Tess of the D'Urbervilles

As a female, she is vulnerable to rape and has little power to stop the rape by her father. The people of Maycomb believe women are helpless, fragile, and only fit to be housewives. Being a woman makes Mayella appear weak and easy to take advantage of. However, she ultimately uses what appears to be a weakness to her benefit in making the case against Tom and getting away from her father.

Only a few people in Maycomb notice how hard Mayella works and feel sympathy for her, including Tom Robinson. While giving his testimony, Tom says, “Looked like she didn’t have nobody to help her...I felt right sorry for her, she seemed to try more than the rest of ‘em” (Lee 264). Explanation. When her mother died, Mayella had to turn her whole life around. Despite the fact that she is only nineteen years old, Mayella cannot go to school, and she has no real friends. Scout narrates Mayella’s background story, saying, “there was a lady who came around sometimes and asked Mayella why she didn’t stay in school- she wrote down the answer: with two members of the family reading and writing , there was no need for the rest of them to learn- Papa needed them at home” (Lee 245). Explanation. There is one more factor in Mayella’s life that causes her to deserve the compassion of

This displays Tess' integrity and strong nature to the reader, and gives us (the readers) another reason to like Tess. Another way in which Hardy shows Tess' goodness and purity (and resultantly winning the affection and sympathy of the readers) is by portraying Tess as 'a maiden of the land' (Chapter XXI)a woman who is wholly at one with nature. Tess is always seen to be comfortable outdoors: 'Every contour of the surrounding hills was as well loved and as personal as that of her

Do you know what it feels like to be powerless? A white nineteen year old woman named Mayella Ewell falsely accuses a black man of raping her in Maycomb, Alabama, in the 1930’s, and rendering her powerless comes from being recessive in her social class, race, and gender. She accuses Tom Robinson of rape in hopes of escaping her abusive father, and a chance to have a better life. Although Mayella is white, African Americans and other white people shun her throughout To Kill a Mockingbird. Mayella is a very young woman that does not own anything nice, nor clean, besides geranium flowers. During the 1930’s, men were the dominant sex, as a female, Mayella has to obey her father, Bob Ewell. As a result, Mayella is mistreated and abused.

Even though that she lied Mayella still one the case and everybody knew that Tom Robinson was innocent and the curse of the Maycomb County lives. Adversity takes many shapes and it only takes one mistake to mess it up. Mayella Ewell is a round character because she knows that Tom Robinson is innocent but she keeps insisting that she is right and lying to their face about it

The Ewells live in horrid conditions. The are spiteful, disgusting, and vile human beings. The Ewells are poor white trash. Maycomb County looks down on the Ewells. Despite the situation the Ewells are in, it is no excuse for the actions they take. Mayella may have been extremely lonely and looking for companionship in Tom Robinson, however, this does not excuse the fact that she cause the death of a man, Robinson. Mayelle lied time and time again about what really happened the night of her accused rape. Maybe Mayella did it her father, Bob, may have been sexually and physically abusing her, and he may have hurt her if she told the truth.During Mayella’s testimony she says, "He does tollable, 'cept when--" "... Except when he's drinking?" asked Atticus so gently that Mayella nodded. (Lee 18. 209). Or, or maybe she didn’t want to admit that she broke one of Maycomb’s unspoken laws: kissing a colored man. Yes, any of these reasons can scare a person into concealing the truth. Mayella displays a great amount of self-preservation: the protection of oneself from harm or death, especially regarded as a basic instinct in human beings and

Ratched: Billy, this girl could not have pulled you in here forcible. Understand, I would like to believe something else – for your poor mother’s sake.

Mayella does not have power involving social class, The Ewells are a poor family, and her father, Bob Ewell, is looked down upon by the town. During Tom Robinson’s trial, Bob Ewell thought of himself as “a hero, but all he got for his pain was… okay we’ll convict this Negro, but get back to your dump” (Lee

When the Ewell’s propose the accusation that Tom raped Mayella, the Ewell’s are told, “okay, we’ll convict this Negro, but get back to your dump.” (Document A). That statement demonstrates that when Mayella accused Tom, the town held a trial against him because of her race but after the trial was over they wanted nothing to do with her because she was low class. Mayella’s power of race was not enough to defeat her lack of power within her class. Women in Mayella’s time period were not respected the way they are now and, “the young miss of to-day is certainly more thrilled with life and its possibilities than her sister of two to three decades ago ever was.”

Secondly, Mayella is the daughter of a violent man, Bob Ewell, who does not treat her with the respect that a father would treat his daughter with. He abuses her and hits her and this has created a big fear inside Mayella. This is illustrated when Tom is describing the scene when Bob Ewell comes into the room when Mayella is against Tom and he hears him threaten Mayella saying “you god-damn whore, I’ll kill ya”. In the court it is also proved that Bob Ewell is the one who hit Mayella Ewell, not Tom Robinson. This is the main reason that Mayella puts the blame on Tom as she is terrified of the thought of being beaten by her father once again. Bob Ewell also sexually abuses Mayella which was found out during Tom Robinson’s trial. When Tom gives his testimony, he states that Mayella says “she never kissed a grown man before...she says what her papa do to her don’t count”. Based on this statement, it is suggested that Mayella has been sexually abused by her father. This must have had a great impact on Mayella, and caused her to be mentally as well as physically scarred. Therefore, Mayella Ewell is a victim of abuse from her father and deserves our sympathy for all the horrid things she has gone through.

In the undisputed classic novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee elucidates the racial injustice and social inequality in the sleepy town of Maycomb, Alabama. The Ewells are premeditated to be the despicable family, “white trash,” divided by living “behind the dump” not suitable to be a member of the white or the black community. Mayella Ewell breaches a “rigid and time-honored code” of society, by kissing a black male to fulfill her need of feeling cherished. To avoid greater disgrace in society, the Ewells plea Tom Robinson to be a rapist, and he is later convicted and sent to life in prison. Red geraniums growing on the sidelines of the filthy yard reveal Mayella’s desire for beauty. Mayella contends to class hierarchies and gender roles being an Ewell. Lee portrays Mayella struggling to meet the guidelines of

Her father was abusive, and she had no one to talk to. Every day, she would do all the work around the house, and take care of the children, with no help. Tom was most likely the only person to ever show her kindness and politeness, the only one to ever stop to help her and talk to her. The black people wouldn’t have anything to do with the Ewells because they were white, and the white people wouldn’t have anything to do with them because they lived like pigs, among the blacks. The prejudices other people held towards them was what caused them to act the way they did in the first place. We see that although what Mayella was doing was horrible, she had reasons to do it. She is a victim of social pressures, of prejudice, and the effects these things have on her family.

There are many injustices with the main women characters within the book. Each one of them have endure something horrific in their lives and have they each have to deal with each other’s mishaps. Caridad life was full of ups and downs, her husband cheated on her and that lead to a lot of misery in her life. She engaged in random sexual activities with all sorts of men and used drugs and alcohol. I feel that the injustice for her story was the fact that her ex-husband was the one who did something awful, yet she was the one who suffered. La Loca goes through the horror of dying, and then coming back to life at her very own funeral. This has to be very traumatizing for her as well as her family. She later on dies with aids, I think that was

     This guilt convinces Tess that she must now travel to the D'Urbervilles' home and claim kin with them.  Upon meeting Alec, she is shy and ashamed of her purpose.  He tries to feed her a strawberry by holding it up to her mouth.  She blocks him, exclaiming, "No-no!  I would rather take it in my own hand."  But he persists and she relents.  Many advances by Alec are blocked in this way, by both her verbal and physical cues-"I am angry with you sometimes!"  she says, after she tires of his advances.  He wears her down or manipulates her using her family's financial state afamily's financial state as a tool.  Finally, he has Tess worn down to silence.  At the night of her rape, she is exhausted from her fight with the villagers and the long ride out into The Chase.  At first, the verbal exchanges between the two are plentiful, but Tess becomes cold and tired and therefore quiet and Alec is able to overtake her body and her speech.

Her problems start with her “cousin” Alec, who after seeing Tess’s beauty, tries to cohort her having sex, which she refuses. After she continued resistance for three months, Alec claims that she has “trifled with [his] feelings, eluded [him], and snubbed [him]” (Hardy 1891, p. 102) in regards to his advances. In the story, however, Tess has never accepted his advances, she has continued to tell him, no, but she always ends up apologising or it (which he gets angry from). Alec believes that she owes him something and Tess, in turn, feels bad for not accepting this because it makes him feel “hurt.” It is this set by society that the woman is meant to succumb to a man. Even when she marries when Tess tells her husband Angel that she had relations (though it is her being raped by Alec) in response to Angel telling her about his relations. She felt relieved saying to him, “now YOU can forgive ME!” (p. 331), which he denies her; Angel does not forgive her as she has forgiven him. She is held to a double standard because she is a woman. The males in her life dictate who she is and where her story goes; the men are free, but Tess is held in place. They are dominating in her society, a masculine trait, and one that leads to Tess killing