How Is Mayella Worthy Of Compassion

The feeling of compassion is for those who cannot escape the circumstances they go through, making those around them feel upset or sorry for them. What defines whether or not someone is fitting for compassion is if they deserved the difficulty of their life and the discomforts they were given. Mayella Ewell, from the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is a nineteen-year-old girl who lives in 1935 and was given the lower hand her entire life, as her family struggles with money, she has no friends, and her father is very cruel. Her father caught her kissing a black man, Tom Robison, and abused her, and in order to protect her innocence and value, they told the sheriff that Robison raped her and took him to court where an attorney named Atticus defends

Admittedly, this is true as she has caused Tom Robison and his entire family to be outcasts and seen as villains in order to protect herself from shame and position in society. However, Mayella is worthy of sympathy from others since she has not been treated fairly by anyone in her life, making others around her that hear her story, feel empathetic for her. Compassion is when others feel sympathetic for people in unfair or bad situations and want to help get rid of the pain it causes them. Empathy goes to those who are in bad places and did not earn the treatment they received, this is why others could feel compassionate for Mayella because she didn’t ask or deserve how her father and the town treats her. Irina Yuagy, a transformation and self-development writer at Mindvalley, explains, “True compassion goes beyond the understanding of another person’s suffering. Empathetic people feel compelled to take action and help relieve the suffering they are confronted with.” Mayella is worthy of benevolence since compassionate people feel bad for those suffering and although what Mayella did was bad, it was mostly influenced by the terrible environment she grew up in. In court, she becomes questioned about her father and her feelings for him. Mayella explains how he’s tolerable sometimes and starts referring to specific times when he was not, then suddenly stops in her tracks. The questioning attorney encourages her to go on, when “Mayella looked at her father, who was sitting with his chair tipped against the railing. He sat up straight and waited for her to answer” (Lee 208). Mayella does not know any better as she grew up only knowing the world threw her father’s eyes. Plus, her father most likely encouraged her to lie in order to protect himself from the consequences of abusing his kids. Allowing for others to feel empathy for Mayella because her father never