Stereotypes In Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain was written in the year 1885, a time when women were primarily kept at home providing the cooking and cleaning for the household. While they were doing those things, the man of the house was doing a job to receive money. A woman’s main job was to provide the home with children while also taking care of the home. Men in this time period believed women to be under or below them because they thought all they had to do was have children and take care of a home, which was considered “lesser work”. Women were viewed as subordinate to their husbands because the men considered women’s work below them. If a woman was not married with children they were considered an outcast of society. In the novel, Mark
This type of character shows the stereotype that women couldn’t have a regular job, but should stay home with their children. These women had to keep the home clean while also keeping their husband happy without doing anything for themselves. This stereotype was used only once in the novel proving Twain thinks that most mothers are useless to society. Aunt Sally amounted to nothing outside of her home and was always shocked when someone came to her house. The mothers of this time period were meant for the work of bearing children and not amounting to much. Huck describes Aunt Sally’s meals as “enough on the table for seven families- and all hot, too;”(Twain 244). Aunt Sally’s purpose was to cook and keep children which was a common stereotype. She cooks, cleans and takes care of kids. According to Introducing Literary Theories woman were told at a young age that “bearing and rearing children is largely ‘women’s work”. This push for them to only work at home made them amount to nothing more than a housewife. Twain shows this stereotype through Aunt Sally with her constant making of meals while also keeping the home clean and always being ready for
Women in the book that were not naive or bearing children were cynical or evil. These women are shown as spinsters, controlling women that go out of their way to be rude to Huckleberry Finn. This type of woman was best shown in Miss Watson, a woman that needed absolute control over everything in her life. When this doesn’t happen she pushes harder to control Huckelberry by making him do things he would rather go to the “bad place”(Twain 10) or hell then do. She tries to control Huck Finn, who she has no responsibility for, when he is staying with her by saying things like “Don’t put your feet up there, Huckleberry;”(Twain 10). This controlling aspect of women is what society saw in women when they were not married with children. These women were controlling of children because they were frustrated that they couldn’t have children of their own. Society pitied a women that wasn’t married because they viewed someone without children and a home to keep as useless. Twain also makes Miss Watson have no children showing that society pities that while also thinking she is worthless. Society believed women’s main job to be the bearing of children while outcasting the women that didn’t go into that lifestyle. These type of women were portrayed as weird and an outcast in society. Mark Twain portrays Miss Watson as both of these things in Huck’s eyes. Huck Finn describes her glasses as “goggles’(Twain 10) making a point that