Two elderly sisters, the Widow and Miss Watson are Huck’s guardians at the beginning of the novel until Pap arrives on the scene. The two women demand that Huck conform to societal norms, which Huck resents. Miss Watson is hypocritical in holding Christian values yet cruelly keeping slaves, even separating Jim from his family. However, it would seem that she sees the light just before her death: she frees Jim in her will.
The Widow Douglas and Miss Watson Quotes in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn quotes below are all either spoken by The Widow Douglas and Miss Watson or refer to The Widow Douglas and Miss Watson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1
Quotes
The Widow Douglas, she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn’t stand it no longer, I lit out.
Related Characters:
Huckleberry Finn (speaker), The Widow Douglas and Miss Watson
Related Themes:
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Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3
Quotes
I went and told the Widow about it, and she said the thing a body could get by praying for it was “spiritual gifts.” This was too much for me, but she told me what she means—I must help others, and do everything I could for other people, and look out for them all the time, and never think about myself…but I couldn’t see no advantage about it—except for the other people—so at last I reckoned I wouldn’t worry about it any more, but just let it go.
Related Characters:
Huckleberry Finn (speaker), The Widow Douglas and Miss Watson
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Widow Douglas and Miss Watson Character Timeline in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The timeline below shows where the character The Widow Douglas and Miss Watson appears in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...recounted in the earlier book, he and Tom Sawyer both became rich, and that the Widow Douglas adopted him and tried to “sivilize” him. However, Huck became bored with the Widow’s...
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After Huck returned to the Widow Douglas, she wept, dressed Huck in new clothes that made him uncomfortable, and again imposed...
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The Widow Douglas forbade Huck from smoking in the house as well. Huck points out that the...
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Meanwhile, the Widow Douglas’s sister, Miss Watson, teaches Huck how to spell, critiques his posture, and tells him...
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After Huck’s talk with Miss Watson , Huck goes up to his bedroom. He sits, tries to think cheerful thoughts, but...
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Chapter 2
As Huck and Tom Sawyer sneak away from the Widow Douglas’s house, Huck trips and makes a noise. One of Miss Watson’s slaves, Jim, hears...
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Despite Huck’s protests, Tom takes some candles from the Widow Douglas’s kitchen, leaving five cents in payment, and then tricks the sleeping Jim by taking...
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...debate whether he should be inducted into the Gang at all. Huck at last offers Miss Watson to be killed, which his fellows accept.
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Chapter 3
After Huck returns home, Miss Watson scolds him for having dirtied his clothes. The Widow Douglas does not scold Huck, but washes his clothes, looking so sorry as she does...
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...He wonders, if someone gets whatever he or she prays for, why, for example, the Widow Douglas can’t get her silver snuff-box back that was stolen. Huck concludes that, insofar as...
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Chapter 4
...but gets used to it. He is also getting used to the regularity of the Widow’s household, and even coming to like it.
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...he reaches for the spilt contents to throw some salt over his left shoulder, but Miss Watson prevents him from doing so, telling him that he is a mess-maker. As Huck uneasily...
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Chapter 5
...Thatcher into giving him Huck’s fortune, but the Judge refuses. Afterward, Judge Thatcher and the Widow go to a court of law to take Huck from Pap’s custody, but the new...
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Chapter 6
When Pap loiters around the Widow’s estate too much, the Widow reprimands him. Pap vows to show her who Huck’s boss...
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...and tattered. Huck even wonders how he ever adapted to the lifestyle endorsed by the Widow, what with its manners and rules. Though Huck had stopped cussing over the course of...
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...to get Huck’s money is proceeding too slowly, and that it looks as though the Widow and Judge Thatcher may be successful in another bid to win custody of Huck. This...
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Chapter 8
Huck thinks that the Widow or parson must have prayed for a loaf of bread to find his body, and,...
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...honor his oath even if people call him a “low down Abolitionist.” Jim explains that Miss Watson treated him poorly and often threatened to sell him to a slaveholder in New Orleans....
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Chapter 12
...wasn’t harmful to “borrow” things if you mean to pay for them eventually, but the Widow told Huck that such “borrowing” is really just stealing. Huck and Jim discuss this and...
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Chapter 13
...to so much trouble to save the gang in the steamboat. He thinks that the Widow would be proud of him, because “rapscallions and dead beats is the kind the widow...
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Chapter 16
...he should have told someone that Jim was running away, that he is meanly wronging Miss Watson , who has done nothing to harm him, by helping Jim, her property. Huck feels...
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Chapter 31
Huck considers writing a letter to Tom Sawyer asking him to tell Miss Watson that Jim is at the Phelps’ farm so Jim can at least be with his...
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Chapter 42
...any creature that walks this earth. He also reveals that he’s known all along that Miss Watson had set Jim free two months ago in her will.
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...Huck’s true identities, and tells the disgruntled Phelpses all about Huck. She also confirms that Miss Watson had set Jim free two months ago. Finally, during a conversation between the adults, it...
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