TOM ROBINSON. Tom's
testimony seems more truthful than either
Bob's or Mayella's, and he claims
to be innocent of all of the charges against him. He did not attack Mayella nor was he
physically capable because of his crippled arm; she hugged and kissed him, and then he
ran away. Perhaps his biggest mistake was admitting that he felt sorry for Mayella--a
thing no black man was supposed to feel toward a white woman in 1930s
Alabama.
MAYELLA EWELL.
Mayella claimed that Tom beat and raped her, and that she was the wounded party, but
Atticus caught her in several discrepancies during her testimony. She seemed confused
much of the time, and she was highly emotional. She cried at the beginning of her
testimony and then seemed "terrified" when Atticus began his questioning. She eventually
stormed from the witness stand calling the men that were present in the
courtroom "stinkin' cowards."
JUDGE JOHN
TAYLOR. Judge Taylor did his best to show his impartiality, but we know
that he didn't seem impressed with Bob Ewell. He looked "benignly" at Bob during a break
in the testimony before warning him to watch his language. Taylor was not fooled by
Ewell's "dogged earnestness," and he watched Ewell carefully, as if he was a "gardenia
in full bloom on the witness stand." He treated Mayella with kid gloves, but recognized
that the woman had the mind of a child. He warned the prosecutor against making
sarcastic remarks about Atticus and generally supported Atticus during his
cross-examination of Mayella and Tom. Reverend Sykes thought Taylor "was mighty
fair-minded... I thought he was leanin' a little to our side." We know that Judge Taylor
wanted Tom to get a truly fair trial or else he wouldn't have asked Atticus to defend
him in the first place.
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