When Atticus shoots the mad dog, he is in complete control
of the situation. The dog has no chance against a marksman with a gun. Mrs. Dubose,
however, is like a person fighting her battle with an unloaded gun. She has no chance of
living a longer life, so she picks a slightly different battle that she can win:
overcoming her addiction to morphine before she dies. Atticus points out that real
courage is
"when you know you're licked before you begin but
you begin anyway and you see it through no matter
what."
In Atticus' view, it
took no courage to kill a defenseless dog. However, Mrs. Dubose showed real courage by
taking seeing through her battle to the end.
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