- Published: November 15, 2021
- Updated: November 15, 2021
- University / College: SOAS University of London
- Language: English
- Downloads: 13
There comes a time when desperate situations call for desperate measures. A good example is when an older woman tries to seduce a younger boy to get some sexual or physical pleasures from them since from the look of things; she is unlikeable by men within her age bracket this is basically because they are antisocial and do not conform to the ways of the society. This type of women is known as Mrs.
Robinson. The title came about in literature and art as it was adopted from the movie, the graduate whereby the character, Mrs. Robinson, earlier known as Mrs. Roosevelt did all she could to help others but she was never concerned about herself. It reaches a point where she commits a crime against morality by trying to seduce a younger man than she. She is seen to be an outcast by the society. She starts by making moves that would attract some attention and in this case it was trying to help others.
In the book, to kill a mockingbird the Mrs. Robinson must have been Mayella Violet Ewell. She is a daughter of a civil servant in Maycomb y the name Bob Ewell. Unfortunately, in a society where most people are peasants, civil servants assume high status and they feel that they own the earth and start spending the little money they get very badly. They turn to being cons and drunkards. Bob, due to his pride in the status in the society, becomes a drunkard. He uses all the money that he earns from the government on alcohol and is left to hunt to fend for his family of 8 children. This subjects the family to abject poverty and is alienated from the community. He also rings up his daughter, Mayella as an introvert who does not know how to socialize and does not have friends neither does she conform to the rules of the society since she is presented as not being part of it. Due to Bob’s behavior and actions, no one can trust them with anything. The family is also afraid of interacting with the society as they cannot really e accommodated due to their status. Their home is in a mess and no one seems to like it or admire it for it looks so pathetic.
Ms. Mayella then decides to at least make the homestead somehow attractive by growing red geraniums around the compound so that they can attract some few children to their lonely compound that never had visitors or neighbors stopping by. This is in a bid to have some beauty in life and to have some little social interaction in her life now that nobody wanted to be associated with her due to her family’s poor state and her father’s ruthlessness.
This bore fruit as children started passing by and even play around. But still Ms. Mayella is not satisfied with this. She feels she needs to do more than that and at least get closer to a boy even though he might be younger than her. This desperation makes her to seduce Tom Robinson, a small African boy who is among the little children who come to play around at her now somehow attractive home. Ewell does not know how to relate with people at all as she has always been indoors for shame and esteem issues. She did not mind taking advantage of anyone she could easily lure. Her victim was Tom Robinson.
One day, she saves up some nickels and sends all other children who were playing around to buy some ice cream and she is left with Tom, who she seduces. Unfortunately, her father sees all these from a window and gets very furious. When she returns home she is heavily punished and beaten up. The father frames Tom to the Sherriff who happened to be his friend and Tom gets arrested. Bob accuses Tom on claims that he had raped his daughter, something that was all cooked up and was practically impossible.
However, due to the father’s influence in the society, even though he was not social and the society never had some trust in the family, they still went ahead to defend him at the expense of the poor innocent boy. Tom’s left arm was disabled and could not actually harm Mrs. Robinson on the right of her face as it Bob tried to prove. Despite all these Tom is arrested and charged in court whereby Mrs. Robinson’, having been so naive and antisocial never knew what was right and what was wrong and ended up in the complainant’s side against Tom. She knew very well she was guilty. Eventually Tom is helped to win the case by Atticus. Atticus is shocked to find out that Mayella Ewell, does not even have any friends and does not actually know what a friend means.
From the above explanations, Mayella Ewell is seen as the Mrs. Robinson in the story having seduced a small naive boy and then framing the whole story to present that it was Tom that assaulted her yet it is clear that it was his father. His father loses the case and results to killing everyone who was against him and his family since they were proving that he was evil, which he actually was.