Mrs. Dubose, character analysis
We meet the name of Mrs Henry Lafayette Dubose in the very beginning of the book and the first thing we know about her is that she is a plain hell, as Scout introduced this elderly women who lives down the street from the Finch’s. When the kids go down town, they run by her house, trying to avoid her, because she is very mean. Mrs. Dubose spends her days either lying in bed or sitting on her porch, confined to wheelchair and gazing at passing neighbours. The only person taking care about her is a black girl, her both made and nurse. The only entertainment she can afford is annoying and offending people. Scout confesses more than once to a hatred of Mrs. Dubose. Rumours about a pistol concealed among her numerous shawls and wraps doesn’t increase neighbours’ sympathy to her. Like many others in Maycomb, this old lady is a racist and pesters the young Finches by slandering about their family and calling Atticus a negro lover. It drives Jem mad and he attacks and cuts off Mrs. Dubose’s camellias, which she fond of. When children come to her place, they discover that old Mrs. Dubose even nastier than they thought. She has a complexion of a dirty pillowcase, her mouth is wet with saliva, the cuticles are grown up over her fingernail. Sometimes later when she dies it turns out that she was fatally ill and drug-addicted/ Atticus tells his son about her fighting with addiction as a example of courage/ But there many doubts weather it is a true courage or not/ Malignant, meanest old woman knows that she will die soon. It is unlikely that she is in harmony with the world, God and her own. I dare suppose that all her fighting is nothing more than looking aside from the fear of death/ she tries to concentrate all her attention on anything but coming death/ even concerning camellia sent nobody knows what MD thought about, when mailed it. May be the first Jem’s guess was right and she wanted just sting her the last time/