Character guide

Tom Sawyer

major

Also known as Tom, Thomas Sawyer, Mr. Thomas Sawyer, Mars Tom

Tom Sawyer is the restless center of St. Petersburg's boyhood world, forever scheming adventures while dodging Aunt Polly's switch and the schoolmaster's rod. He craves attention and glory — whether playing dead pirate, courting Becky Thatcher, or sneaking out at midnight — but his conscience quietly complicates every triumph. His hunger for spectacle and his unwillingness to stay out of trouble drive the book's early mischief and pull him toward darker discoveries that test whether he's more than just a showman.

Huckleberry Finn

major

Also known as Huck Finn, Huck, Huckleberry, Hucky

Huck Finn belongs to no one and answers to nothing — no school, no church, no shoes — which makes him both the envy and the cautionary tale of every boy in St. Petersburg. When the Widow Douglas tries to rescue him into respectability, he flees back to his hogshead, suffocated by bells, baths, and prayers. His easy freedom and fierce independence make him Tom's perfect partner in mischief, and his outsider's eye gives the story its sharpest glimpse of the town's hypocrisies.

Becky Thatcher

major

Also known as Becky, Rebecca Thatcher, Thatcher

Becky Thatcher arrives in St. Petersburg as the admired new girl, and Tom's clumsy courtship — showing off, then ignoring her — turns her affection into wounded fury. Proud and thin-skinned, she gives as good as she gets, and one impulsive moment with the schoolmaster's locked book leaves her terrified of exposure and desperate to see Tom punished. Her quarrel with Tom matters because it forces both of them to learn something about loyalty, and because it sets her on the path toward the adventure that will test her nerve.

Aunt Polly

supporting

Also known as Polly, Mary

Aunt Polly runs her household on a shaky blend of duty and love, forever resolving to punish Tom properly and forever dissolving into laughter or guilt the moment he charms her. She knows she's being outwitted — she says so herself, half ruefully, half proudly — yet her conscience torments her both when she spares the rod and when she uses it. Her tender, exasperated struggle to raise a boy she can't quite control gives the novel its warmest domestic anchor and explains much of Tom's freedom.

Injun Joe

supporting

Also known as Joe, Both Injun Joe

Injun Joe moves through St. Petersburg as a figure of whispered menace — a man the town has wronged and who nurses his revenge in silence. When Tom and Huck witness his brutal act in the graveyard, he becomes the shadow that haunts every adventure that follows, a threat capable of drowning two boys without a second thought. His presence transforms the novel from a romp into something with real stakes, forcing Tom to weigh his oath against a man's life.

Muff Potter

supporting

Also known as Potter, old Muff, poor Potter

Muff Potter is the harmless, liquor-soaked fixture of St. Petersburg's jail and tavern, a man whose good nature and weakness make him an easy scapegoat. When he's charged with a crime he can't remember committing, the town's rush to judgment exposes its cruelty, and Tom and Huck's blood oath to stay silent becomes unbearable. His plight is the moral hinge of the early book: it forces Tom to choose between a promise and a man's life, and it shows what the town's 'respectable' order is willing to do to the powerless.

Joe Harper

supporting

Also known as Joseph Harper, And Joe

Joe Harper is Tom's bosom friend and fellow general in the village's mock military campaigns, a boy whose wounded dignity runs as hot as Tom's. When his mother punishes him unjustly, he seeks out Tom with the same escape already forming in his own head, and the two swear brotherhood unto death. He first proposes hermitage in a cave, then concedes to piracy once Tom makes it sound grander, and his willingness to follow transforms a private sulk into the town-shaking adventure on Jackson's Island.

Sid

supporting

Also known as Sidney, Siddy

Sid is the obedient, well-behaved counterweight to Tom in Aunt Polly's household, and he knows exactly how to profit from his brother's failures. He calls attention to Tom's black thread and lands him in trouble, then takes the punishment for it in a volley of dirt clods that Tom launches before fleeing over the fence. He matters because he keeps Tom's home life a low-grade war, sharpening the itch to escape that drives Tom toward Jackson's Island and every scheme beyond it.

Ben Rogers

minor

Also known as Benjamin Rogers, Benny

Boy who Tom tricks into whitewashing the fence.

Amy Lawrence

minor

Also known as Amy

Tom's former sweetheart before Becky Thatcher arrives.

Widow Douglas

supporting

Also known as The Widow Douglas

Widow Douglas is the town's respectable benefactor, generous enough to take in the ragged Huck Finn and try to make him a proper boy. Her kindness is real but rigid: she prays constantly, schedules everything by bell, and forbids smoking, yelling, and scratching, which to Huck feels like being smothered alive. Her failed experiment in charity exposes the gap between St. Petersburg's respectable order and the freedom Huck cannot trade away, a tension that shadows the whole story.

Judge Thatcher

minor

Also known as the Judge

Becky's father and respected town judge.

Mr. Dobbins

minor

Also known as old Dobbins, Old Dobbins

Strict schoolmaster who is often the butt of pranks.

Alfred Temple

minor

Also known as Alfred, poor Alfred

Rival boy who spills ink on Tom's spelling book.

Jeff Thatcher

minor

Also known as lawyer Thatcher, Jeff

Becky's older brother and a lawyer.

Sereny Harper

minor

Joe Harper's sister.

Old Mr. Jones

minor

Also known as Mr. Jones

Welshman who helps the widow and Huck.

Peter

minor

Aunt Polly's cat who is dosed with painkiller.

Jim Hollis

minor

Also known as Jim

Boy who stutters and is teased by Tom.

The Spaniard

minor

Disguise worn by Injun Joe in the haunted house.

Mr. Walters

minor

Also known as Walters

Sunday school superintendent who rewards Tom with a Bible.

Hoss Williams

minor

Also known as old Hoss Williams, Williams

Town drunk whose grave is robbed by Tom and Huck.

Bob Tanner

minor

Boy who gets his head stuck in a window grate.

Mrs. Harper

minor

Joe Harper's mother who mourns him as lost.

Willie Mufferson

minor

Model boy who is held up as an example in Sunday school.

Gracie Miller

minor

Also known as Grace Miller

Schoolgirl who sits near Tom in class.

Johnny Miller

minor

Also known as Johnny

Schoolboy who trades items with Tom.

Mary Austin

minor

Schoolgirl mentioned in passing.

Susy Harper

minor

Also known as Susan Harper

Joe Harper's sister who cries at the funeral.

Bull Harbison

minor

Also known as Harbison

Town character mentioned in passing.

Old Hays

minor

Town drunk who dies in the hickory switch incident.

Uncle Jake

minor

Black man who tells ghost stories.

Old Mother Hopkins

minor

Woman rumored to be a witch.

Richard

minor

Boy who recites a poem at the examination.