History Characters / ToKillAMockingbird

* BadassBaritone: He's a BadassPacifist with a noticeably deep and composed voice to boot, courtesy of Creator/GregoryPeck.

* MonsterFangirl: She imagines Boo Radley as some kind of horror monster, but finds it exciting.

* StrongFamilyResemblance: Played with. Scout notes that Jem looks nothing like Atticus, more closely resembling their mother. However, the two have very similar expressions, such as they way they put their hands on their hips when being defiant.
* WideEyedIdealist: His belief in justice and the court system surpasses even Atticus's, and throughout the trial he is confident that Atticus will win. Needless to say, when the guilty verdict comes back, he's ''crushed''.

* DoubleConsciousness: When Scout notices that she acts and talks different when among Black people than she does in the Finch home, Calpurnia points out that she would feel out of place if she didn't match the people around her.

* ConfirmedBachelor: Unlike Atticus, he's still well into middle age without having ever married. Part of the reason is because he dreads having children of his own.

* CommonalityConnection: With Scout. They develop a fast friendship based on their mutual love of outdoors and dislike of traditionally "girly" things. She's also the one female Scout can spend time with when Jem and Dill lose interest in playing with her.

* HiddenDepths: Unlike his father, he won't just blow off attempts to talk to him. He also personally pitches in to save Miss Maudie's house from the fire and lets Scout and Jem take refuge in his yard. And it's worth noting that he wasn't living at home when his father died, and still took it upon himself to come look after Boo. He's not the nicest person in the world, but there's definitely more going on beneath the surface.

* AmbiguousSituation: For what specific reason has has he been hidden away for so many years? What exactly is he thinking? What does he want beyond a possible friendship with Jem and Scout? Readers can only speculate as to the answers to these questions and more because we're never given much to go on.

* MaddenIntoMisanthropy: While reeling from Robinson's unfair conviction, Scout theorizes that Boo is this, hiding himself from a world he finds too abhorrent to live in.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Throughout the novel. The reason that he got Mayella to accuse Tom of rape is because she had the gall to try to make nice with a black man, and he tries to murder Jem and Scout because Atticus exposed his involvement in the above thing and embarrassed him.

* EvilIsPetty: After the trial, he harasses Tom Robinson's wife and and tries to kill Jem and Scout, all because he didn't like being embarrassed in court.

* HateSink: Bob Ewell is a redneck who spends so much of his welfare money on booze that the sheriff allows his family to illegally hunt so his children do not starve. After one of his daughters, whom he sexually abuses, befriends a local black man, Bob beats her senseless and frames her friend for it. While the man is convicted because the jury is racist, his lawyer makes a fool of Bob in the courtroom, so [[spoiler:Bob tries to murder his children]].

* PsychopathicManchild: Ewell is, bluntly put, a grown up schoolyard bully who picks on people weaker than him. He even acts like a [[TantrumThrowing petulant child during Tom Robinson's trial]].

* VillainousIncest: It is implied that [[spoiler: he sexually abuses his oldest daughter, Mayella]], though it is never stated outright.

* AmbiguousDisorder: ''Something's'' wrong with Boo, but there's no psychiatry in Maycomb and his father and brother are only concerned with keeping him out of the public eye. It's also not clear if he was always like that, or it's the result of being shut up in isolation for so long.

* IllBoy: Scout hears him repeatedly coughing badly, and she describes him as being incredibly pale. It's possible that being inside for so long has led to his health deteriorating.

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Subverted: Everyone knows that Ewell is a total slime. He only wins against Tom because he is a white man testifying against a black man in a backwards Southern town. And the trial only reveals more unsavory facts, driving him into his vengeful rampage later in the book. If anything, his life gets worse after Tom Robinson is convicted: Ewell expects to be hailed as the town hero, but the evidence was overwhelming enough that if Mayella or her siblings were abused again, everyone would know exactly who did it. It sets Bob on his VillainousBreakdown that leads him to drunkenly attempt to murder Scout and Jem.

* PyrrhicVictory: Tom Robinson gets convicted and sent to jail. The trial still proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Bob was the cause of his daughters injuries, ensuring he'll never be able to be abusive again without everyone knowing exactly who to blame.

** Richard S. ''Ewell'', one of Lee's corps commanders, cosigned a letter to Ulysses S. Grant shortly after the war, expressing sympathy for the death of President Lincoln. He also argued for enlisting black men in the Confederate army in exchange for post-war emancipation (even offering to lead such an army himself), but was howled down.

* TheNapolean: He's very small and very mean, and picks on those weaker than him (both physically and socially) to feel better about himself. It's heavily implied his diminutive stature is due to being malnourished growing up, like most Ewell kids.

* NotSoDifferent: Despite her white family's virulent racism and her own willingness to testify against Tom Robinson, Scout observes that Mayella is not so different from mixed children in the Deep South: White folks won't have anything to do with her because she lives in squalor, while black people won't accept her because she's white.

* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler:He tries to attack the two Finch kids, but is killed by Boo Radley]].

* CorruptHick: ''Oh yeah.'' Racist, impoverished, physically and possibly sexually abusive towards his own daughter, and spends his few welfare checks on alcohol.

* AgeGapRomance: In the book, it's mentioned that his wife was a good fifteen years younger than him when they married.

* TheFundamentalist: Miss Maudie calls him a "foot-washing Baptist," the ultra-conservative type that thinks fun and pleasure are sinful. He gets it from his father, and it's part of the reason he treats Boo the way he does.
* LikeFatherLikeSon: According to Scout, Nathan and his father are exactly the same - the only difference being Nathan will respond back when greeted.

* ChekhovsGunman

* ShortTank: Is able to hold her own in physical altercations, despite her small stature and young age. This is eventually subverted, as she stops engaging in fights due to fear of Atticus's disapproval.

** Richard S. ''Ewell'', one of Lee's corps commanders, cosigned a letter to Ulysses S. Grant shortly after the war, expressing sympathy for the death of President Lincoln. He also argued, [[PragmaticVillainy for pragmatic reasons]], that the Confederacy should enlist black men in exchange for emancipation (even offering to lead it himself), but was shot down by the Confederate government.

** Richard S. ''Ewell'', one of Lee's corps commanders, cosigned a letter to Ulysses S. Grant shortly after the war, expressing sympathy for the death of President Lincoln.

* PromotedToParent: After Boo kills her father to protect Scout and Jem. This is actually a promotion in every sense of the word, considering how awful Mr. Ewell was.

A racist, often aggressive woman who lives near the Finch household. She is later revealed to be [[spoiler:suffering from a morphine addiction that she dies of as Jem reads to her.]]

* DirtyCoward: He won't confront the best marksman in town, but he will try to kill his children while they're walking home in the dark. This applies to his other victims as well, as pointed out by the sheriff. He stalks Tom's widow, vandalizes the judge's house when he's not there, and even Tom Robinson is, as a black man, lower than him socially. He never antagonizes anyone who can fight back.

* DirtyCoward: He won't confront the best marksman in town, but he will try to kill his children while they're walking home in the dark. This applies to his other victims as well, as pointed out by the sheriff. He stalks Tom's widow (a woman), vandalizes the judge's house when he's not there, and even Tom Robinson is, as a black man, lower than him socially. He never antagonizes anyone who can fight back.

* LaserGuidedKarma: [[Spoiler:He tries to attack the two Finch kids, but is killed by Boo Radley.]]