A woman should never deny her intuition. The heart and brain can misguide her, but her “gut” is usually right. Mrs. Peters, in “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell is the Sheriff’s wife. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are the “jury.” Because she is the wife of the Sheriff and a woman, it takes a while, but she does eventually rebel with Mrs. Hale to hide the motive of the murder.
Minnie Wright’s husband is found dead, so the sheriff, Mr. Peters; his wife, Mrs. Peters; Mr. and Mrs. Hale; and some other members of the law go to the crime scene. At the scene, the county attorney says, “a sheriff’s wife is married to the law” (18). During the search of the home, this idea was prominent in Mrs. Peters mind. At the beginning of the search she discourages
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Peter’s intuition is beginning to tell her that Minnie wasn’t treated right. The court attorney walks in the room, and sees the bird cage but no bird. If he sees the bird, he finds the proof. This is the start of Mrs. Peter’s rebellion. The attorney asks if the bird has flown, and Mrs. Hale tells him the cat got it. Then he notices that there is no cat, but Mrs. Peters says, “They’re superstitious, you know; they leave” (15). After he leaves the room she tells of her own personal experience. She tells how a boy took a hatchet to her cat, and if she’d been close enough she would have “hurt him” (16). She would’ve probably said kill him, but under the circumstances she couldn’t. In Mrs. Peter’s mind the boy symbolizes John Wright, and the cat is Minnie’s liveliness, happiness, and freedom. Mrs. Peters has realized the cold reality that Minnie Wright had no other option, but instead of telling the truth she says, “We don’t know who killed him, we don’t know” (16).Towards the closing of the crime scene, they all come down stairs. Mr. Hale goes to look after the horses, the sheriff and the court attorney enter another room for a brief moment, and Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are alone in the kitchen. In that moment, “… she threw back the quilt pieces, got the box,…(18) Mrs. Peters, the wife of the sheriff and a woman that the attorney asked if she’d even know a clue if she came upon it, “knotted” this case, but didn’t the way she would’ve if she still had the same mindset as
Introduction. A Jury by Her Peers authored by Susan Glaspell narrates the investigative events that occur after the death of John Wright in his house. As neighbors and the Dickson County administration, themes of sisterhood and gender roles appear through the actions and hidden motives of the characters. The book, A Jury by Her Peers, expounds on the silent suffering of women and being perceived as unintelligent while providing justifications for covering up of John Wrights death.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we are here today to discuss the murder of John Wright. On November 15, Mr. Wright was found in his bed with a rope around his neck, presumably strangled to death. His body was discovered by his wife supposedly and did not bother to notify to the local authorities. At eight o'clock in the morning, Mr. Hale went to look for Mr. Wright and found Minnie, Mr. Wright’s wife, sitting in a rocking chair inside of the house. Mr. Hale asked Minnie for her husband and she stated that John Wright was dead in the bedroom.
All throughout the story, Minnie Foster was described as a very lively woman with big hopes and dreams before her marriage to Mr. Wright. Glaspell states, “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” (555). This description of Minnie Foster is crucial to understanding the symbol of the canary to the main theme, which is connections.
A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell involves an investigation of the murder of Mr. Wright after he was strangled to death in his bed by a rope. His wife, Minnie Wright, is the leading suspect since she was in the bed with him when the murder occurred. Mr. Peters, the sheriff, Mr. Hale, the farmer who found Mr. Wright dead, and Mr. Henderson, the county attorney, all return to Minnie’s house to try to find the reason why she killed her husband. Mrs. Peters, the sheriff's wife, and Martha Hale, the farmer’s wife join the men, but to bring Minnie a few things from her house up to the prison where she is staying. From the very beginning of the story, the men are all very sure of themselves and belittle the two women who had tagged along.
Minnie’s quilt, the dead bird and its cage, and the kitchen show that living in a man’s world is not easy. In the end, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale recognize that they too have experienced the same loneliness and mistreatment that led Mrs. Wright to murder her husband. The men don't value the women in this story and they don't see them as being very intelligent either. It is for this reason “A jury of her peers” is created. Peers being the women themselves as they stand up, united against the subjugation they have all experienced.
The American jury system has been around for centuries but all of a sudden, people are trying to change it. Hundreds of years ago in England, the first of the jury systems were adopted. When there was a crime, the accused was brought before a judge and jury (B.E.). The jury, a group of twelve white men, from the area the crime was committed, heard the case and all of the evidence (B.E.). Those 12 men, decided whether or not the person being accused was guilty or not.
Imagine getting that one dreaded letter in the mail, calling you to do the one thing you didn’t plan the week before your wedding, JURY DUTY. Reginald Rose wrote the play Twelve Angry Men for a television drama after he sat on a jury. The characters in this play are identified not by names but by numbers. Twelve men are confined to a deliberation room after the trial of a 19-year-old boy accused of stabbing and killing his father. Twelve Angry Men illustrates the many dangers of the jury system like, a biased jury, being left with questions, and feeling inconvenienced by jury duty.
The scene begins to unfolds in their minds. Mr. Wright yanking open the cage door, taking out the bird, and breaking its fragile neck was enough to make Mrs. Wright lash out, and in a heat of passion, kill her husband. As the trifles collect, the women worry that the men will see their findings, and have what they need to prove Mrs. Wright guilty. Though the men believe her to be the murderer, the women are trying their best to hide the evidence that will prove it.
The men of the group, much like John in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” consider themselves more capable than the women and refuse to consider Mrs. Wright as anything other than irrational. The men leave the women to their “trifles” on the first floor, where they discover a broken bird cage, and the bird’s body, broken, carefully wrapped in a small, decorative box. They realize that Mr. Wright had wrung the neck of his wife’s beloved bird and broken its cage. Mrs. Wright, once known for her cheerfulness and beautiful singing, she stopped singing when she encountered Mr. Wright. Just like he did with the bird, Mr. Wright choked the life out of his wife until, finally, Mrs. Wright literally choked the life out of her husband.
This refers to Mrs. Wright worrying about her preserves while she is detained in jail for suspected murder of her
She sees it as vital information; something that could present them with Mrs. Wright’s state of mind around the time of her death. Mrs. Hale is currently mending the quilt when Mrs. Peters asks where she might “’find a piece of paper, and string.’” This leads Mrs. Peters to discover the empty birdcage inside of the cupboard. Instantly, they both start asking one another questions regarding the cage; they are unable to recall Mrs. Wright ever owning a bird. While talking back and forth, they notice that one of the door’s hinges is broken.
The women though unite together as one in discovering the small traces of clues that lead to Minnie’s case. Mrs. Hale questions, “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 1916 10). Mrs. Peters supports Mrs. Hale’s observation that Minnie’s marriage changed her for the worse, and talks about her childhood trauma when she herself was put in a similar situation as Minnie, when she had to be restrained from hurting a boy who was going to kill her cat. Also the stage direction provides further evidence of how the women stand together as one when it says: “ the two women sit there not looking at one another, but as if peering into something and at the same time holding back (Glaspell 1916 11).
He caused her to be lonely and that caused her to go a little crazy. This madness is what made her feel no sympathy when she realized John was dead. These actions are what led Hale and Peters to come to the result of she killed her own husband. However, the attorney didn’t realize the radical alteration in her personality like Mrs. Hale did, only because he did not know Minnie Foster when she was beautifully happy and full of life. This is evident in the short story when the attorney refers to her as Mrs. Wright and Mrs. Hale
(kicks his foot against the pans under the sink) Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?” (Meyer 1389). In an ironic turn, the audience knows that the women have solved the murder mystery while the men remain oblivious of the truth because of their assumptions. The two women end up identifying with Minnie Wright’s abuse at the hands of her husband and feel the murder was justified. They then conspire to conceal the truth from their ignorant husbands and the County Attorney.
The women began to pity Mrs. Wright as they knew her before she married to Mr. Wright. The females felt pity, where the men just accessed the situation at hand. After the women examine the empty bird cage they remember the way that Mrs. Wright use to sing and compared her to her former self as Minnie Foster. “Trifles,” introduced the masculinity here from the Sheriff’s side instantly putting his instinct into saying that there was a murder that happened at the farmhouse, was caused by Mrs. Wright without any hesitation. He didn’t look into the sadness, or let the depressing home get to him as much as what his intentions and his well-being come into play before his