The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Characters

Tom's a hard kid to pin down, and not just because he's always jumping fences, running off to islands, and getting lost in caves. From a moral perspective, his actions are a bit confusing. Sometime...

Huck Finn means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Most of the adults in St. Petersburg think he's a menace to society; he's "cordially hated and dreaded by all the mothers in...

We all know that Injun Joe is one bad dude. The question is, why is he so bad? Why does he do the awful things he does? If we're talking strictly about motivation, then it's safe to say that there...

Becky Thatcher is Tom's love interest. Tom is obsessed with her. Heck, he starts to "'show off' in all sorts of absurd and foolish ways," from the moment he sees her (1.12). But their relationship...

Joe Harper is Tom's best friend and partner in crime. Their friendship is really quite simple. The boys enjoys doing the same things: playing hooky, pretending to be Robin Hood, and just generally...

Though Twain tells us that Huck's father is the "town drunkard," Muff Potter certainly gives Mr. Finn a run for his money. Indeed, Muff's drunkenness leads him to take up a life of crime with Injun...

Aunt Polly can be a big old pain in Tom's neck. She scolds Tom. Sometimes she even hits him with her thimble (a punishment that seems extremely humane when compared to the schoolmaster's wicked bea...

Amy Lawrence is Tom's former love. She's unceremoniously wiped from his heart the moment he sees Becky Thatcher, but for some reason Tom is briefly interested in her toward the middle of the novel,...

Mr. Dobbins is every kid's worst nightmare. Frustrated in his attempts to become a doctor, Dobbins settles for being a schoolteacher, a job he doesn't much like. He seems to prefer disciplining his...

The Widow Douglas is a benevolent old woman who lives in a big house at the top of a hill. We don't really hear much about her until Huck tracks Injun Joe and hears Joe explaining how he's going to...

Mrs. Harper, Joe Harper's mother, acts as a more conventional counterpart to Tom's Aunt Polly. When Tom and Joe disappear and are feared drowned, the two women share in each other's grief. Mrs. Har...

In this case, it's all in the name: Mary is Tom's "saintly" cousin. (Think Saint Mary, Jesus' mother.) She helps Tom memorize his Bible verses, and has memorized enough herself to receive two Bible...

Dr. Robinson is, first and foremost, a murder victim; Injun Joe kills him in order to get back at Robinson's father, who apparently had Joe jailed for vagrancy. We also know that the doctor had enl...

Sid's a real goody-two-shoes, and a spoilsport to boot. He never has much of anything good to say about Tom, and seems to derive pleasure from messing with Tom. As such, he gets dirt clods thrown a...

Judge Thatcher is Becky's dad, and, as his name suggests, he's a judge. Judge Thatcher is the closest thing Tom has to a role model; he's a fine father and a good citizen. He searches tirelessly fo...

The Welshman, also known as Mr. Jones, is a kind old man with two sons, who lives near the Widow Douglas. Huck runs to him for help after hearing Injun Joe talk about hurting the widow, and though...