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In “A Jury Of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell, a father and son from town came in to the Wright household and found Mr. Wright dead in his bedroom. The men find his wife in the living room sewing a quilt without a care in the world, aware of her husband’s death. Although Mrs. Wright does not initially appear capable of murder because of her nonchalant demeanor, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale conclude she strangled her husband to death as evidenced by the mangled canary corpse, unhinged birdcage, and the crazily sewn quilt patch. With every case, there is a motive that led to the crime being investigated. In Mrs. Wright’s case, the motive was clear and obvious to the women; the mangled canary corpse. While they were going through Mrs. Wright’s sewing basket to look for her scissors, they …show more content…
came across a box that Mrs. Hale believes Mrs. Wright had when she was a young child. The women decide to open the box and inside, there is a piece of silk. This is a sign to Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters that whatever was wrapped inside the silk was of value to Mrs. Wright, as silk is a very expensive piece of fiber and Mrs. Wright was not very wealthy. (Glaspell 15) “‘This isn’t her scissors,’ said Mrs. Peters, in a shrinking voice. Her hand not steady, Mrs. Hale raised the piece of silk. ‘Oh, Mrs. Peters!’ she cried. ‘It’s -’ Mrs. Peters bent closer. ‘It’s the bird,’ she whispered. ‘But Mrs. Peters!’ cried Mrs. Hale. ‘Look at it! Its neck - look at its neck. It’s all - other side to.’ … ‘Somebody wrung its neck,’” After realizing what happened to the bird was an exact replica of what happened to Mr. Wright, the strangulation by the neck, the women confirm their suspicions that Mrs. Wright was the one who murdered her husband out of rage for him killing her bird. The next piece of evidence the women find is the birdcage with the tampered hinge.
(Glaspell 13) “Mrs. Peters was examining the bird-cage. ‘Look at this door,’ she said slowly. ‘It’s broke. One hinge has been pulled apart. Mrs. Hale came nearer. ‘Looks as if someone must have been - rough with it.’ Again their eyes met-startled, questioning apprehensive. For a moment neither spoke nor stirred. Then Mrs. Hale, turning away, said brusquely…” Glaspell hints at the ladies' thoughts as to what they think happened when she describes their eyes meeting with “startled” and Mrs. Hale talking “brusquely.” She is describing to the audience that the women don’t want to believe that someone of Mrs. Wright’s character and past could be capable of such harm. Mrs. Hale remembers that Mr. Wright was always working and how hard he was, comparing him to “a raw wind that gets to the bone” and that with the relationship between Minnie and John Wright, Mrs. Wright probably wanted a bird, as to represent her “caged” life once she was with Mr. Wright. The women had the right to infer that Mr. Wright was so abusive, as Mrs. Wright was “changed” after meeting him, that he killed the bird that was once in the
cage. One of the last pieces of evidence Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale notice is the quilt patch that does not match the others. Mrs. Hale is inspecting the quilt patches that have already been put together, seeing if she could find anything that would raise suspicions of Mrs. Wright (Glaspell 12). While Mrs. Hale does not come across anything, Mrs. Peters is looking through the basket of quilt patches and notices one that looks different from the others: “ ‘The sewing,’ said Mrs. Peters, in a troubled way. ‘All the rest of them have been so nice and even - but - this one Why it looks as if she didn’t know what she was about!’ Their eyes met - something flashed to life, passed between them, then, as if with an effort, they seemed to pull away from each other. A moment Mrs. Hale sat her hands folded over that sewing which was so unlike all the rest of the sewing.” Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters realize that the patch was sewn with a different mindset than the rest because it was uneven and amateur. The women believe that at the time of sewing, Mrs. Wright was outraged that Mr. Wright killed her bird and made her mentally unstable. If this is what happened to Mrs. Wright, she could have been contemplating on whether to kill her husband because of how extreme the killing of her bird was. Mrs. Hale knew that if what she and Mrs. Peters thought was true and if the men found this quilt in the state it was, they would use it against Mrs. Wright in court. In order to protect Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Hale decided to fix her quilt in hopes that the men would have no idea on how the quilt originally looked. Mrs. Peters, being the sheriff’s wife, knew about the all-male jury and how they would view the evidence presented to them. The quilt would be seen as a sign of anger and that Mrs. Wright would have been contemplating whether to kill Mr. Wright or not. The birdcage and the dead canary would show that Mr. Wright killed the bird, but they wouldn’t know what the bird and cage represented to Mrs. Wright. Without a doubt, the evidence the women found at the crime scene led to them to discover that Mrs. Wright was full of rage at her husband killing her life from the very beginning and she would be sent to jail for murder.
Mrs. Wright, however, justified killing her husband due to Mr. Wright trapping her inside the house and how Mrs. Wright job is only to be domestic wife. When Mrs. Hale (farmer’s wife) and Mrs. Peters (sheriff’s wife) discovered a dead bird with her neck bruised all over, they start to put the pieces to the puzzle together and ...
The females begin responding “stiffly” rather than “quietly”(7) as before. This adjective usage serves to support the speech even more by allowing readers to see the progression from silence to a bold rebellion in the women regarding their husbands, for “by hiding the canary Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are also going against their husbands” (Bee2). Indeed, this act was the major act of defiance that secured the women’s strengthened devotions to each other rather than their husbands. Peters especially undergoes a drastic transformation when she eventually joins in as “support of her fellow oppressed women” (Block B 1). When, at the climax of the story, the bird is hidden from the men in the sentimental tin box, Glaspell exhibits the tension with the selection of detail. She chooses to focus on the clammy hands of Mrs. Peters as she stuffs the tin away and the quivering voice of Mrs. Hale as she denies knowing any information about the crime. The descriptions of the seemingly miniscule and weakening objects around her house match the “quiet desperation” (Schotland 3) Foster repressed until it overflowed the night before. Considering that the adjectives show how burdensome it is for the women to conceal the evidence, it truly demonstrates how strong the relationships between them has grown based
In A Jury of Peers by Susan Glaspell, the story revolves around the sudden death of John Wright. There are five characters that participate in the investigation of this tragedy. Their job is to find a clue to the motive that will link Mrs. Wright, the primary suspect, to the murder. Ironically, the ladies, whose duties did not include solving the mystery, were the ones who found the clue to the motive. Even more ironic, Mrs. Hale, whose presence is solely in favor of keeping the sheriff s wife company, could be contributed the most to her secret discovery. In this short story, Mrs. Hale s character plays a significant role to Mrs. Wright s nemesis in that she has slight feelings of accountability and also her discovery of the clue to the motive.
On a cold northern morning the body of a man lay still in his bed. His blood did not flow, his heart did not beat, and his chest didn’t fall with breath. His wife sits still downstairs in the gloomy house that she views as a cage. Her stare is blank and her hands move slowly as if she is in some trance that shows absolutely no remorse. Minne Foster is guilty of murdering her husband which becomes apparent through the evidence and details given by Susan Glaspell in “A Jury of Her Peers”. Glaspell gives evidence and shows the realization that both women in the story also know that Mrs. Foster is guilty. Minnie Foster is guilty of murdering her husband, but a defense could be made to protect her.
Wright’s decision to kill her husband. This is why the story ends with Mrs. Hale saying that she’d decided to “knot” it instead of “quilt” it. Quilting it would have been symbolic of Mrs. Wright’s passiveness and continuing to live as though things were okay. Knotting it is both symbolic of Mrs. Wright standing up to her husband, and of the manner (rope, strangling) in which he was killed. This is suggested after Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters discover the dead bird, who had been strangled at the hands of Mr. Wright. This ties back to the questions Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters had when they observed the “messy” part of the quilt, and the “interrupted” kitchen, because it is now suggested that Mrs. Wright left things in this order in a fit of anger when she found he’d killed her
In Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers,” Minnie Foster is accused of killing her husband. This accusation forces Mrs. Peters to choose between the law and her inner feelings. Her husband is the sheriff of Dickenson County, Iowa. It has always been a small, quiet town where nothing really happens. Mrs. Peters is faced with an internal struggle.
The Sheriff, Attorney, and neighbour Mr. Hale look for evidence while the women Mrs. Peters and Hale are left to their own devices in the kitchen. Condescendingly, the men mock the women’s concerns over Mrs. Wright’s stored preserves, its stated: “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles.” (Hale, act 1) It’s inferred that women- who care only of trifles, something of little or no importance, must be trifles themselves. Ironically, these said trifles: the quilt, preserves, a little bird- which will be discussed later, are what solves this mystery. A major concern expressed by all the characters is motive; why would Mrs. Wright kill her husband? While discussing the marriage and disposition of the victim, its stated: “Yes--good; he didn't drink, and kept his word as well as most, I guess, and paid his debts. But he was a hard man, Mrs. Peters. Just to pass the time of day with him. (Shivers.) Like a raw wind that gets to the bone.” (Mrs. Hale, act 1) Abuses, which have been hinted at all throughout the play are finally spoken of in these lines. Audiences find, that Mrs. Wright- “real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid” - would murder her
In both of Glaspell’s pieces, the main character, Mrs. Wright, is accused of killing her husband. Minnie Wright was a farmer’s wife who didn’t have much contact with the outside world. The murder investigation took place inside her home. Three men are used to investigate the case and two women come with them. The women were no help to the men, but solved the case but also protected Mrs. Wright from any wrongdoing. The three men tried to find a motive, but the case remained unsolved. Susan Glaspell show’s in the two pieces how women are disregarded in investigative matters.
Mr. Hale found his neighbor, John Wright, strangled upstairs in the Wrights’ house with Minnie Wright, John’s wife, sitting calmly downstairs. With John Wright dead and his wife in jail, Mr. Hale, the sheriff, their wives, and the county attorney all crowded into the Wright’s house to try to find clues about the murder. While the men go upstairs, they leave the women downstairs “.worrying over trifles.” (“A Jury of Her Peers” 264) Unbeknownst to the men, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters find clue after clue that would convict Minnie Wright of the murder. Instead of telling the men about the clues, the women hide the clues and the men have no idea what the women have found.
Mr. Wright was a cruel, cold, and heartless man. He was also a very unsociable man. He abandoned his wife's contentment and paid very little attention to his wife's opinions. He even prevented her from singing. This is revealed about Mr. Wright during the conversations between Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters when they find the dead bird with a twisted neck in Mrs. Wright's sewing basket. Mrs. Hale points out, "She- come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself-real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and-fluttery. How-she-did-change" (Glaspell 1267). Mrs. Wright used to be a very high-s...
Men always have the tendency to judge too quickly. In “A Jury of Her Peers”, by Susan Glaspell, Mrs. Hale, Mrs. Peters, and Minnie Foster and Mr. Henderson are attempting to look for the motive of Minnie killing her husband. The story starts by Mr. Peters informing the group, except for Minnie, while she waits in jail, that when he stopped by the day before to give Mr. Wright a telephone because the couple lived really removed from the rest of the town, he asked Minnie where Mr. Wright was and she calmly answered that he had been hung the night before. Then, the men head upstairs to look at the crime scene, while the women sit around the kitchen to talk. Accidentally, the women figure out the motive of the murder by talking about kitchen supplies, “trifles” as the men call it. They decided not to inform the men to keep Minnie from being convicted because her husband was equally guilty as her. In the short story, “A Jury of Her Peers”, Glaspell employs strong details and details devices to argue that the purpose of the story is how Glaspell portrays men, that a person must not be judged based on off of the external appearance and that the little details in life always are important.
Well, women are used to worrying over trifles. " They are not taken seriously. They are women and are not intelligent enough to understand the concept of murder. The men forgot, it's the little things that bother people the most and for Mrs. Wright, it must have been the death of her canary. I think the canary symbolized Mrs. Wright.
Mrs. Hale’s keen wit and patience contributes to her embodiment of The Fate sister Clotho the Spinner, which is even more evident in her correcting of Minnie Wright’s improper stitching (Russell). Mrs. Peters begins the process of investigation deeply devoted to keeping the law. She doesn’t want any disruption in the house, saying, “I don’t think we ought to touch things” (Glaspell p. 666) when Mrs. Hale began searching for clues. Upon finding the dead canary, Mrs. Peters view on the situation changes drastically, and she decides with Mrs. Hale to hide the tiny dead bird from the men. They both figure that if the dead canary was discovered, Mrs. Wright would be thought to be a mad woman, though it was likely Mr. Wright who killed it.
It is no surprise the police have arrested Mrs. Wright, especially since Mr. Wright was killed right next to her. Her nonchalant attitude towards his death and how she cares more about her personal items, like her apron and canned fruits. The sheriff sees through her lies and that's why he arrested her as the primary suspect. Mr hale
Wright was described as a beautiful women filled with such joy and life until she married John Wright. Mrs. Peter’s and Mrs. Hale feels sorry for her because her husband treated her so bad. Due to female bonding and sympathy, the two women, becoming detectives, finds the truth and hides it from the men. The play shows you that emotions can play a part in your judgement. Mrs. Peter’s and Mrs. Hale felt sorry that Mrs. Wright had one to keep her company no kids and she was always left alone at home. “yes good; he didn’t drink, and kept his word as well as most, I guess, and paid his debt. But he was a hard man, Mrs. Peters just to pass the time of day with him. Like a raw wind that goes to the bone. I should of think she would have wanted a bird. But what you suppose went with it?” Later on in the play the women find out what happens to the bird. The bird was killed the same way Mrs. Wright husband which leads to the motive of why he was killed. Mrs. Wright was just like the bird beautiful but caged no freedom not being able to live a life of her own. Always stuck in the shadows of her husband being told what to do and