question, "You are positive that he took full advantage of you?" by answering with a contorted face, "He done what he was after."

When Atticus questions her, Mayella tells him that she will not answer any of his questions if he continues to "make fun" of her. Judge Taylor interjects, explaining that Mr. Finch is not making fun of her. "What's the matter with you?" he asks. She replies that as long as Mr. Finch keeps calling her "ma'am and saying 'Miss Mayella,'" which she refers to as his "sass," she will not answer. 

At this point, Judge Taylor must clarify to her that Mr. Finch is simply being polite, and Atticus continues by asking Mayella if she remembers Tom beating her face, but he must repeat his question twice before she answers:

No, I don't recollect if he hit me. I mean yes I do, he hit me."
"Was your last sentence your answer?" [Atticus asks.]
"Huh? Yes, he hit--I just don't remember, I just don't remember. . . it all happened so quick."

Suddenly, she starts to cry, and when Atticus asks her how Tom raped her, she replies that she does not know because "it all happened so fast." As Atticus questions her further about what she has already said, Mayella finally comprehends the direction of his questions about what has happened to her face. After having had Tom stand up and have her identify him, Atticus also intends for everyone to see Tom's withered right arm. Atticus then asks her, "He [Tom] blacked your left eye with his right fist?" and Mayella replies, "I ducked and it--it glanced, that what it did."
After Atticus asks why she did not scream so that her siblings would come running, Mayella makes no answer, nor does she answer when Atticus asks, "Who beat you up? Was it Tom Robinson or your father?"

Atticus turns from Mayella, whose face reflects her "terror and fury." She lashes out, insisting that she was taken advantage of and if the "fine gentlemen don't want to do nothin' about it, then you're all yellow stinkin' cowards."

From this point on, Mayella refuses to speak. When she steps down, Mayella glares at Atticus as she walks past the table where he sits.

Mayella Ewell has been coached by her father.  She tells the court that she often called Tom over from the path in front of her house to help her do something as he was on his way home from work.  On the day in question, she says that Tom came in for "payment" after the work he had done was finished.  She screamed as he beat her and attempted to collect his "payment" for his work.  He was violent and took advantage of her, and in the midst of it all, her father heard her scream and came running.  Tom escaped but not until after she was thoroughly beaten all on the right side of her body.

It is proven later through Mr. Ewell's and Tom's testimonies that Mayella is lying since Tom's left arm is disabled.  The Ewells' confidence lies completely in the fact that they are white and Tom is black.  They expect to win simply because of their skin color.

Tom's testimony differs greatly from that of Mayella Ewell's, and most readers will find it far more believable. While Mayella's version of the events were less specific and even contradictory, Tom's narrative is straightforward, and Scout

... found myself believing in him in spite of his protesting too much. He seemed to be a respectable Negro...

According to Tom, Mayella summoned him one day while he was walking by her house. He had helped Mayella "lots of times" before (Mayella first claimed that she had never asked Tom "inside the fence" before, but then admitted that "I mighta"). When he went up to her, Mayella told Tom that she needed some work done inside the house: A door was falling off its hinges. When Tom checked the door, the hinges were okay, and she slammed the door behind him. She told him she had sent the children away to buy ice cream: They were alone inside the house. When Tom told her he was going to leave, she asked him to stand on a chair and get a "box down from on top of the chiffarobe." When Tom did this, Mayella

"... grabbed me round th' legs, Mr. Finch. She scared me so bad I hopped down and turned the chair over--..."

When Tom got down off of the chair, Mayella

"... sorta jumped on me."
     "Jumped on you? Violently?"
     "No suh, she--she hugged me. She hugged me round the waist."

Then, according to Tom, Mayella kissed him on the side of the face. She said she had never kissed a man before

"... an' she might as well kiss a nigger. She says what her papa do to her don't count. She says, 'Kiss me back, nigger.' I say Miss Mayella lemme outta here..."

But Mayella stood in his way, and Tom knew better than to push--or even touch--a white woman. When he asked Mayella to "lemme pass," Bob Ewell showed up. It was then that Tom beat a hasty retreat, hearing Bob yell at Mayella,

"... you goddam whore, I'll kill ya."

What really happened that fateful night is that Mayella Ewell was lonely, and Tom Robinson was young, strong and attractive.  She wanted him to kiss her, because she was falling in love with him.  Her father caught them, and she made up the story about being raped to avoid her father’s wrath.

Mayella Ewell was nineteen years old and very isolated.  Her mother was dead, leaving her alone on the outskirts of town by the dump with a lot of children to look after.

Atticus was quietly building up before the jury a picture of the Ewells' home life. (ch 18)

Bob Ewell testifies that he was coming home and heard Mayella scream, and found Tom Robinson raping her.  He stopped Robinson and he ran away.  Yet by his own testimony he never called for a doctor.  He called the police.

Atticus establishes that it was the right side of Mayella’s face that was beaten up.  Since we know that Ewell is a violent man, and we know that Tom Robinson is crippled, it is more likely that Bob Ewell found her kissing Tom Robinson and hit her for it.

It makes more sense to take Tom Robinson’s word over Mayella’s, because she and her father are clearly lying.  Nothing they say is backed up by the facts.

"She reached up an' kissed me 'side of th' face. She says she never kissed a grown man before an' she might as well kiss [me]. (ch 19)

Robinson admits that he felt sorry for her, and that’s why he kept coming to help her.  Feeling sorry for her is what got him convicted, because it was not appropriate for a black man to feel sorry for a white woman, even one as pitiful as Mayella.