I agree that Mayella Ewell is both disgusting and pathetic in Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, but since the previous answerer covered her pitiable side, I will concentrate on her more disgusting nature.
The fact that she has wrongfully accused Tom Robinson of a capital crime allows her no pity in my eyes. Although Mayella has grown up in a terrible household climate where she has had to serve as a mother figure to her younger siblings, there can be no excuse for the offense she has made against Tom. Tom answers her call for assistance--actually, it is to ease her extreme loneliness--because he "felt sorry for her," a social error that he regrets admitting on the witness stand. In return, she attempts to seduce her unwilling--and happily married--victim; Mayella then concocts a lie against him in order to protect her from her father's further abuse.
"All right. He choked you, then he hit you, then he raped you. That right?"
"It most certainly is... That nigger yonder took advantage of me..."
We also find that she made have had sexual relations with her own father.
"Do you love your father, Miss Mayella?"
"Love him, whatcha mean?"
"I mean, is he good to you, is he easy to get along with?"
"He does tollable, 'cept when..." Mayella looked at her father... he sat up straight and waited for her to answer.
In the process, she insults Atticus and the entire court.
"... if you fine fancy gentlemen don't wanta do nothin' about it, then you're all yellow, stinkin' cowards, the lot of you."
It is a choice that will cost Tom his life and set off further retribution through the hands of her father.
Yes, she is a sad case and a person to be pitied under her earlier circumstances. But, her lack of courage and her racial corruptness prevail, and thereby negates any deserving compassion.
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