# The Adventures of Tom Sawyer — Character guide

> Key figures in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.

- [Tom Sawyer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tom_sawyer_se/characters/tom_sawyer.md): 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, 
- [Huckleberry Finn](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tom_sawyer_se/characters/huckleberry_finn.md): 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 
- [Becky Thatcher](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tom_sawyer_se/characters/becky_thatcher.md): 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
- [Aunt Polly](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tom_sawyer_se/characters/aunt_polly.md): 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
- [Injun Joe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tom_sawyer_se/characters/injun_joe.md): 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 
- [Muff Potter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tom_sawyer_se/characters/muff_potter.md): 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 to
- [Joe Harper](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tom_sawyer_se/characters/joe_harper.md): 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
- [Sid](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tom_sawyer_se/characters/sid.md): 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 ta
- [Ben Rogers](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tom_sawyer_se/characters/ben_rogers.md): Boy who Tom tricks into whitewashing the fence.
- [Amy Lawrence](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tom_sawyer_se/characters/amy_lawrence.md): Tom's former sweetheart before Becky Thatcher arrives.
- [Widow Douglas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tom_sawyer_se/characters/widow_douglas.md): 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, an
- [Judge Thatcher](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tom_sawyer_se/characters/judge_thatcher.md): Becky's father and respected town judge.
- [Mr. Dobbins](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tom_sawyer_se/characters/mr_dobbins.md): Strict schoolmaster who is often the butt of pranks.
- [Alfred Temple](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tom_sawyer_se/characters/alfred_temple.md): Rival boy who spills ink on Tom's spelling book.
- [Jeff Thatcher](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tom_sawyer_se/characters/jeff_thatcher.md): Becky's older brother and a lawyer.
- [Sereny Harper](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tom_sawyer_se/characters/sereny_harper.md): Joe Harper's sister.
- [Old Mr. Jones](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tom_sawyer_se/characters/old_mr_jones.md): Welshman who helps the widow and Huck.
- [Peter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tom_sawyer_se/characters/peter.md): Aunt Polly's cat who is dosed with painkiller.
- [Jim Hollis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tom_sawyer_se/characters/jim_hollis.md): Boy who stutters and is teased by Tom.
- [The Spaniard](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tom_sawyer_se/characters/the_spaniard.md): Disguise worn by Injun Joe in the haunted house.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/tom_sawyer_se/characters