Aunt Polly cares for her nephew Tom Sawyer and his half-brother Sid after her sister, Tom's mother, dies. She manages their upbringing and household. Her character blends kindness with efforts to impose order and discipline on Tom's unruly ways. She scolds him, thwacks his head with her thimble, and quotes scripture. Yet she struggles to curb his mischief effectively. Underlying her role as the disciplinarian representing the adult world is a mutual affection with Tom. He feels deeper remorse seeing her cry than from physical punishment. Though often exasperated, she admits fondness for his cleverness and hesitates to punish him severely. Her kindness extends beyond family; she openly embraces the motherless Huckleberry Finn during a town celebration, highlighting her compassion for those without support. Subtly, her personality mirrors Tom's own cunning. She tries to outwit him, using leading questions to trap him into admitting he skipped school to swim, revealing a shared cleverness beneath their adversarial dynamic.