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Analysis Of A Jury Of Her Peers, By Susan Glaspell

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In criminal cases, the prosecutors desire to retrieve justice for the victim and the victim's family. However, many times the interrogators seek to answer why someone could take the life of another person. The families of the victims ponder the same question. Perhaps an eighty-five year old woman was murdered in her home. She has no money or valuables, and she never leaves her house. Therein, the question lies: why would someone want to kill an elderly woman? Sometimes the rationale provides more closure to the victim's family than does the prosecution. Susan Glaspell's "A Jury of Her Peers" narrates the story about a man who has been killed, and the prime suspect is his wife. Glaspell's short story examines the distinction between legal justice and social justice in correlation with opposite genders. First, legal justice focuses on "finding and convicting [the] killer" (Simso). For example, in "A Jury of Her Peers," Mr. Wright has been killed in his home, and his wife, Minnie Foster is being "held for murder" (Glaspell 205 ). Furthermore, legal justice "is based solely upon the consideration of the facts" (Simso). For instance, Mr. Henderson, the county lawyer and Mr. Peters, the sheriff, whose purpose is to defend the law, look for evidence "upon the stairs, then in the room above them" (Glaspell 206). Their version of justice is finding sufficient evidence to form a case and imprison Minnie Foster. Social justice, however, focuses on "motive--the only missing piece . .

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