Witness for the Prosecution

In “The Witness for the Prosecution,” the issue of truth is closely related to questions of perception and prejudice; because humans draw on their beliefs, biases, etc. when evaluating information, it’s possible to alter their perception of the truth by changing the context in which it’s presented. As a lawyer, Mayherne knows this; a large part of his job is to determine how jurors will react to the various circumstances of a client’s case. For example, he knows that a 33-year-old man spending time with a woman in her seventies will appear suspicious; Leonard’s behavior aligns too well with the average person’s prejudices about younger men taking advantage of older, wealthy women. Mayherne also worries that the explanation Vole provides—that he has a “weak nature” and “genuinely enjoyed being mothered and pampered” (5, 6)—will not go over well in court, however “psychologically probable” Mayherne himself considers it (6). Finally, Mayherne knows that jurors will be more suspicious of a wife’s confirmation of her husband’s alibi than the testimony of an unbiased witness.

One implicit thread running through much of this is the issue of gender norms. Regardless of whether Vole did in fact “enjoy being mothered,” providing this explanation in court could easily backfire, since a jury of that time and place would likely think less (if only subconsciously) of a man they perceived as weak. This is why it is a boon to the defense that Vole ultimately tells his story in a “manly straightforward manner” (26); his stereotypically masculine self-assurance plays well with the jury. Similarly, a wife’s testimony is less credible not simply because her love for her husband gives her reason to lie, but also because women are expected to be devoted to their husbands. In fact, a woman who did not seem particularly loyal to her husband would be suspect for that very reason.

This is of course precisely what Romaine counts on in fabricating the story of her hatred of Leonard and her affair with another man. As skillfully as Mayherne is able to predict the likely responses of a jury, he himself also suffers from limited perception based on his own prejudices. Mayherne is a fairly straitlaced and conventional man; he is uncomfortable with overt displays of emotion, and implied to have conservative views on sex and gender. As a result, he “recoil[s]” in the face of Romaine’s insistence that she “hate[s]” Vole, both because of her ”smouldering passion" and because it flies in the face of the expectation that women should love, respect, and defer to their husbands (15). Similarly, he seems shaken by the revelation that Romaine is living with Vole out of wedlock, to the extent that he is forced to “contrive[] to appear as cool and unemotional as ever” (16). Mayherne is therefore primed to believe the worst of Romaine, in much the same way that her later "flaunt[ing]” of herself in court likely confirms to the jury that she is a promiscuous and self-centered woman (26).