Mayella Ewell is considered powerful because she is manipulative and knows what she has to do to get what she wants. She also is not shy about doing anything, no matter what the cost may be or whom it will affect. As far as class goes, she feels she is at rock bottom and has nothing to lose. She has a terrible home life and feels this is her one shot at a better life. She being a white female allows her complete control over any audience, she has because obviously anyone who may see a sad, poor, and defenseless women will automatically feel sympathy for her. She is not by any means high in social class, but since she is white it puts her about black people, in this case specifically, Tom Robinson. The setting of the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” plays a…show more content… They were to be respectful of them and treat them well. This gave Mayella power because she knew how to play the innocent woman's role very well. If she did as much as shed a tear the jury would feel sympathy for her and blame the tears on Tom. Whatever she told them they would believe no matter if Tom denied it or not. Evidence had shown Tom did not have good use of his right arm and Mayella was hit from a right handed attacker. Her father’s dominant hand happens to be his right, however she easily convinced the jury her father was not who hit her. The whole reason they can even tie Tom Robinson into the case at all is because he felt pity for her and wanted to help her with the chores she was doing. She basically set him up for trouble when she attempted to kiss him and her father had seen. When we think of gender we generally assume the female sex to be the weaker sex, but that is not necessarily true, females are typically mentally stronger than most men. Mayella may in some ways appear weak, but mentally she knows what she is doing and proves gender assumptions can turn out to be very