"Miss Dubose was the meanest old woman who ever lived." (P39) Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose lived two doors up the street from the Finches. She was a morphine addict, who was visibly affected by the drug. In the eyes of the young Scout, Miss Dubose was 'Plain Hell'. In the novel she was either in bed or in her wheelchair. However, she made life difficult for Scout and Jem when they pass her house.

"She was horrible. Her face was the colour of a dirty pillowcase, and the corners of her mouth glistened with wet, which inched like a glacier down the deep grooves enclosing her chin. Old - age liver spots dotted her cheeks and her pale eyes had black pinpoint pupils. Her hands were knobby, and the cuticles were grown up over her fingernails. Her bottom plate was not in, and her upper lip protruded;" (P118)

Scout and Jem would rather walk a mile longer to town, just to avoid her house. Numerous occasions when encountering Mrs. Dubose, she would say things that would offend the young Finches. 'Countless evenings, Atticus would find Jem furious at something Mrs. Dubose had said when we went by'. (P111)

However Mrs. Dubose probably does not intend to offend Scout and Jem. She suffers from an unknown illness, and takes morphine to ease the pain. We later see that there is a lighter side in Mrs. Dubose when she sends Jem a box with the biggest of her Camellias. The drug however somehow makes her irritated.

At one stage of the novel when Jem could not take her abuse, he destroys every Camellia bush that belonged to Mrs. Dubose. From then on, we see some truth in Mrs. Dubose. For his punishment, Jem has to read Ivanhoe to her. At this stage, she decides to take herself off her morphine addiction. From the eyes of Scout "she was lying under a pile of quilts and looked almost friendly".

It was from Jem's punishment that Scout and he, realised why Mrs. Dubose was so cranky. "After sometime, her head moved from side to side. From time to time she would open her mouth wide and …Cords of saliva would collect on her lips." Atticus later explains that Mrs. Dubose was ill, and did not "look nice sometimes" (P119)

However it is her death that led to Jem and Scout' s understanding of courage. Mrs. Dubose was a morphine addict; she took it as a painkiller for years. "She was going to leave this world beholden to nothing and nobody" (P123) was Atticus' suggestion as to why Mrs. Dubose died without the aid of painkillers.