Mrs. Dubose's Withdrawal Fits

Mrs. Dubose's withdrawal fits are the physical and psychological manifestations of her deliberate, agonizing effort to break free from a morphine addiction before her death, a process that becomes the novel's central illustration of true courage. The fits, which Jem and Scout initially mistake for a terrifying illness, are in fact the violent symptoms of a woman choosing to die "beholden to nothing and nobody," a decision that redefines bravery not as a man with a gun but as the will to fight a losing battle to the very end.

Identity and Background

Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose is a very old, ill woman who lives alone with her Negro attendant, Jessie, two doors up from the Finch family. She spends most of each day in bed and the rest in a wheelchair, and it is rumored she keeps a Confederate pistol concealed among her shawls. Her house carries an oppressive odor of coal-oil lamps and unbleached domestic sheets, and her appearance is described as horrible: her face is the color of a dirty pillowcase, her mouth glistens with wet that inches like a glacier down deep grooves enclosing her chin, and her hands are knobby with cuticles grown over her fingernails. She is a morphine addict, having taken the drug as a painkiller for years on a doctor's prescription. When Atticus Finch reveals this to Jem after her death, he explains that she could have spent the rest of her life on morphine and died without much agony, but she was "too contrary" to accept that fate.

The Fits and Their Manifestation

The withdrawal fits manifest as a terrifying physical ordeal. During one of Jem's reading sessions, Scout observes Mrs. Dubose lying on her back with quilts up to her chin, her head moving slowly from side to side. She opens her mouth wide, and her tongue undulates faintly; cords of saliva collect on her lips, which she draws in before opening her mouth again. Her mouth seems to have a private existence, working separate and apart from the rest of her, out and in "like a clam hole at low tide," occasionally making a "Pt" sound like some viscous substance coming to a boil. Jem describes her as having "fits or somethin'" and notes that she "spits a lot." Atticus later explains that during most of the time Jem was reading to her, he doubts she heard a word he said, as her whole mind and body were concentrated on the alarm clock that marked the duration of her endurance.

The Reading Punishment and the Alarm Clock

Jem's punishment for destroying Mrs. Dubose's camellia bushes is to read to her aloud for two hours every afternoon after school and on Saturdays for a month. The sessions follow a pattern: Mrs. Dubose begins by hounding Jem on her favorite subjects—her camellias and Atticus's "nigger-loving" propensities—then grows increasingly silent and goes away from them. The alarm clock, a steel clock standing on three tiny legs beside her bed, is the signal for their release. Over time, the clock goes off a few minutes later each day, and Mrs. Dubose is well into one of her fits by the time it sounds. Atticus later reveals that the alarm clock was the tool of her self-discipline: she was using the reading sessions as a distraction to wean herself off morphine, and the lengthening intervals were her way of proving she could endure longer without the drug. After the month is up, Atticus insists on one more week, and the alarm clock ceases to sound; Mrs. Dubose releases them with a simple "That'll do."

Revelation and Meaning

After Mrs. Dubose's death, Atticus brings Jem a candy box containing a white, waxy, perfect Snow-on-the-Mountain camellia. He explains that Mrs. Dubose was a morphine addict who had resolved to break herself of the habit before she died. The fits Jem witnessed were her withdrawal symptoms. Atticus tells Jem that he wanted him to see what real courage is: "It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her." She died free of her addiction, conscious to the last and still cantankerous, disapproving heartily of Atticus's doings. Jem, initially furious, throws the candy box in the fire but keeps the camellia, fingering its wide petals as Atticus reads the paper.

Thematic Significance

Mrs. Dubose's withdrawal fits serve as the novel's most explicit definition of courage, contrasting sharply with the physical bravery of shooting a mad dog or facing down a mob. Her struggle is a private, internal war fought against her own body and addiction, with no audience and no guarantee of victory. Atticus's insistence that Jem read to her is a deliberate lesson: he wants his son to understand that true moral courage is not about winning but about refusing to surrender, even when defeat is certain. Mrs. Dubose's fits, terrifying as they are, become the physical evidence of a woman's unconquerable will, and her gift of the camellia—a flower from the very bushes Jem destroyed—is her way of acknowledging that he, too, has learned something about the nature of real bravery.