Analysis Of A Jury Of Her Peers

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In the story “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell, Mr. Lewis Hale arrived at the Wright house to find that his neighbor, John Wright, had been strangled in his sleep. Hale asked John’s wife, Millie Wright, a few questions about what had happened. Suspiciously, Mrs. Wright’s dry answers didn’t add up. Now the sheriff, the county attorney, Mr. and Mrs. Hale, and Mrs. Peters the sheriff’s wife, are investigating the house. Although Mrs. Wright claims to be asleep during her husband’s murder, the women conclude that she strangled her husband as evidenced by the broken bird cage, the slaughtered canary, and the errant quilt patch. Mrs. Peters examines an empty bird cage and later notices (in paragraph 190) that it has been pulled apart: “‘Look …show more content…

Peters finds the bird cage, it is empty. This bird cage never actually had a bird in it. In paragraph 218, Mrs. Hale finds the canary has croaked: “‘There’s something wrapped up in this piece of silk,’ faltered Mrs. Hale. ‘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.’”(Glaspell). Sadly, the bird was strangled, and I think that Mr. Wright did it. Mrs. Wright clearly loved her feathered friend. After it was killed, she wrapped it in a square of silk. Back then, silk was very expensive even for a little piece like that. Mrs. Hale explains how Millie loved to sing, and this bird must remind her of when she was happy. Mr. John Wright was not very happy with this bird. If he could stop his wife from singing and being happy, he could surely stop a little bird. So Wright goes into the room and snaps its neck, destroying his wife’s most prized …show more content…

Wright was outraged. The only thing that kept her sane was gone. In order to calm herself, she starts to quilt. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters find this quilt. Mrs. Peters states, “‘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!’” (Glaspell ¶166) We know that Mrs. Wright is good at quilting, so not just anything could mess her up this badly. It is also suggested throughout the story that the women don’t know whether she was going to knot it or quilt it. Quilting it would mean she would sew the patches together verses knotting which means to cut little slits and just simply tie the strips together. It is believed that the quilting symbolizing Mrs. Wright continuing her life the way it is with an abusive husband and no happiness, and knotting symbolizes her knotting the rope around his neck and killing him therefore ending the

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