Blog #4

A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell

In this housewife gone bad short story, readers learn early on that Minnie Foster killed her husband, yet the readers are the only people who know this for certain. Still though, the county attorney is rather certain that Minnie killed her husband, but he needs to uncover her motive for doing so in order to prove she committed the crime. Ironically, as the smart and clever men go out searching for clues, it is Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters who discover the truth. The men attempt to throw the women a bone when Mr. Hale states, "No telling; you women  might come upon a clue to the motive- and that's the thing we need," but then says, "But would a woman know a clue if they did come upon it?"(Glaspell, 413). Clearly, Mr. Hale has no faith that the women could be capable of finding anything, yet, it is the women who uncover the mystery. They discover a bird that Mrs. Wright loved had been killed by having its neck wrung, which coincidentally is how Mr.Wright was murder. Mrs. Hale and Mrs.Peters piece together that Mr.Wright must have killed the bird, causing Mrs.Wright to snap and kill her husband. The interesting part is why these two women never revealed this information? Did they feel pity for Mrs. Wright? Is it possible that they were sick of being undermined by their husbands and wanted to retaliate in this secret manner? It is unclear...