To Kill A Mockingbird - Chapters 18-19 Summary Mayella testifies next, a
reasonably clean nineteen-year- old girl who is obviously terrified. She says
that she called Tom Robinson inside the fence that evening and offered him a
nickel to break up a dresser for her, and that once he got inside the house he
grabbed her and took advantage of her. In Atticus' cross-examination, Mayella
reveals that she has seven siblings to care for, a drunken father, and no
friends. Then Atticus examines her testimony and asks why she didn't put up a
better fight, why her screams didn't bring the other children running, and--most
importantly--how Tom Robinson managed the crime with a useless left hand, torn
apart by a cotton gin when he was a boy. Atticus begs her to admit that there
was no rape, that her father beat her. She shouts at him and calls the courtroom
cowards if they don't convict Tom Robinson, and then bursts into tears refusing
to answer any more questions. In the recess that follows, Mr. Underwood notices
the children up in the balcony, but Jem tells Scout that the newspaper editor
won't tell Atticus-- although he might include it in the social section of the
newspaper. The prosecution rests, and Atticus calls only one witness--Tom
Robinson. Tom testifies that he always passed the Ewell house on the way to
work, and that Mayella often asked him to do chores for her. On the evening in
question, she asked him to come inside the house and fix a door. When he got
inside, however, there was nothing wrong with the door, and he noticed that the
other children were gone. Mayella told him that she had saved her money and sent
them all to buy ice cream, and then she asked him to lift a box down from a
dresser. When he climbed up on a chair, she grabbed his legs, scaring him so
much that he jumped down. Then she hugged him around the waist, and asked him to
kiss her. As she struggled, her father appeared at the window, calling Mayella a
whore and threatening to kill her, and then Tom fled.
Link Deas, Tom's white employer, stands up and tells everyone that in eight
years of work, he has never had any trouble from Tom. Judge Taylorexpels him
furiously from the courtroom for interrupting; then Mr. Gilmer gets up and
cross-examines Tom. The prosecutor points out that the defendant was once
arrested for disorderly conduct, and gets Tom to admit that he has the strength,
even with one hand, to hold a woman down and rape her. Then he begins to badger
the witness, asking about his motives for always helping Mayella with her
chores, and getting him to admit that I felt right sorry for her. That doesn't
go over well in the courtroom-- black people are not supposed to feel sorry for
a white person. Mr. Gilmer goes over Mayella's testimony, accusing Tom of lying
about everything. Dill begins to cry and Scout takes him out of the courtroom.
Commentary If Bob Ewell is villainous, his daughter is pitiable, and their
miserable existence almost allows her to join the novel's parade of innocent
victims--she, too, is (up to a point) a kind of mockingbird. Lee's presentation
of Mayella emphasizes her role as victim--her father beats her and possibly
molests her, while she takes care of the children and so lacks kind treatment
that when Atticus calls her Miss Mayella,she accuses him of making fun of her.
She has no friends, and Scout seems justified in thinking that she must have
been the loneliest person in the world. Even Atticus pities her. Mayella's
victimization is marred by her attempt to become a victimizer, to destroy Tom
Robinson in order to cover her shame. We can have no real sympathy for Mayella
Ewell--whatever her sufferings, she inflicts worse cruelty on others. Pity must
be reserved for Tom Robinson, whose honesty and goodness render him supremely
moral. Unlike the Ewells, he is hardworking, honest, and has enough compassion
to make the fatal mistake of feeling sorry for Mayella Ewell, a white girl. His
story is clearly the true version of events: the story leaves no room for doubt,
a detail that a number of critics find unconvincing. But equally clearly he will
be a martyr. We are spared much of Mr. Gilmer's cross-examination when Dill's
crying takes Scout out of the courtroom (he is still a child, who responds to
wickedness with tears), but the small sample that Scout hears is enough. To the
racist mind, Tom (called boy by the prosecutor) must be lying, must be violent,
must lust after white women--because he is black.
