Susan Glaspell's A Jury Of Her Peers

In “Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell Mr. Wright has just been found dead by the cause of strangulation. Despite the fact that his wife Minnie is the prime suspect, she has not yet been arrested as a result of a lack of evidence. Consequently, three men who are joined by their wives, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, have been sent to the Wright’s house to begin the investigation. Finding clues is turning out to be harder than the men thought, however, the women have come across more than enough incriminating evidence to convict Mrs. Wright. Although she does not initially appear capable of murder, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale conclude Mrs. Wright, in fact, strangled her husband as evidence by Mrs. Wright’s quilt, the unhinged birdcage, and poor

Susan Glaspell’s story, “A Jury of Her Peers”, follows the story of two women, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, assessing the culpability of Minnie Foster in the murder of her husband. Although the women eventually uncover convincing proof and motive for Minnie hanging her husband, the other two women decide Minnie’s situation compensates for her crimes, so they decide to keep the information to themselves to protect Minnie Foster. The author uses the women in the story to depict the struggles of women during the early 20th century to gain more respect and liberties both within traditional domestic roles and outside of them. While the women in the story work for respect from the men, the story mirrors similar efforts of women during the early 1900s in their struggle against men’s preconceptions of women’s roles. Throughout the late 19th century and early 20th century,

As the ladies examine the house, while the men are other places, picking clothes and an apron up for Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Hale gains sympathy for her until finally she starts to take action. When they find the block of quilting that has stitching askew, she starts to fix it, perhaps to cover for Mrs. Wright?s distraught state of mind. While Mrs. Hale is finding sympathy for Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Peters offers a counterpoint that tries to justifies the men?s viewpoints and actions. Her comments to Mrs. Hale?s resentful musings on Mrs. Wright?s unhappy life and on the actions of men in regards to women in general all seem to be rote answers programmed into her by society and a desire not to cause any trouble. This all changes as soon as Mrs. Peters finds the bird.

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.

“Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell is telling of a wife snapping after a horrifying incident with her husband. The peers seek to find the true behind the killing. The women characters are talk as they are not as important as the men characters. The women hide the bird because, they feel for her due to her husband not allowing her to interact with others and taking what she loved away. The women finding the bird is resolving the fact that Mrs. Wright did kill her husband. The unsolved part is rather the men ever find the bird and convicted Mrs. Wright. The end is satisfying in some parts; the fact the women helped hide the bird is satisfying, but not knowing what happened is unsatisfying. The information about the unfinished

In the short story, A Jury of Her Peers, Minnie Wright, the main character, is accused of murdering her husband, John Wright. The story takes place during an investigation at the Wright’s home. There are 5 people involved; the sheriff, Henry Peters, and his wife Mrs. Peters, one of Minnie’s neighbors, Lewis Hale, his wife Martha Hale, and George Henderson, a county prosecutor. The story narrated by Martha Hale, where she develops throughout the story into a strong woman. Susan Glaspell, the author, uses many techniques such as verbal and dramatic irony, characterization, and symbolism to bring the literature to life throughout the story.

In the short story, “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell, the author illustrates the oppression of wives in the early 1900’s through the murder of John Wright. The women in the story are able to comprehend Minnie Foster’s motive while their husbands are unable to figure it out. The implications of this is that the women understand Minnie in ways the men don’t. The way the characters react to each other and their surroundings provides insight to their points of view and state of mind. Through subtle details in diction and imagery the author is able to suggest that the women were oppressed by their husbands and that was what caused the murder.

I believe “A Jury of Her Peers” focuses attention on the women of the play, as they do seem to be central to all pertinent points outlined by the author, while their male counterparts primarily seem to be the foils used to frame the insight, compassion, and judgment of the ladies, who are Mrs. Wright’s peers. Logic and intuition seem to be highlighted in Glaspell’s work, on the parts of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters. Their discussions when they are alone sound as though they could be lifted from an episode of Perry Mason which leads me to believe Mrs. Wright would receive a more relevant, balanced trial if it were up to the two empathetic ladies involved in searching her home. It seems, in a sense, the two women did just that, as they assessed the situation, uncovered probable motive, discussed it between themselves including Mrs. Peters’ assertion, “The law has got to punish crime, Mrs. Hale” (Glaspell 1289) and Mrs. Hale’s response that there were other inactions that ought to be punished too (1289). Finally, the two came to the unspoken decision to take matters into their own hands (or pockets, as the case may be). The jury had come to its

Mrs. Hale’s understanding of the situation also comes from the insight she had on Mr. and Mrs. Wright’s relationship. Her understanding allows her to more easily see a motive than Mrs. Peters or the men. Glaspell shows Mrs. Peters’ ignorance in the following lines, “Not to know him; I’ve seen him in town. They say he was a good man” (1035), and follows that with Mrs. Hale’s understanding of Mr. Wright “Yes-good; he didn’t drink, and kept his word as well as most… But he was a hard man, Mrs. Peters. Just to pass the time of day with him-[Shivers]” (1035). With this personal experience of knowing both Mr. and Mrs. Wright; Mrs. Hale has a different perspective of what has happened than the reader or the rest of the characters. With this knowledge Mrs. Hale can share Mrs. and Mr. Wright’s relationship with not only Mrs. Peters but also the reader, and allow both audiences a chance to make their own judgment of the situation.

In “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell, Minnie Foster Wright is the prime suspect of her husband’s murder; she breaks the bond of marriage through her own efforts simply because she no longer wishes to have a life with John Wright. She becomes so weary from her plight that she sees no other way out except to kill her husband. A neighbor, Mr. Hale, finds the freshly widowed wife sitting in her rocking chair pleating her apron the morning after her husband’s murder. Without remorse, Ms. Minnie explains the situation bluntly to Mr. Hale by saying, “He died of a rope around his neck” (493). Unlike Sheriff Peters and the county attorney, Mrs. Hale has sympathy for Minnie because she knows that the Wright home has never been filled with love.

Character Analysis Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are two completely different women that similar in so many ways. One is very brave and courageous while the other is full of fear. Both on the other hand are very good at figuring out clues that the men missed when figuring out the investigation; they pay close attention to every detail and have a big hand in finding out who the murderer is. All women as you all know have their own way of doing things while their husbands see things the total opposite; and Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are no exception. It seems that John’s murderer is his wife, and considering that women know each other more than men know them the women are very much a help when it comes to proving it.

Mr. Hale was not the only male character who demonstrated arrogance and insensitivity toward women. The Sheriff who was investigating Mr. Wright’s murder also demonstrated arrogance and insensitivity, hindering his ability to tie Mrs. Wright to

Mrs. Hale did not know Mrs. Peters well, but she reflects that Mrs. Peters does not look like the typical sheriff’s wife. “But if Mrs. Peters didn't look like a sheriff's wife, Peters made it up in looking like a sheriff. He was to a dot the kind of man who could get himself elected sheriff--a heavy man with a big voice, who was particularly genial with the law-abiding, as if to make it plain that he knew the difference between criminals and non-criminals” (Glaspell). The physical differences between Mr. and Mrs. Peters mirror the power differences between the

Mrs. Hale did not know Mrs. Peters well, but she reflects that Mrs. Peters does not look like the typical sheriff’s wife. “But if Mrs. Peters didn't look like a sheriff's wife, Peters made it up in looking like a sheriff. He was to a dot the kind of man who could get himself elected sheriff--a heavy man with a big voice, who was particularly genial with the law-abiding, as if to make it plain that he knew the difference between criminals and non-criminals” (Glaspell). The physical differences between Mr. and Mrs. Peters mirror the power differences between

“A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell and “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty are short stories that both share the theme of crucial decision making which leads to the main theme of death; in both stories there is some type of mystery involving the discovery of something linked to the death that occurred in the story. In “A Jury of Her Peers” the death of the guy remains unsolved, and is constantly being talked about by county officials. However, before the death occurs there is some decision making that has a tremendous impact on the outcome of the story. In both stories there are crucial decisions that led to the event of death; sometimes in life decisions have to be made cautiously if the outcome is going to be good.