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.
Mrs.
…show more content…
Mrs. Peters being the one to say that was intentional because up to this point of the story she had tried to stick by her husband’s side to an extent when talking about Minnie, but now as she and Mrs. Hale realize what led to the murder she is understanding Minnie more.
The women make the final decision to hide all of the new information they found from the other men, knowing that they will not understand what Minnie had gone through all those years of psychological abuse (Sara D. Scotland, 53). The women understand Minnie, “We all go through the same things--it's all just a different kind of the same thing! If it weren't--why do you
4
and I understand?” (Glaspell, 17), which is why they try to hide the evidence at the end. Mrs.
Hale and Mrs. Peters know why Minnie killed her husband because they too live in similar households, but the men leading the investigation will not because they are blind to what they do to the women around them. The men continue to throw jabs at the ladies not even knowing the women they are making fun of had just found everything they needed to send Minnie to jail,