Women In Susan Glaspell's 'A Jury Of Her Pees'

Incorrect gender profiling can lead to negative effects on women and can cause irreversible damages. A Jury of Her Pees was written by Susan Glaspell and has seven characters. Mr Wright, and his wife Minnie. Mr Hale, and his wife Martha. Sheriff Peters, and his wife, Mrs Peters. Finally there is Young Henderson, the county attorney. Mr and Mrs Wright are two characters that we never formally meet, but we do get a feeling of who they are through the narrative of the other five characters. Mr Hale found Mr Wrights body while trying to sell him a telephone. Sheriff Peters and Henderson ask him to return to the scene to recollect what happened and try to find evidence that could point toward a killer. The entire story takes place in the Wright

Henderson tends to be the harshest on women out of the four men. Multiple times throughout the story he voices his opinion to Mrs Peters and Martha. “Dirty towels! Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?” This quote is making fun of Minnie’s home and how not kept it is. When Mrs Peters spoke about Minnie being worried about her preserves Henderson interjected with “Held for murder, and worrying about her preserves!” showing he does not understand or care about what Minnie thinks. Mr Henderson is just there to find evidence to charge Minnie Wright with the murder of her husband. We know this from reading “I guess before we 're through with her, she may have something more serious than preserves to worry about”. Mr Hale is not as rude to women as Henderson, although he can’t help the occasional comment. One comment that stood out to me was “women are used to worrying over trifles.” The words trifles means something of little value or importance, by Mr Hale stating women are used to worrying over unimportant items, it shows he doesn’t truly care about women’s thoughts. Sheriff Peters isn’t considered oppressive, but he is extremely dismissive of his wife’s thoughts and concerns. He is also quite prejudiced towards Minnie in the fact that she killed her husband. The final Man in this story is Mr Wright. Although he is dead and he never speaks, we do

Martha noticed that Mrs Wright had left a bag of sugar open and due to her need to not leave a job unfinished, she begins to think of why Minnie would leave the sugar unfinished, what had interrupted her? This personality trait of Martha gave an insight into the mind of Minnie and could help the timeline or reasoning for the murder, while the men would never have understood the importance of the half done sugar job. Martha and Peters begin to investigate as the Sheriff asked. The Sheriff was more than likely joking, but the women took the chance to browse the Wright home. Within a cabinet, the women find an empty bird cage, immediately they both think “But she must have had one--or why would she have a cage? I wonder what happened to it.” The men would have just assumed the bird flew away or it’s an old cage, the men wouldn’t have seen importance in the cage. Martha and Peters begin to speculate that Mrs Wright purchased the bird so she didn’t feel so lonely in her home. The bird acts as a symbol of Minnie “She--come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself. Real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and--fluttery”. From the women’s own experiences they have an understanding of why Mrs Wright would want an animal to keep her company. The final piece of evidence that solidifies Mrs Wright as the killer is the dead bird from the empty cage. Martha and Peters find a box that they assumed was from Mrs Wright’s childhood, “What a pretty box! I 'll warrant that was