To Kill a Mockingbird - How does Harper Lee present Dill in this passage?

How does Harper Lee present Dill in this passage?

Dill is from the Mississippi, he is spending the summer in Maycomb with his aunt Rachael. His family was originally from Maycomb County, and his mother works for a photographer. His father is absent as Dill tells Scout and Jem that, “I haven’t got one.”

Dill told the children that his mother entered him for a beautiful child competition and won five dollars but judging by his appearance, “He wore blue linen shorts that buttoned to his shirt, his hair was snow white and stuck to his head like duck fluff.” Dill was probably lying. Dill holds the children respect, especially Jem’s when he tells them he has seen the picture show Dracula, as the children don’t have a cinema in Maycomb, we see the respect when Jem says, “the show sounded better than the book.”

We see that Dill is emotional and likes to tell stories and make things up, when he would tell a story his eyes would lighten and darken with the pace of the story, and he would laugh out loud when the story was amusing. “Dill was a curiosity.” Initially sums up what Dill is, but it could describe Dill’s ‘curious’ appearance or his ‘curious’ behaviour.

“Thus we came to know Dill as a pocket Merlin, whose head teemed with eccentric plans, strange longings, and quaint fancies.” Dill was called a pocket Merlin because he thought up all their games and plays, and because he was the one who liked to do daring things (such as run up to the Radley house and touch it--to deliver a note to Boo through his window, etc), he was given this title.

What is the importance of Dill in the novel as a whole?

Dill’s real name is Charles Baker Harris; he is nearly seven at the beginning of the book and is a friend of Jem and Scout. When they first meet Jem tells Dill that his name is too long for his body (as Dill is very short). Dill comes to stay each summer with his Aunt Rachel, a neighbor of the Finches.

Dill is set in the book to ‘dare’ Jem to do things. It is...