Atticus Finch: Did you rape Mayella Ewell?
Tom Robinson: I did not, sir.
Atticus Finch: Did you harm her in any way?
Tom Robinson: I did not.
Scout: Hey, Miss Dubose.
Miss Dubose: Don't you say hey to me, you ugly girl!
To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
2 quotes
Directed by: Robert Mulligan
Starring: Brock Peters, Frank Overton, Gregory Peck, John Megna, Robert Duvall, Rosemary Murphy
Revealing mistake: When Atticus kills the mad dog, you can see its hind legs being pulled by someone off screen. (00:43:05)
????Trivia: Gregory Peck won his only Oscar for his role as Atticus Finch in this movie.
Question: Why did everybody in the courtroom go silent when Tom said that he did chores for Mayella because he felt sorry for her?
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Answer: At that time in history, Tom, a black man, was considered inferior to Mayella, a white woman. When he says he "felt sorry" for her, it is interpreted as him thinking he is above her or better off in some way. Regardless of his good intentions, for him to think of himself as being in a superior position to help her was considered unacceptable because it was seen as a black person rising above their lower place in society.
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