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Often the women Huck and Jim encounter, especially the Widow Douglas, Miss Watson, Aunt Polly and Aunt Sally, are the embodiment of the very restrictions the two are trying to escape. For Huck the women represent the shackles of society he is fleeing and they place his freedom in jeopardy. In this paper I will attempt to examine the connection between the woman in the novel and freedom. Huck's resistance to the conformity even his friend, Tom Sawyer, has little problems with could be viewed as reckless. Considering it through the lens of Ralph Waldo Emerson, however, Huck's actions seem rational and essential.

Although they only appear in the first few chapters of the novel, the Widow Douglas and Miss Watson are extremely central to the story. Perhaps more so than any other character in the book they represent civilization and attempt to conform Huck into a socially acceptable individual. Throughout the rest of the book, Huck considers the Widow and Miss Watson in his important decisions in order to determine what his moral course of action should be. Huck moved in with the two women after he and his best friend, Tom Sawyer found treasure hidden by robbers. The transition was difficult for Huck; his father was a drunk who preferred for Huck to act uncivilized. Suddenly Huck was forced to follow rules that made no sense. Even the differences between right and wrong seem startling to him. Miss Wilson tells Huck he must behave if he wants to get into heaven, but from her descriptions it sounds like a place he probably doesn't want to end up anyway. What the two women see as deviant behavior he sees as ordinary and harmless.

It is clear that Huck does not think highly of the civilization and views it only as a pointless exercise and a form of entrapment. He can't stand being confined in house and wearing starchy clothes. His life at the Widow's is constantly full of little rebellions; he leaves in the middle of the night, plays hooky and smokes his pipe. Later, after his father kidnaps him, Huck begins to realize how much he hates being civilized. He states, " I didn't see how I'd ever got to like it so well at the widow's, where you had to wash, and eat on a plate, and comb up, and go to bed and get up regular, and be forever bothering over a book and have old Miss Watson peeking at you all the time" (Twain, p.37). Huck's concept of civilization is an interesting one. His descriptions highlight the fact that the rules we follow to conform to society are flawed and, at times, absurd. Where is the sense in being forbidden from smoking a pipe while the Widow has a snuffbox? How can civilization frown upon Huck's cussing and allow for his father to beat him with little intervention from the law? Emerson reflects Huck's idea when he states, "if I am the Devil's child I will live with the devil... Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this" (Emerson, p.3). When Huck flees his father's cabin, he is not only escaping a dangerous situation he is gaining his freedom.

This freedom, however, is constantly under threat. In order for Huck to escape the civilized life everyone must think he is dead. It is significant that it is a woman who first endangers his newfound independence. Bored one day Huck decides he wants information on what is happening in his town so he visits Mrs. Judith Loftus, pretending to be a girl. Without much difficulty she is able to see threw his ruse and reveals that a band of men were going to head over to the very island Huck and Jim were staying to look for the runaway slave. Huck realizes all his efforts to leave his past behind might be lost. In a panic he goes back to the island and gets Jim, and takes off running. Huck could have gotten away without Jim and, judging by his resourcefulness throughout the book, survived without him. Yet, without a thought of the consequences helps a runaway slave escape.

Huck's actions symbolize the rejection of the collective values and norms women like Miss Watson and the Widow symbolize. He is well aware society will perceive him as a reckless renegade and spurn him. When discussing the problem with his best friend Tom Sawyer, he states, "I know what you'll say. You'll say it is a dirty low down business; but what if it is? –I'm low down" (Twain, p.255). It is interesting that Huck's greatest moments of guilt occur when he is thinking about the Widow and Miss Watson precisely because aiding Jim goes against all the civilized laws they tried to instill in him. When Jim and Huck thought they were within sight of Cairo the full ramifications of his actions hit him. Jim is his friend but is really willing to help set him free? Huck tries to use the thought of Miss Watson to figure out what he should do, should he hurt her by helping Jim get free or betray proper social norms (Twain, p.107).

It is clear at this point that Huck is not yet fully liberated from civilization. He states his dilemma was that as long as he could hide his role in the escape from Miss Watson he won't be in disgrace. He doesn't want to injure Miss Watson but nor can he fully conform to the beliefs she represents. As long as he continues to figure the reaction of women like Miss Watson and the Widow in his actions he is still imprisoned by their civilization. After much inner turmoil, Huck decides to do what feels right to him, to do what will give him the most peace. In many ways this appears to be what Emerson is advocating, "If I am the Devil's child, I will then live from the devil. No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this: the only right is what is after my constitution: the only wrong what is against it" (Emerson, p.3).

The issue comes to a head when he must decide is he will steal Jim from slavery again. The importance of his decision is reflected in Huck's bemusement at Tom's quick acquiescence to steal Jim out of slavery-again, "Here was a boy that was respectable, and was well brung up; and had a character to lose; and folks at home who had characters...and yet here he was, without more pride, or rightness, or feeling than to stoop to this business" (Twain, p.263-264). From what he has understood from Miss Watson he recognizes it will mean the difference between going to heaven or hell. It will forever solidify his place in society. In the end he chooses to reject civilization, this time for good, "never thought no more of reforming. I shoved the whole idea from my head; and said I would take up wickedness again, which was my line, and the other warn't" (Twain, p.242). This speech is important because it highlights Huck's ultimate freedom. His struggle over conscience for Jim was the last tie he had with his previous life, the morals the women tried to instill in him. While society might indeed view Huck as a rebel, Emerson might argue that his actions were actually necessary. In his piece, Self-Reliance, Emerson argues, "Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint stock company, in which the members agree... to surrender the liberty and culture" (Emerson, p.3). One might argue that since Tom was willing to help Huck he was also rejecting society's value. However, since Tom knew beforehand that Jim was already free, this does not seem likely. From this point on, Huck does not care how anyone else will perceive him. He is no longer confined by the rules that govern everyone else.

At the end of the novel Huck is once again given the opportunity to reenter society. Again women, Aunt Polly and Aunt Sally, represent the choice between a civilized life and freedom. Aunt Polly has curtailed his freedom by informing Sally that he is really Huck Finn and not Tom Sawyer. Sally plans to eliminate his freedom all together with her threats to adopt Huck. Again, Huck decides he wants his freedom, "Aunt Sally she's going to adopt me and sivilize me and I can't stand it" (Twain, p.328). So instead he decides to go on another adventure with Tom, this time to the Indian Territory. In The adventures of Huckleberry Finn it is clear that women appear to be the embodiment of the enslavement of society. Huck's resistance to the social norms the women represent and try to make him conform to is a resistance to imprisonment. His time floating down the river with Jim was not just an escape from a difficult situation, but the acquisition of the very freedom all of us long for.

Works Cited:
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Self-Reliance. Taken from the Website:
http://www.emersoncentral.com/selfreliance.htm

Twain, Mark. The adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Ogborn, Jane ed. Cambridge University Press Edition: Cambridge, 1995.


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