Guilty or Not Guilty “A Jury of Her Peers,” is a story about a farmer’s wife who is accused of

“A Jury of Her Peers” is refers to the people who are judging Minnie Wright for her crime.  In the story, Mrs. Hale and the sheriff’s wife, Mrs. Peters, are the peers whom the author is referring to and who are judging Minnie Wright.  These women know Mrs. Wright and their views of her are altered by the fact that she is their neighbor and also a woman.  The women feel sorry for Mrs. Wright because her husband was emotionally abusive to her.  They do not pay attention to the fact that she did indeed kill someone.  If Susan Glaspell had really wanted women to be treated just like men, she would have written the story so that Minnie Wright had a normal trial.  Minnie Wright should have gotten a trial with a jury consisting of people who did not know her or anything about her past.

Glaspell’s attempt to rationalize the murder is evident in the title, “A Jury of Her Peers.” The point she is trying to make is that under the early twentith century judiciary system, it is her opinion that a woman could not get a fair trial. She is of course referring to the standard of the day that a jury be composed of only males. In fact, a jury composed of women, she conjects, would quite possibly acquit a murderess wife of all charges, given favorable circumstances, as the two women unofficially did in the story. After all, according to Glaspell, they are like her, of her, and can understand her plight.

The short story “A Jury of Her Peers” written by Susan Glaspell showed many different aspects of symbolism. Millie Wright is symbolized a traditional woman that lost her way because she is consumed in her many wifely duties. Throughout the story her living situation, her red rocking chair, and her yellow canary had significant symbolic interest. Minnie Wright’s environment is a lonesome-looking place. “It was in a hollow, and the poplar trees around it were lonesome- looking trees(Glaspell 243). At the Wrights’ home there were no children running around to make noise, no telephone to talk with friends and family, no visitors, and most importantly no husband to show her affection. Mr. Wright had a cold attitude, unsociable, and careless demeanor. Mrs. Wright is consumed in her farmer’s wife duties she loses herself. The broken stove displays the lack of instability. The dirty kitchen with the

In “A Jury of Her Peers,” Minnie Wright grows up in Dickson county along with: Mr. Lewis Hale, Mrs. Martha Hale, Harry Hale, Mrs. Peters, Mr. Peters, Mr. John Wright, and Mr. George Henderson. Minnie Foster is known to others as a sweet and cheerful young girl. After  marrying John Wright, Minnie Wright is not seen or spoken of throughout the town, “Time and time again it had been in her mind ‘I ought to go over and see Minnie Foster’--she still thought of her as Minnie Foster, though for twenty years she had been

Something that was interesting was the titles Glaspell gave each story was very unique. Glaspell named the short story, “A Jury of Her Peers” because Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peter decided Minnie Wright’s fate. Also, the women decided not to turn in the evidence that could seal Minnie’s fate.

Wright’s defense, the men all head upstairs to go over the crime scene to search for clues. The women; Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters knew they were in the center of all the clues. “Women are used to worrying over trifles” Mr. Hale said, and because of that, the women uncovered all the clues that would lead to motive and the men would remain clueless. As for the messy kitchen that the attorney did notice but just chalked up to Mrs. Wright not being a good house wife, the ladies noticed that she was in fact in the middle of cleaning up. That half the table was wiped clean and the other half left as if she were interrupted. They also noticed that the towel that the attorney thought to be just thrown across the room was in fact covering a loaf of fresh bread that was to later be put in the bread box. They also knew that the dirty towel roller was probably that dirty from the man they sent to start the fire in the stove that morning so that the house would be warm by the time they arrived. The ladies were to gather some things to take to Mrs. Wright to the jail. They found her sewing basket under the corner table and were admiring the bright pieces and the log cabin pattern. They wondered if she was going to quilt it or knott it. The men thought this was funny and made fun of them. Unbeknownst to them that the ladies had just found what could be the evidence of Mrs. Wrights’ frame of mind. The ladies noticed that most of the

“A jury of her Peers” and Trifles are works of literature. In these works, they depict the murder of Mr. Wright. The men accuse Mrs. Wright to the murder of her husband, however are they are trying to find evidence to prove this. Both works are loosely based on the murder of John Hossack, which Glaspell reported on while working as a news journalist for the Des Moines Daily News. Hossack's wife, Margaret, was accused of killing her husband. However, Margaret argued that an intruder had killed John with an axe. She was convicted but it was overturned on appeal. In the play Trifles and the short story “A Jury of her Peers”, Susan Glaspell conveys how she transforms the play to the short story by change in the plot, the characters, and the themes of Female vs men and freedom

In Susan Glaspell’s, “A Jury of her Peers”, it is the women who take center stage and captivate the reader’s emotions. Throughout the feministic short story, which was written in 1917, several repeating patterns and symbols help the audience to gain a deeper understanding of the difficulty of prairie life for women and of the bond that women share. The incredible cunning the women in the story demonstrate provides insight into the innate independence that women had even during days of deep sexual discrimination. In “A Jury of her Peers”, the hardships women of the early twentieth century must endure and the sisterhood that they can still manage to maintain are manifested as a mysterious, small-town murder unfolds.

In “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell, Minnie Foster Wright is the main character, even though the reader never sees Mrs. Wright. The story begins as Mrs. Hale joins the county attorney, Mr. Henderson; the sheriff, Mr. Peters; Mrs. Peters; and her husband in a “big two-seated buggy” (188). The team men are headed the Wright house to investigate Mr. Wright’s murder. Mrs. Peters is going along to gather some belongings for Mrs. Wright, who is currently being held in jail, and Mrs. Hale has been asked to accompany Mrs. Peters. As the investigation is conducted throughout the story, the reader is given a sense of how women were treated during this time and insight into why the women ultimately keep evidence from the men.

“A Jury of Her Peers” is a short story written by Susan Glaspell in 1917 illustrates early feminist literature. The two female characters, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, is able to solve the mystery of who the murderer of John Wright while their male counterparts could not. This short story had been adapted from Glaspell’s one-act play Trifles written the previous year. The play consists of the same characters and plotline as the story. In both works, Glaspell depicts how the men, Sheriff Peters and Mr. Hale, disregard the most important area in the house, the kitchen, when it comes to their investigation. In the end, the women are the ones who find clues that lead to the conclusion of Minnie Wright, John Wright’s wife, is the one who murdered him. Both of Glaspell’s female characters illustrate the ability to step into a male dominated profession by taking on the role of detective. According to Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide, written by Lois Tyson, a reader-response critique “focuses on readers’ response to literary texts” and it’s a diverse area (169). Through a reader-response criticism from a feminist lens, we are able to analyze how “A Jury of Her Peers” and Trifles depict how a patriarchal society oppresses women in the early twentieth century, gender stereotypes confined both men and women and the emergence of the New Woman is illustrated.

From beginning to end, Susan Glaspell’s 1917 short story “A Jury of Her Peers,” has several repetitive patterns and symbols that help the reader gain a profound understanding of how hard life is for women at the turn-of-the-century, as well as the bonds women share. In the story two women go with their husbands and county attorney to a remote house where Mr. Wright has been killed in his bed with a rope and he suspect is Minnie, his wife. Early in the story, Mrs. Hale sympathizes with Minnie and objects to the way the male investigators are “snoopin’ round and criticizin’ ” her kitchen. In contrast, Mrs. Peters, the Sheriffs wife, shows respect for the law, saying that the men are doing “no more than their duty”. However, by the end of the story Mrs. Peters unites with Mrs. Hale in a conspiracy of silence and concealing evidence. What causes this dramatic transformation?

Character names are very important in A Jury of her Peers. The two characters, John and Minnie Wright, are the focus of the story. The name Minnie has significant symbolism. Minnie is derived from mini or minimized, which was very descriptive of her oppressed relationship with John and also the male insensitivity

Wright explains that someone must have come in, in the middle of the and slipped a rope around her husband’s neck while she was asleep next to him, she states, “I sleep sound.” Mrs. Wright didn’t seem concerned never moving from her rocker, she kept rocking and pleating the apron. The men searched the kitchen which appeared unkept and found only kitchen items, nothing out of the ordinary. Her neighbor Mrs. Hale came in and said that she hadn’t been in the house in years, she states “It hasn’t been a cheerful place” (561). Mrs. Wright is now being accused of murdering her husband and her only concern was her preserves, the county attorney sates, “Held for murder and worryin’ about her preserves” (561). The ladies that was in the Wright house was discussing how Mrs. Wright used to be, dressed up in pretty clothes, was lively and confident, she lost that over the years and now “She didn’t even belong to the Ladies Aid” (562). They guessed she couldn’t do her part and felt shabby, so she kept to herself. The ladies thought she killed her husband and practically convicted her right there in her kitchen. The women are constantly worrying over Trifles, or something that is totally unimportant. After Mrs. Wright is arrested for the murder of her husband the two ladies take Mrs. Wright quilt to the jail to keep her

To begin with, “A Jury of her Peers” is about the way women in 1917 were treated by men. The main women characters are Minnie Wright, Mrs. Peters, and Mrs. Hale. The women in the story are confined to their homes; rarely getting to go to town or visit with their friends. The women did not have many

The audience and characters assume that Minnie is guilty, but with due motivation. “Two housewives, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, accompanying their husbands who are investigating the murder of a man by his wife, discover in the kitchen the clues which indicate the motive of the murderess” (Alkalay-Gut 1). The audience assumes that Minnie’s solitude, imposed on her by her husband, has lead her to be depressed. “Alienated from her husband, powerless and silenced by the circumstances of her marriage, and isolated from her neighbors, Minnie is an unseen woman long before she murders John Wright” (Noe 16). What if Minnie’s solitude was self-inflicted? Just as Mrs. Hale could have visited Minnie, Minnie could have visited Mrs. Hale and other women in the area, but chose not to. The audience assumes that John Wright treats Minnie coldly or harshly. Mrs Hale says, “No, Wright wouldn’t like the bird—a thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that, too.” (Glaspell 1391). “Her life has been made miserable by an individual who has complete control of her” (Alkalay-Gut 3). What