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Symbolism In A Jury Of Her Peers

575 Words3 Pages

“A Jury of Her Peers” is a story that is thriving with symbolism throughout the story. Although, amongst these are a few that stand out more than the others. The most expressive symbol is the quilt that the women wish to bring to Minnie Wright while she is in jail so that she can work on it. The second symbol is the songbird who was killed by Minnie Wright’s husband, John Wright. These symbols, although small, have a meaning much larger when you stop to truly ponder them.
Within the text, there is a quilt that slowly grows in meaning as it is mentioned several times in discussion amongst the men and women. In discussion of the quilt, the men tease the women by asking what technique of quilting Minnie Wright was planning to use: regular quilting or knotting. Before the women could answer the men laughed and went outside the house to look in the barn for evidence. After a few minutes, the men return where the county attorney then asks, “Well ladies, have you decided whether she was going to quilt it or knot it?” (678) In this scene, …show more content…

In the story, Mrs. Hale often recalls Minnie Wright as being a joyful girl who loved to sing, much like the songbird. Then they found that the songbird had its neck wrung by who they presumed was John Wright. Mrs. Peters then recalls a similar act of cruelty done to her by a neighborhood boy killing her kitten, she states, “If they hadn’t held me back I would have hurt him.” (679) The cruel act symbolizes how he had treated Minnie throughout the years that they had been married. While the bird was trapped in a cage, it symbolizes how Minnie likely felt trapped in her marriage where the bird’s singing gave her hope and happiness. Therefore, when John killed the bird it killed what remaining hope and happiness Minnie had. This caused her to retaliate to John for not only the killing of the bird, but years of mistreatment and desolation she had

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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.

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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.

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In “A Jury of Her Peers” Glaspeel introduces the main characters Mrs.Hale and Mrs.Peters along with their husbands Mr.Hale and Mr.Peter. Nowhere in this story do the people involved in the murder appear, they are only mentioned. In this story, Minnie Wright is the wife of the victim Mr.Wright. The scene Glaspell sets enables the reader to uncover the motive for the murder when the women discover the birdcage and the dead bird. These small details are interpreted by the woman, noticing frustration in Mrs. Wright's most recent stitches and her dead pet bird.

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Wright was in the process of stitching. They noticed the beauty of the quilt and how neat the stitching was… up to a certain point. The last piece that had been added to the quilt was poorly stitched. Mrs. Hale points to the bad stitching and says to Mrs. Peters, “Why, it looks as if she didn’t know what she was about,” and continues to tell how she believes Mrs. Wright did the piece while nervous about something (1085). Mrs. Peters then tries to fix the stitching so that no one else notices.

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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.

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Wright it is easy to tell that she is not at all upset about her husband’s death. When being asked about the situation she “laughed and pleated her skirt” (4). Mrs. Wright is compared to a bird that is found later in the story. The bird was found in a pretty box with marks around its neck. Hale and Peters say that the death of her bird would have been her motive if she actually was her husband’s murderer, but the author utilizes the bird and its broken cage to be a comparison to Mrs. Wright’s life.

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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.

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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.

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Mrs. Wright’s quilt is evidence that she is angry or nervous. The quilt has a “‘log-cabin pattern’” and is quilted nicely, but the last few stitches are not. It “‘Looks as if she didn’t know what she was about.’” This difference in sewing shows a sudden change in mood or thought process. When nervous or angry people tend not to care as much about what they are doing and can even be aggressive.

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