Character List
Huckleberry Finn - The protagonist and narrator of the novel. Huck is the thirteen-year-old son of the local drunk of St. Petersburg, Missouri, a town on the Mississippi River. Frequently forced to survive on his own wits and always a bit of an outcast, Huck is thoughtful, intelligent (though uneducated), and willing to come to his own conclusions about important matters, even if these conclusions frequently contradict society's norms. Nevertheless, Huck is still a boy, and is easily influenced by others, particularly by his imaginative friend, Tom.
Jim - One of Miss Watson's household slaves. Jim is superstitious and occasionally sentimental, but he is also intelligent, practical, and more of an adult than anyone else in the book. Twain uses Jim's thoughts of his family and his friendship with both Huck and Tom to demonstrate that humanity has nothing to do with race. Because he is a black man and a runaway slave, Jim is at the mercy of almost all the other characters in the book, and is often forced into ridiculous and degrading situations.
The Duke and the King - 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 "King" the son of 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 and Jim quickly realize the men are frauds, they remain at their mercy, as Huck is only a child and Jim is a runaway slave. The Duke and the King carry out a number of increasingly disturbing swindles as they travel down the river on the raft. Their scams culminate with the sale of Jim to a local farmer for forty dollars. Finally they are tarred and feathered in the Phelps's town, after Jim tells the townspeople of the pair's nefarious history.
Tom Sawyer - Huck's friend, and the protagonist of Tom Sawyer, the book to which Huck Finn is ostensibly the sequel. In this novel, he serves as a foil to Huck: imaginative, dominating, and given to wild plans taken from the plots of adventure novels, he is everything that Huck is not. Tom's stubborn reliance on the "authorities" of romance novels leads him to acts of incredible stupidity and startling cruelty. His rigid adherence to outside conventions aligns him with the "sivilizing" forces that Huck learns to see through and from which he slowly becomes alienated.
Widow Douglas and Miss Watson - Two wealthy sisters who live together in a large house in St. Petersburg. Miss Watson, gaunt and severe-looking, is the most prominent representative of the hypocritical religious and ethical values of the dominant society. The Widow Douglas, meanwhile, is somewhat gentler in her beliefs and has more patience with the mischievous 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 and ne'er-do-well. When he appears at the beginning of the novel, he is a wreck, with disgusting ghostlike white skin and hopelessly tattered clothes. Illiterate himself, he disapproves of his son's education. Pap represents both the general debasement of white society (most of the black characters in the book are morally and physically better than he) and the failure of family structures: a number of surrogates are forced to care for his son.
Judge Thatcher - Judge Thatcher 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 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). Judge Thatcher has a daughter, Becky, who was Tom's girlfriend in the earlier novel, and whom Huck calls "Bessie" in this book.
Aunt Polly - Tom Sawyer's aunt and guardian, and Sally Phelps's sister. She appears at the end of Huck Finn and properly identifies Huck, who has pretended to be Tom; and Tom, who has pretended to be his own younger brother, Sid.
The Grangerfords - Huck is taken in by the Grangerfords after his raft is hit by a steamboat and he is separated from Jim; they offer him a place to stay in their tacky country home. The kind-hearted Grangerfords are locked in a longstanding feud with another family, the Shepherdsons. Twain uses the two families to engage in some rollicking humor and to mock a Tom Sawyer-like indulgence in romantic conceits: their sensationalized feud gets them all killed.
The Wilks Family - The Duke and Dauphin hear of the death of Peter Wilks from a man on his way to a steamboat, who tells them that Wilks has left behind a rich estate. The man inadvertently gives the con men enough information to allow them to pretend to be Peter Wilks' two brothers from England, the preacher Harvey and the deaf-mute William. The conning of the good-hearted and vulnerable Wilks sisters is the first step in the Duke and Dauphin's increasingly cruel series of scams, which culminate in the sale of Jim.
The Phelps family - Tom Sawyer's aunt and uncle, whom Huck coincidentally encounters in his search for Jim. Sally is the sister of Tom's aunt, Polly. Essentially good people, the Phelpses nevertheless hold Jim in custody, trying to return him to his rightful owner. They are the unknowing victims of many of Huck and Tom's "preparations" as they try to free Jim. The Phelpses are the only intact and functional family in this novel, yet they are too much for Huck, who longs to escape their "sivilizing" influence.
Sherburn - Sherburn is notable for the speech he gives when a mob of townspeople comes to lynch him: he lambastes them for their cowardice and skewed sense of justice. While Sherburn is a repulsive figure, his speech expresses some of the same truths about society that Huck has been forced to confront.