Mayella Ewell Character Analysis Essay

In the book “To Kill A Mockingbird”, there resides a family in Maycomb, where the story takes place, called the Ewells. The head of the family is Bob Ewell, a drunkard who is mostly unemployed, except when he is permitted to hunt out of season. The daughter of the family is Mayella Ewell who has been abused and mistreated by her father and as a result is very lonely and unhappy. Later in the story, Bob Ewell takes a black man named Tom Robinson to court for allegedly “raping and beating” his daughter Mayella. In the very beginning of the trial, Mayella was asked to swear, “that the evidence she gave would be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” (239). Despite the oath, Mayella lied and convicted an innocent man, seduced a married man, and she didn’t see anything wrong with what she has done; because she is a Ewell who does not deserve sympathy.

During the trial, Atticus was defending Tom Robinson while Bob and Mayella Ewell were testifying against Tom. At the start of Mayella’s testimony, Mayella was very clear and specific about what happened, explaining that Tom had hit her multiple times. However,
She has shown that she is truly an Ewell from what she has done and what an Ewell is- an ignorant and racist member of Maycomb without a proper upbringing and education. Without a proper upbringing and education, it leads to ignorance which can in turn become racism. This is exactly what happened with Tom Robinson because Mayella is like a child who has no morals or even an adult with bad morals. And so, many factors like her upbringing and education led to what she did to Tom Robinson. She tried to convict him even though he was the victim, she tried to seduce him when he was a married man and had kids, and lastly felt no sympathy for Tom at the trial and was just worried about her own skin. Someone as selfish and ignorant as Mayella should deserve no sympathy despite her race or