In “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell, the sheriff, Mr. Peters, is struggling to find a motive for Mr. Wright’s murder case due to his sexist views. However, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, the sheriff’s wife, are able to find significant clues that lead to Mrs. Wright’s motive because they relate to her living conditions. Although Mrs. Wright claims to have been asleep during her husband’s murder, the women conclude she strangled her husband, Mr. Wright, as evidenced by the slaughtered canary, the broken bird cage, and the errant quilt patch.
The slaughtered canary wrapped in silk is a significant clue, which leads to Mrs. Wright’s motive. When the women unwrap the bird, Mrs. Peters notices that “somebody wrung its neck.” It does not make sense for Mrs. Wright to kill her own bird because it was the only thing that brought light into her life. She cared about it so much that she wrapped it in such an expensive fabric, silk, even when she scarcely has enough money for essentials, such as clothing. While Mrs. Hale is examining Mrs. Wright’s clothing, she holds up a “shabby black skirt that bore the marks of much making over.” This suggests that she would put the bird in front of her own well—being, so she would not kill the canary. Furthermore, Mrs. Hale recalls that “She [Mrs. Wright] used to sing real pretty herself” before she was married and while she was still Minnie Foster, but “He [Mr. Wright] killed that too.” If Mr. Wright did not like his own wife’s singing, then