A Jury Of Her Peers Essay

Susan Glaspell's "A Jury of Her Peers,” published in 1917, is a short story. That story focuses on women standing up for each other no matter the predicament. The conflicts of the story surround Minnie Wright, who is in jail on suspicion that she murdered her husband by strangling him. The story is told discursively through Martha Hale whose husband discovered the body of John Wright, Minnie Wright’s husband. In the story, readers are given background information about Minnie, but the story also implies how her life is now. Minnie Wright lived alone with her husband and canary. Susan Glaspell uses three literary elements in this story such as: the of theme of gender roles, the dramatic irony of a murder, a symbol of a canary in her short story, “A Jury of Her Peers” to illustrate that women are not less than men. …show more content…
The story opens with the conflict that Minnie Wright murdered her husband Mr. Wright by strangling him. Mr. Peters, the sheriff and Mr. Hale enter the Wright household with the urge to search for clues regarding Mr. Wright’s murder. Mr.Peters critiques Mrs. Wright’s housekeeping skills, “Dirty towels not much of a housekeeper, would you say ladies?”(Glaspeel, 494). Mr. Peters, as well as, the other men in the story think that it is the sole responsibility of a women to keep the household immaculate. When this story was written in the early 1900s, women were seen as less worthy than men. Women stayed at home, and kept a clean house while the men of the house would go out and peruse a hard labor. Due to the way Mrs. Wright keep her kitchen, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are able to conclude Mrs. Wright`s mind set was broken during the time of the murder. Although Mrs. Wright murdered her husband, the other wives could relate to Mrs. Wright`s distress simply because they are women as