Character Analysis
Stuart is Skeeter's love interest. He's not a terrible guy, just a spineless one. His father's position as senator depends on Stuart not involving himself in any way in the civil rights struggle. Yet, poor Stuart only seems to go for women with civil rights on the brain. First, his high school sweetheart and fiancée Patricia van Devender cheats on him with an activist, and then Skeeter turns out to be involved in a tell-all book from the perspective of the Jackson maids. Stuart is interested in preserving the status quo because it keeps his family in power and because it's just plain easier. Stuart's parents are Senator Stuart "Stooley" Whitworth and Mrs. Francine Whitworth.