A Closer Look at Finn and the Female

Mercedes Lucero

ENG 330

Dr. Donaher

March 24, 2011

A Closer Look at Finn and the Female

In 1960, Cosmopolitan magazine gave some advice to their female audience stating that a woman is allowed to make decisions "...only when her escort, fiancé, or husband leaves them up to her." (White 13) How different our society is today. It is safe to say that women have gained rights as human beings. This is contrastingly different with the women who lived in the nineteenth century. During this time the oppression of women was prominent and very few were allowed to speak out. Around this same time, Mark Twain was publishing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the novel that would become a staple in American literature. This oppression of women is reflected throughout the story. However, it is the recent advancement of gender equality that forces us to reevaluate the relationship that Huck has with the women in this novel. Careful assessment will show that the female characters in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are solely responsible for Huck Finn's virtuous growth and moral development.

Now while women hold the key to Huck Finn's evolving maturity they are by every means, stereotypes of women in the late nineteenth century. At that time a woman's role was to have children and raise them, while maintaining the domestic responsibilities. In this way female characters like Miss Watson and the Widow Douglas are confirming what society expects of them, for it is only women who attempt to physically civilize Huck Finn. Even the aunt of Tom Sawyer, Sally Phelps, is portrayed as a typical housewife dependent on her husband, Silas Phelps. While Tom and Huck steal items from the Phelps’s household, the joke is apparently on Sally, which brings in the idea of the helpless woman. In addition, the Wilks sisters are shown being taken advantage of by the Duke and Dauphin, demonstrating how easily a female can be conned and fooled. It is only when Doctor Robinson, a man, comes...