, Mary Jane "went for him, Susan and the harelip went for the duke, and then a another hug and kiss that I have never seen." seen again” (Twain 215). These girls are so eager to trust and love that they are blind to the babbling idiocy of the two men they believe are their uncles. Huck loves the Wilks for their kindness and beauty, but feels he must be chivalrous because of the girls' vulnerability. Huck's further description of all the girls' appearance shows them more as prizes than people. He describes every girl as "terribly beautiful" (Twain 210) or "gentle-looking" (Twain 183) other than the plain Joanna Wilks, whom he deplores so much that he calls her "harelip" instead of her name. The idea of ​​women as objects doesn't stop there: even in the dark kidnapping plots, Tom refuses to kill the women, telling the boys, “take them to the cave and be ever so kind to them; and little by little they fall in love with you and never want to go home again (Twain 12). He clearly doesn't see the female enemies as a threat (as he sees the men) so much as a trophy: creatures whose minds and hearts can be bent to the wit and charm of the gang members. Sophia Grangerford appears at first to be another of these "soft" girls; but she is notable as the only woman in the book who leaves home or takes charge of her own situation (running away to marry a man her father hates). The rest of Huck's women, young or old, wise or foolish, sit complacently in their domestic sphere and leave the decision-making to the men in their lives. The least developed of Huck Finn's female characters are arguably the older women in the novel. One of these is the sour old Miss Watson, a spinster who has gone to live with her sister, the Widow Douglas, Huck's caretaker at the beginning of the book. When he moves, Miss Watson attempts to reform Huck, but her work is in vain. Her explanation of heaven leaves him unimpressed, and when Huck responds that he wishes he were in the "bad place," she tells him that "it was wicked to say what I said...she would live so as to go to good." place. Well, I didn't see any advantage in going where she was going, so I decided not to try” (Twain 3). Miss Watson, an old woman..