How Do the Characters Change Durning the Tom Robinson Trial

How do the characters’ emotions develop during the trial?
Throughout the Tom Robinson trial many of the characters emotions went on a rollercoaster ride; soaring from confident to crashing back down to the reality of defending a black man. The three characters I’m going to write about in much detail are Atticus Finch, Jem Finch and Scout Finch. Although these three are from the same family each one has their own take on the enfolding of the court case and go through a completely different set of emotions.
While Mr Hate Tate is testifying Atticus Finch’s emotions could be perceived as two different interpretations. Seen as he has caused the most revelation during these chapters by not only having to defend Tom but choosing too, many people would have expected him to anxious and worried of the outcome. However Atticus is sat ‘chair skewed to one side, his legs were crossed and one arm was resting on the back of the chair’, his body positioning suggests he is relaxed and confident to support Tom. Throughout Mr Heck Tate’s speech he will be sat trying to pick at every explanation the defendant mentions. This is where another possible emotion could be deduced, ‘there was an edge to Atticus’s voice’. To me this suggests uncertainness linking to anxious and nervousness of the commencing events. His anxiousness could continue until he finds a fault or something which is unexplainable; like why didn’t Mr Heck Tate phone a doctor when he arrived at the Ewells? Or where exactly were her beatings? This will spark Atticus’s interest and give him a tiny slither of hope, bringing his emotions to a more positive level. Once he is able to question Mr Tate he starts to become more confident on what he is arguing and gets engrossed in the trial.
Scout Finch’s emotions are as a child’s would be assumed to be at the beginning by her asking Jem a simple question, reminding the reader of actually how old she is and how hard it is for her to understand. Throughout Mr Heck Tates Speech she will be getting the basic idea of what happened, but still hazy as she was ‘hushed’ into silence before it could be answered.
Jem’s emotions aren’t mentioned as much, probably as he is just sat next to Scout she is more focused on the event yet by quickly telling her to be quiet before the trial it suggests he himself is more on edge than Atticus about the outcome for Tom.
Second large event was when Mr Ewell is called for questioning. Atticus’s emotions roll on from the last witness, but this time he is going to listen to every tiny detail ready to pounce. When the subject of sexual intercourse appears, Mr Finch whispers in Tom’s ear, this could be perceived as being good or bad, however I believe it’s Atticus giving Tom a calming word before the acrimonious events about to follow, showing he’s trying to stay focused and collected. As Atticus’s confidence grows he asks more obscure and snappy questions; ‘how far is it from the ground’, ’did you have a clear view of the room’, ‘How did the room look’, until the point of writing his name on a piece of paper. This confuses Mr Ewell along with the rest of the crowd, however this gives everyone the feeling Atticus knows something everyone else doesn’t, and giving him a cunning edge to what he’s doing. He then goes back to his more taciturn approach of standing waiting for the next witness to be called.
Mr Ewell sparks Scouts memory as she think about where they live, children and what Atticus has told her about them. This suggests she still isn’t full sure of what’s happening as she’d be thinking about what Mr Heck Tate said and raking her mind of facts. You can feel her hatred towards him as she describes him as rude and ‘bantam cock of a man’. She becomes even more confused when her father asks Mr Ewell to write his name. ‘I was becoming nervous’ shows us she had start to understand after both have told there story and was engrossed within it. She had started to worry for Atticus as, ‘never, never, never on cross-examination ask a witness a question you don’t already know the answer to’ describes what she thinks he is doing, increasing her views on the trial.
Jem starts to be more relaxed and confidence in this section; ’Jem grinned and pushed back his hair’. To me this suggests his tension is easing and he’s starting to understand what his father plan was. He realisation of the content of the trial then becomes a reality as he attempts to send Scout and Dill home as this wasn’t fit for her to hear. This shows he’s getting far too into the trial for his annoying little sister to question him on it.
Miss Mayella Ewell is next on the witness stand. As Mayella states she’s scared of Atticus this would interest him in thinking she had something to hide, or at least something she wasn’t allowed to say. As with all the other witnesses Atticus listens to every word and penalizes it. Once Attics starts unfolding more things such as he’s not ‘tollable’ after a drink or ‘what my father does to me doesn’t count’, he starts to slowly work out exactly what’s happening and relax into the situation. His questions become faster and blunter, to the point where he points to Tom and says ‘Is this the man that raped you?!’. All these are example of him wanting to break her and for her to tell the truth. His questioning increasing in pace again till she can’t even answer, proving he is confident in what he is saying throughout her being there. By taking off his glasses he seems to be getting a better look of her, subtlety surveying her body language before ‘raining questions on her’. ‘Atticus sat down wearily’ proves he had put everything he had into his questions and had nothing else to give.
Jem watches in anticipation as he slowly starts to piece together all of the evidence, while still looking in great detail at what Atticus was saying/doing. This is proved when he exclaims to Scout about Tom’s crippled left hand, this then must have triggered everything about the writing on Mr Ewells name and why Atticus had gone over and over which side of her face was beaten. Assuming he did work out this, considering he is a very intelligent boy, he would be pleased at what Atticus had done and rather smug.
Scout now understands what actually happened and is closely examining Mayella herself, supporting this ‘he did not see her involuntary jump, but it seemed to me that see had moved’. Her mind begins to wonder as she says even the babies were still and, I suddenly wondered if they had been smothered at their mothers breasts’, suggesting she was so engrossed in the trial she hadn’t had time to look around her and see what was happening.
The last event is when Tom Robison is called to state his version on the story. By now Atticus will be tired but confident as he knows he’s clearly pointed out how it was highly unlikely it could have been Tom. By asking Tom questions about his past conviction it shows he’s an honest man and about his family shows he has a lot to live for. This will increase Atticus’s confidence till Mr Glimmer starts to rip apart everything he has built up. This will make him nervous and unsure of what the jury will say but he must have none this was coming defending a black man. Once the questioning is back over to Atticus he feels a sense of control and relaxes, once again, back into it. So into the trail he gets told for by Judge Taylor but instead of being cross or angry he simply sits down and starts laughing to himself, proving he’s not afraid of the judge.
As Tom describes the events in dawns on Scout how much of an outcast Miss Mayella is from the rest of Maycomb, she started to feel sorry for her. Mayella had no friends and stayed in all day, Scout starts to sympathise with her before the reality of accusing Tom because she was lonely occurs to her. She then really starts to listen to everything Tom says, ‘Atticus sometimes said that one what to tell whether a witness was lying or telling the truth was to listen rather than watch: I applied his test’. She soon believes he is telling the truth until she says running is the first sign of guilt. This leaves her toying with whether it was him while the rest of the questioning commences. When Atticus gets told off, she is shocked and looks at Jem in comfort, showing she didn’t expect him to go that far with the questioning. Before she can decide if Tom’s innocent she has to take Dill out as he has started to cry, I can imagine her frustration as she won’t be able to see what else is argued.
Seen as Jem has begun to work out exactly what’s happened he enters Tom’s speech rather smuggle. He also knew what Atticus was doing being telling the court about Tom previous convictions when Dill asked. Showing he knows what’s going on. Throughout the questioning he would be seeing if it matched what he thought, which it did, being both pleased with himself and with Atticus for making it clear. However Jem is almost disappointed when Atticus gets told off, ‘I looked at Jem, but Jem shook his head’. This makes him sound like he’s disappointed in what Atticus has said and done. He then focuses back onto the questioning till Dill starts crying, seen as he made Scout take him out it suggests he didn’t want to miss any of the action.
Overall every character has their highs and lows throughout the trial, trying and testing their intelligence. But there’s one question which still remains, is Tom Robison guilty or innocent?