The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Characters
Huckleberry Finn
The protagonist and narrator of the novel. Huck is the thirteen-year-old
son of the town drunk. After escaping from his abusive father, Huck spends most of
the novel traveling down the Mississippi River with Jim, an escaped slave. Though he
is uneducated, Huck survives by relying on his wits. He is thoughtful, intelligent,
and willing to come to his own conclusions about important matters, even when these
conclusions contradict society’s norms. Nevertheless, Huck is still a boy, and is
influenced by others, particularly by his friend, Tom.
Tom Sawyer
Huck’s imaginative, dominating friend who comes from a relatively
comfortable family. In contrast to Huck’s self-reliant and independent nature, Tom
believes in sticking closely to the “rules” he has gleaned from society and the wild
notions he reads about in adventure novels. Unfortunately these rules have more to
do with style than with morality or anyone’s welfare. As a result, the schemes that
he compels Huck and Jim to follow are unnecessarily complicated and often dangerous.
Jim
One of Miss Watson’s household slaves who, after running away, becomes
Huck’s companion and protector on the river. Jim is superstitious and sentimental,
but he is also intelligent, practical, and ultimately more mature than the other
characters in the novel. Jim’s frequent acts of selflessness, his longing for his
family, and his friendship with both Huck and Tom demonstrate to Huck that humanity
has nothing to do with race. Because Jim is a black man and a runaway slave, he is
at the mercy of almost all the other characters in the novel and is often forced
into ridiculous and degrading situations.
Widow Douglas and Miss Watson
Two wealthy sisters who live together in a large house in St.
Petersburg, Missouri. They adopt Huck and attempt to civilize him. Miss Watson is
gaunt and severe. She is strict when it comes to teaching Huck about religion and
manners. The Widow Douglas is somewhat gentler in her beliefs and has more patience
with Huck. When Huck acts in a manner contrary to societal expectations, it is the
Widow Douglas whom he fears disappointing.
Pap
Huck’s father and the town drunk. Pap is a wreck when he appears at the
beginning of the novel, with disgusting, ghostlike white skin, and tattered clothes.
The illiterate Pap is selfish and cruel. He disapproves of Huck’s education and
exploits Huck for his own material gain. Pap imprisons Huck in a shack in the woods,
where he frequently beats Huck, prompting him to escape down the river.
The duke and the dauphin
A pair of con men whom Huck and Jim rescue as they are being run out of
a river town. The older man, who appears to be about seventy, claims to be the
“dauphin,” the son of King Louis XVI and heir to the French throne. The younger man,
who is about thirty, claims to be the usurped Duke of Bridgewater. Although Huck
quickly realizes the men are frauds, he and Jim remain at their mercy, as Huck is
only a child and Jim is a runaway slave. The duke and the dauphin carry out a number
of increasingly disturbing swindles as they travel down the river on the raft.
Judge Thatcher
The local judge who shares responsibility for Huck with the Widow
Douglas and is in charge of safeguarding the money that Huck and Tom found at the
end of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. When Huck discovers that Pap has returned to
town, he wisely signs his fortune over to the Judge, who doesn’t really accept the
money, but tries to comfort Huck.
The Grangerfords
A family that takes Huck in after a steamboat hits his raft, separating
him from Jim. The kindhearted Grangerfords are locked in a long-standing feud with
another local family, the Shepherdsons, though no one remembers exactly what started
it. Ultimately, the families’ sensationalized feud gets many of them killed.
The Wilks family
A family that the duke and the dauphin con after learning of the death of
a local man named Peter Wilks, who has left behind a rich estate. The two con men
pose as Wilks’s two brothers from England, the recipients of much of the
inheritance. The duke and the dauphin’s subsequent conning of the good-hearted and
vulnerable Wilks sisters is the first step in the con men’s increasingly cruel
series of scams, which culminate in the sale of Jim.
Silas and Sally Phelps
Tom Sawyer’s aunt and uncle, whom Huck coincidentally encounters in his
search for Jim after the con men have sold him. Sally is the sister of Tom’s aunt,
Polly. Essentially good people, the Phelpses nevertheless hold Jim in custody and
try to return him to his owner. Silas and Sally are the unknowing victims of many of
Tom and Huck’s “preparations” as they try to free Jim.
