Character Analysis Of Mrs. Dubose

The main issue of the section we are acting out of Chapter 11 in “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is the prejudice that Ms. Dubose holds. She is both sexist and racist, both forms of prejudice that were common back in her generation, but were finally starting to change at that time. Aunt Alexandra and Ms. Dubose, most likely having been raised in the same time period, were both offended by Scout wearing pants. Ms. Dubose specifically asked ‘What are you doing in those overalls? You should be in a dress and camisole, young lady!’ (Lee, 101), which is greatly reminiscent of what Alexandra said at Christmas. Obviously, they were both raised with the same morals about having to wear dresses, causing them to be unintentionally sexist and myopic.

Dubose. Jem and Scout hated Mrs. Dubose, she was always disrespectful when they passed by her house. She would yell at them about many different things like their behavior, their father, what they would be when they grew up, them walking to town, and them not having their mother around anymore. Most of her comments were about how Atticus was defending a man of color in court. One day Jem went mad, he grabbed Scout’s baton and ran into the front yard and cut the tops off every camellia bush in sight, he didn't begin to calm down until the ground has green buds and leaves everywhere. Once he was finished trashing Mrs. Dubose’ yard he snapped the baton in half, threw it down, when Scout saw she started screaming. Jem pulled her hair, and kicked her down. When Atticus got home he was disappointed that Jem would do something like that, he told him to go to Mrs. Dubose’ house and talk to her. When Jem came back he said he cleaned for her, said sorry, and said that he would help them grow back. Mrs. Dubose told Jem to come to her house everyday after school and on Saturdays and read to her out loud for two hours for a whole month. On the first day they weren't there for a long time because about half way through it was time for Mrs. Dubose’s medicine, Jessie kicked them out because she had to get the

Mrs. Dubose is an old lady who lives two doors up the street from the Finch's house. Atticus' son, Jem destroyed Mrs. Dubose's flowers because she had said disrespectful things about Atticus which brought out Jem's anger. Even though Atticus was very upset, he does not believe violence is the appropriate way to approach any situation considering it does not teach you valuable lessons. Instead, Jem's punishment was to read to Mrs. Dubose every day for the month and in the end taught him the true meaning of courage. Atticus demonstrates that holding your head up and fists down will save you from more complicated situations. Another example would be when disrespectful Bob Ewell spat on Atticus' face because Atticus made Bob look like a fool during his testimony. Atticus stayed calm during the whole situation. He held his head high and walked away during the scene. Following this further, Atticus sets honorable examples for his children. He believes all people have goodness in their hearts no matter how cruel or heartless they act, even if their status was low, they would have generosity and kindness inside. The first impression of Mrs. Dubose was described as a rude lady. She says to Scout, “Don't you say hey to me, you ugly girl! You say good afternoon, Mrs. Dubose!” (Lee 133). However, Mrs. Dubose is really a kind lady who causes no harm once you get the kindness out of her. In addition, Atticus compliments her and treats her as he would treat any

In To Kill a Mockingbird, old lady Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose butts-in on any conversation she hears, even if it doesn’t include or have anything to do with her. Mrs. Dubose tried to dictate how Scout Finch should live her life by telling her “what are you doing in those overalls? You should be in a dress and camisole, young lady! You’ll grow up waiting on tables if somebody doesn’t change your ways-a Finch waiting on tables at the O.K. Café-hah!” (Lee 135). This directly shows that Mrs. Dubose intentionally includes herself in anyone's private lives, and goes as far as to try and tell them everything that they need to do. In “The Possibility of Evil”, Miss Adela Strangeworth needs to know about everything that is happening in “her” town, and often interferes with incriminating information and writes letters about the information, which can cause many infractions to people’s lives directly. In another one of her letters, this time directed to Mrs. Helen Crane, the lady who had a 6 month old daughter, she wrote “Didn’t you ever see an idiot child before? Some people just shouldn’t have children, should they?” (Jackson 252). This clearly shows that Miss Adela Strangeworth does not care for other people’s well being, and that interfering in other people’s private lives, and she tries to “alert” them about private information that she overhears, causing many problems between conflicting parties. This proves that both of the old ladies are nosy and dig into other people’s business, much to their

In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the main characters Jem and Scout are were walking to town when they walk by Mrs. Dubose's house. Mrs. Dubose says some very hurtful things towards them, which prompts Jem to cut out her flowers. This situation is misleading because it shows that Mrs Dubose was a bad person, but in actuality she was a thoughtful lady.

Wouldn’t you have a feeling of repulsion for an old lady who is always talking down to you? To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee introduces the story of two siblings, Scout and Jem, growing up in a racial society. Jem, Scout’s sister, undergoes many coming of age experiences. One of the coming of age experiences Jem has faced is when he has to do a favor for Mrs. Dubose, the old lady Scout and Jem don’t like and who is also a morphine addict. Jem’s coming of age experience is developed by Mrs. Dubose through Conflict, Irony, and Imagery.

Mrs. Dubose takes an important role in showing another face of righteousness throughout the novel and changing Scout’s thoughts about her. Mrs. Dubose symbolizes a strong mind, determination, and audacity because she never

The untimely death of a fellow Maycomb resident sets its weight on only few in the condensed neighborhood. Local children, Jem and Scout, seem to show no remorse for the loss of the elderly, due to the constant verbal abuse received on a day to day basis. The harassment only grew stronger when the children attempted to set their path askew to avoid confrontation. The question that resides at hand is whether the constant mistreatment was understandable, or cruel and unusual. Mrs. Dubose of To Kill A Mockingbird, was indeed a woman seeing her last few years of life, and it shows through her behavior. Mrs. Dubose’s behavior is completely justified and therefore, she should not be scolded for her actions.

The word “n-----” connotes a lesser social status because during this time period an African American was considered a lesser person compared to a white man. This means Mrs. Dubose is saying that Atticus has the same social status as an African American. This made Scout think that Mrs. Dubose is evil just by the way she talked to them. Jem became angry and he destroyed Mrs. Dubose’s flowers, and as a punishment from Atticus, Jem had to read to Mrs. Dubose daily for a month. At the end of every reading session, Ms. Dubose gets a fit, which ends the reading session daily. Comparatively, towards the end of the month, Mrs. Dubose had fewer fits. After Ms. Dubose died, Atticus explains to the kids that “ ‘She said she was going to leave this world beholden to nothing and nobody. Jem, when you’re sick as she was, it’s all right to take anything to make it easier, but it wasn’t all right for her. She said she meant to break herself of it before she died, and that’s what she did’” (148). This quote proves that people should not judge a person evil or innocent without genuinely knowing them. This is shown when Scout first thinks Ms. Dubose is evil just because she yelled at Scout and Jem daily. After the reading sessions, Scout truly understood Ms. Dubose and realized she is a lady that does not back down from a fight. Atticus truly understood her and respects her courage even though they have different ideas. All in all, Ms. Dubose was first judged as evil because

Dubose to show that people are essentially good. “You know, she was a great lady….She was the bravest person I ever knew” (Lee, 115-116). Despite her ugly and outspoken racism Mrs. Dubose is a courageous and strong woman. She forgave Jem for ruining her flowers even though the flowers were very meaningful and special to her. “She was a lady. She had her own view about things, a lot different from mine, maybe...son, I wanted you to read to her because I wanted you to learn something from her. I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. She broke her addiction to morphine, which was a very hard thing to do. She was the bravest person I ever knew.” (Lee, 149). She could’ve taken the easy way out and died pain free, but she decided that she was going to reach her goal no matter what. Atticus showed his integrity by not responding back with hateful comments back to Mrs. Dubose whenever she insulted him. Despite Mrs. Dubose’s racist comments towards the Finch family, she was a forgiving and kind lady till the

She was described as being extremely racist, and with a ‘wrathful gaze’ and someone who Scout did not look kindly upon as per her description of the woman being ‘pure hell’. Both the words hell and wrathful conjure up devilish images in my head and I believe that this is an intentional connotation by the author. Thus, from initial appearances it seemed obvious that Mrs Dubose is extremely unpleasant, prejudiced and shameless. However, further into the novel Atticus reveals that Mrs Dubose is in fact an extremely courageous woman who in the face of great difficulty perseveres to battle her morphine addiction. This challenged the harsh aspect of my reaction to the theme of appearances versus reality. This is because it showed me that we should not be so quick to judge and draw conclusions about someone’s nature as appearances do not tell their story. Initially I had typecast her as a weak woman who took pleasure in the derogation of others in order to compensate for her own physical frailty. However, further reading made me realise the possibility of Mrs Dubose growing up to be a great woman who may used her courage to stand up for others if she had been brought up in a different era which did not have such deep set negative ideals about negroes. Moreover, it made me realise that appearances are not necessarily mutually exclusive to the reality of a situation as is this case with this character. While she remains a racist throughout, she also has another facet to her personality which showcases great strength and thus initial appearances were not entirely incorrect but did not show the true reality

Dubose. Mrs. Dubose was a morphine addict who was rude to everyone around her. Most citizens of Maycomb ignored her when she lectured them. However, Atticus was always polite to her. For example, when Atticus passed by her, he stated, “Good evening, Mrs. Dubose! You look like a picture this evening.” (133) This shows that Atticus treats her with respect, knowing that he is doing the right thing even though many others in Maycomb would disregard her. Despite Mrs. Dubose’s stereotypically rude attitude, Atticus is polite because he believes that stereotypes do not define one’s character. Also, when Scout told Atticus that Mrs. Dubose called him a “n-word lover,” he did not even get mad. Instead, Atticus told Scout, “... it’s never an insult to be called what someone thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn’t hurt you.” (144-145) Atticus realizes that Mrs. Dubose’s remark toward him represents how society viewed him, as he was defending a black man. He never resorts to revenge against others because he does not allow the remarks to affect him. Instead, he is polite to them, knowing that he is doing the right

Mrs. Dubose displays acts of personal courage in her honesty and strength. When Jem and Scout walk past her house to go meet Atticus on his way home,

The most important theme of To Kill a Mockingbird is the Coexistence of good and evil. The novel approaches this theme in many ways throughout the book. An example is Mrs.Dubose in general. She was a rude old women who was hated by the neighbourhood for her attitude. “Neighbourhood opinion was unanimous that Mrs. Dubose was the meanest old woman who ever lived”(Lee 35). She never was

The audacious actions executed by Mrs. Dubose are used to illustrate how she is a fundamental character when it comes to demonstrating true courage. Throughout the years Mrs. Dubose was alive she was unafraid to speak her mind knowing that others had their own views and opinions they would later express. The readers are made aware of this during the time when Mrs. Dubose was speaking to Scout and Jem saying,