‘A Jury of Her Peers’ by Susan Glaspell is a story relating to a husband, John Wright, who was found strangled in his bed. His wife, Mrs. Wright, is suspected of her husbands murder and is remanded by the police. The story commences the next day when the sheriff, his wife, the county attorney and the witnesses, Mr. And Mrs hale return to the Wrights’ home. The women are there to assemble clothes for Minnie to wear, while the men are there to check over the crime scene. The setting becomes very significant in this story when the writer uses majority of her time describing it rather than really developing the characters. This hints to the reader that the setting in fact tells the tale of Minnie Wright and what drives her to kill John Wright.
In her earlier years Minnie Wright is depicted as a person of
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the women that she is driven to this withdrawn state by her oppressive husband. The change in Minnie Wright is seen by Mrs. Hale when she views her rocker, it is‘dingy red, with wooden rugs up the back......., and the chair sagged to one side.(30)’
Things become even more evident to Mrs. Hale that Minnie as completely changed when she sees the poor condition her clothes is in.
This story is ironic in a certain light because Minnie too was like a bird in a cage, a free vibrant spirit caged or suppressed by her husband. The bird might have symbolized the life she once had before she got married, thus when the bird was killed, John took away the only thing she had left. We also see how
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