Susan Glaspell's A Jury Of Her Peers

Throughout the early 1900’s, women were viewed by society as inferior to men. Those of the female sex were expected to cook, clean, and only speak when spoken to. Susan Glaspell criticizes these concepts in one of the earliest forms of feminist literature, “A Jury of Her Peers”. The story focuses on the murder of John Wright committed by his wife Minnie as the Hales and the Peters investigate the crime scene. Despite the women finding valuable evidence towards the crime, the discoveries came into the husbands’ views as petty trifles that only women worry about. While some argue that Glaspell’s novel explores the idea that women were overlooked by men in the post-WWI times, and others suggest the story is a criticism of marriage, Glaspell describes

Throughout many centuries the condescension and assumed superiority of men resulted in the oppression of women. Susan Glaspell amplifies this through her use of negative connotation and condescending dialogue. The story is told through Mrs. Hale’s third person limited point of view, giving the reader a look into the thought process that Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters have. Before the men begin their investigation, they let their wives know that if they find any clues to let them know because, “No telling; you women might come upon a clue to the motive…” (Glaspell 6). This quote employs extreme irony due to the fact that any time the women give valid clues, they become brushed away by their husbands, revealing the reality of how women were viewed during this time; overlooked. As Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale begin to bring more pieces of evidence to the men, their husbands simply respond with “‘Oh, well,’ said Mrs. Hale’s husband, with good natured superiority, ‘women are used to worrying over trifles.’” (Glaspell 5). The condescending dialogue in which Mr. Hale uses towards his wife is amplified through the use of the words ‘good

This dark dialogue reveals the cold truth of many marriages; the men appear kind, but their actions say otherwise. Many women were abused and taken advantage of due to the fact that they were to be submissive and did what they were told to do. As the wives analyze the Wright’s relationship, Mrs. Hale describes John Wright, not even personally knowing the man, as “Like a raw wind that gets to the bone...” (Glaspell 10). This chilling simile reveals that even to the public eye, he provoked terrifying feelings. After years of the abuse Minnie Wright faced, she snapped and murdered her husband when he went too far and killed her canary. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are able to rationalize this because they have “...an understanding of female violence in the face of male brutality…” (Ben-Zvi 165). They understand how hard her life was with a man like John Wright being Minnie’s husband because they see the presence of abuse in the relationship reflected through their own marriages. The female subjectivity that Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters have reveals the reality behind many marriages of this time: cold and