Other important characters

Miss Hilly: friend of Miss Skeeter and Miss Leefolt who attended Ole Miss but left to get married. She was in a long term relationship with a man named Mr Johnny but he left her for a woman named Miss Celia from a country town called Sugar Ditch. Miss Hilly is the main antagonist of the novel, being that she is extremely racist against blacks and is willing to lie and play dirty in order to get what she wants.

Miss Leefolt: friend of Miss Skeeter and Miss Hilly. She too attended Ole Miss but left in order to marry and have children. She constantly wants to impress people around her and is always trying to be regarded highly in other peoples eyes. She has a daughter named Mae Mobley, but Miss Leefolt does not give her the right motherly affection her child needs, especially since Mae is chubby and not cute. Later in the novel she will have a son, whom she treats better than her daughter. Aibileen, her maid, takes care of her children.

Constantine: Miss Skeeter's maid who took care of her and her brother when they were children. Constantine helps Eugenia deal with her differences because she too is a tall woman and makes sure Skeeter feels like she is important too. Constantine is mixed and has light brown eyes and dark skin. She has a daughter that comes out very pale, and Constantine ultimately gives her up to be adopted in the north.

Mrs. Phelan: Miss Skeeter's mother who struggles with the beginning stages of cancer. She wants nothing more than for her daughter to dress nicely and find a husband to marry and take care of her. She often argues with her daughter Skeeter, but the two love each other nevertheless.

Stuart Whitworth: Miss Skeeter's love interest and the son of the senator of Mississippi. The two's relationship becomes very complicated because he still has feelings for his old girlfriend who cheated on him, and he ultimately leaves Skeeter for it. He later comes back to be with her again, but Skeeter isn't so willing to rekindle the old flame. They later get back together and he helps her deal with her mother dying of cancer, and eventually proposes. But when he realizes that he doesn't know Eugenia as well as he thought, he calls off the engagement.

Miss Celia: a ditzy blonde woman who is married to Mr. Johnny. She wants nothing more but to be able to provide for Johnny and get pregnant, but she has many complications. She asks for help from Minny and hires her as a maid while she is pregnant. After having her fourth miscarriage, Miss Celia becomes extremely depressed and is only able to get better with the help of Minny. Miss Hilly and all of her friends are mean to Miss Celia because she married Mr. Johnny, and it makes it very hard for Celia to make friends. By the end of the novel Miss Celia accepts that Miss Hilly is a terrible person and goes on living her life happily with Mr. Johnny.