What is the question Atticus asks that makes Mayella involuntarily jump?

Atticus questions Mayella, but first asks her some background questions to show the jury what kind of family she comes from. At first, Mayella takes exception to Atticus calling her "Miss Mayella," and the judge has to explain that Atticus is imply being polite. He treats everyone on the stand with the same respect, no matter who they are or where they come from. In her cross-examination, we learn Mayella is nineteen and her family receives relief checks, but there isn't enough food to go around; her father seems to be a drunkard. Mayella went to school for a few years but none of her eight siblings go, and their mother is dead. Mayella doesn't seem to have any friends. Atticus asks if Mr. Ewell is a loving father, and with hesitation, Mayella says that he is "tolerable" except when he has been drinking. However, she insists that he never lays a hand on her or beats her. Atticus asks if this was the first time Tom Robinson has been invited into her house, and she jumps a little before she says that it was the first time. He asks Mayella if she remembers being beaten in the face, and Mayella first says no, but then yes. Atticus asks her to identify the man who raped her, and Mayella points to Tom, who Atticus asks to stand. Everyone in the courtroom notices that Tom's left arm is twelve inches shorter than his right, due to an accident in his youth when the arm got stuck a cotton gin. Atticus asks for more details about the struggle, then he asks many questions which Mayella doesn't answer: Why didn't the other children hear her screaming? Where were they? Why didn't they come running? Did she start screaming when she saw her father in the window? Did she get beaten up by her father, not Tom Robinson?

Mayella just says that she was taken advantage of, and if the upper class gentlemen won't prosecute Tom, they are cowards. Atticus appears to have found his exchange with the young woman distasteful. The court rests for ten minutes, but no one leaves the courthouse.

Mayella's reaction and failure to answer the final question leaves her testimony under scrutiny.

What is the question Atticus asks that makes her involuntarily jump?

Why do you think Mayella jumped a little when Atticus asked her if the night of November 21st was the first time she'd asked Tom Robinson to come inside the fence? She was shocked to be asked such a question. She felt like she had been caught doing something she shouldn't be doing.

What does Mayella answer when Atticus asks if she remembers Tom beating her about the face?

Then Atticus asks if she remembers if Tom hit her face, because in her previous answer she just claimed he choked her. Mayella says this in reply: "No, I don't recollect if he hit me. I mean, yes I do, he hit me."

What is the question that Atticus asks her repeatedly that gets no response?

"Who beat you up? Tom Robinson or your father?" What is the last question Atticus asks Mayella? Mayella does not answer Atticus, and her face was "a mixture of terror and fury." After a few moments, she angrily explodes, reiterating her charge against Tom Robinson.

Why does Atticus begin by asking Mayella a lot of questions about herself?

Answers 1. Atticus knows the truth and he knows Mayella's tragic background. He wants the court to see just how manipulated she is by her father.