Analysis Of Susan Glaspell's A Jury Of Her Peers

In the academic article Twelve Good Men or Two Good Women: Concepts of Law and Justice in Susan Glaspell's "A Jury of Her Peers." Mary M. Bendel-Simso defines the short story’s primary issue as the lack of empathy considered in the justice system used to try to convict Minnie Wright. She argues that the story’s justice system is unjust because of the lack of representation of women in the system, the lack of consideration for Mrs. Wright’s side of the story, and the overall absence of empathy that she believes is crucial to sentence someone. While it can be agreed that men held little regard for the opinion of women in the setting of this story and that Mrs. Wright was justified in killing Mr. Wright, would the story be different had it been …show more content…
Wright was, in some form, abused by her husband, potentially for years, even supposing she was physically abused, Mrs. Wright would be, not as harshly but still convicted of murder. In a modern setting, the evidence the women found can be argued against Mr. Wright to prove Mrs. Wright became emotionally and mentally disturbed through years of abuse and performed a crime of passion. Minnie Wright would be convicted of third-degree murder and would probably receive a prison sentence of about 10 years instead of the potential life sentence for first-degree murder. In the best-case scenario, Mr. Wright can be accused of holding Mrs. Wright hostage. This can be drawn from the tone when Mrs. Hale speaks about how the house wasn’t a cheerful place, and from the women stating how she kept to herself but before she was completely different and lively. Mrs. Peters states that Minnie wanted her apron and shawl because she was so used to wearing those items. One may argue that this would not classify as evidence yet Minnie’s case would be much different in a modern setting in that she would recognize that the court and jury would consider if her murder was justified and she would …show more content…
Still, if that were the case, would it be considered justice for Minnie to not be convicted at all? Despite Minnie having just reason for killing Mr. Wright, she should still be convicted of third-degree murder. While the homicide seems emotionally driven it was still a homicide and should be counted as such. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters did not seem like they wanted to exonerate Mrs.Wright of her crime but they found that the law would simply be too harsh on Minnie for them to present evidence against her. Had the court and jury been fair at the time with the rural farm women of her generation as a jury, the women would have presented the evidence that would incriminate Minnie Wright but also support a story that the husband was abusive and that the murder was a crime of