Case Dismissed - "a Jury of Her Peers"

Case Dismissed

In "A Jury of Her Peers" by Susan Glaspell, Minnie Foster Wright is the main character, even though the reader never sees Mrs. Wright. The story begins as Mrs. Hale joins the county attorney, Mr. Henderson; the sheriff, Mr. Peters; Mrs. Peters; and her husband in a "big two-seated buggy" (188). The team men are headed the Wright house to investigate Mr. Wright's murder. Mrs. Peters is going along to gather some belongings for Mrs. Wright, who is currently being held in jail, and Mrs. Hale has been asked to accompany Mrs. Peters. As the investigation is conducted throughout the story, the reader is given a sense of how women were treated during this time and insight into why the women ultimately keep evidence from the men.

Glaspell sets the scene as the team nears the Wright house. Mrs. Peters says, "The country's not very pleasant this time of year" (189). As Mrs. Hale starts to reply, the Wright place comes into view, and "it did not make her feel like talking" (189). Glaspell lets the reader know what the home looks like by pointing out that "it looked very lonesome this cold March morning. It had always been a lonesome-looking place. It was down in a hollow, and the poplar trees around it were lonesome-looking trees" (189). The reader definitely gets the feeling that this is a lonely place. Elaine Hedges writes, "Through her brief opening description of the landscape Glaspell establishes the physical context for the loneliness and isolation, an isolation Minnie inherited from and shared with generations of pioneer and farm women before her" (par. 5).

When the group arrives at the house, the difference between the men and the women is immediately apparent. The men approach the scene with confidence and seem to feel indifferent toward the situation, even though John Wright was a close acquaintance and neighbor. However, the women approach the scene with caution and hesitation. The sheriff gets right to business and asks Mr. Hale to "tell Mr. Henderson just what it was you saw when you came here yesterday morning" (189). Mrs. Hale gets nervous as her husband "often wandered along and got things mixed up in a story" (190). Mrs. Hale does not want Mr. Hale to say anything that might "make things harder for Minnie Foster" (190). This lets the reader know that Mrs. Hale already feels compassion for Mrs. Wright.

Mr. Hale explains what happened when he was at the Wright house the previous morning. Mr. Hale says that he came to speak to Mr. Wright about getting a telephone. Mr. Hale says that maybe Mrs. Wright would like Mr. Wright to get a telephone. Mr. Hale says "'[...] though I said at the same time that I didn't know as what his wife wanted made much difference to John--'" (190). By saying this, Mr. Hale is pointing out that men of that time did not care what their wives thought--that the men made all the decisions of the household.

Mr. Hale continues, "'I didn't see or hear anything. I knocked at the door. And still it was quiet inside. [...] I opened the door [...] and there, in that rocker' pointing to it 'sat Mrs. Wright'" (190). Mr. Hale says that Mrs. Wright looked "'queer'" (190) -- like she didn't know what she was doing. Mr. Hale says he told Mrs. Wright, "'I want to see John'" (191), and Mrs. Wright just laughed. Mr. Hale goes on, "'so I said a little sharp, 'Can I see John?'" (191). Back then, men would run out of patience very quickly with a woman if the woman did not bow down to every command or act quickly enough. Mr. Hale says that after Mrs. Wright told him Mr. Wright was dead "of a rope around his neck," Mr. Hale went out and called Harry in case help was needed upstairs. Mr. Hale tells the county attorney that they did indeed find Mr. Wright upstairs with a rope around his neck, and Harry advised him not to touch anything.

Mr. Hale states that they went back downstairs. "'Who did this, Mrs. Wright?' said Harry. He said it businesslike, and she stopped pleatin' at her apron. 'I don't know,' she says. 'You don't know?' says Harry. 'Weren't you sleepin' in the bed with him?' 'Yes,' says she, 'but I was on the inside.' 'Somebody slipped a rope around his neck and strangled him, and you didn't wake up?' says Harry. 'I didn't wake up,' she said after him'" (191). Even though Mrs. Wright tells Mr. Hale that she did not know who killed her husband, Mrs. Wright is immediately suspected of committing the murder. Mr. Hale says that the men then left the house because it "'weren't our business; maybe we ought to let her tell her story first to the coroner or the sheriff'" (191).

Before the men head upstairs to start their investigation, the county attorney asks the sheriff, "'You're convinced there was nothing important here? [...] Nothing that would--point to any motive?'" (192). The sheriff looks around the kitchen once more and then says, "'Nothing here but kitchen things'" (192), and then he laughs. The men obviously are not as intelligent as they believe themselves to be. The men do not stop to think that Mrs. Wright, as a woman, probably spent most of her time in that kitchen. The county attorney then looks around the kitchen and scoffs at the way it looks. "'Here's a nice mess,'" (192) he tells the ladies when he finds the broken jars of fruit. Mrs. Peters remembers that Mrs. Wright had been worried about her jars of fruit and says, "'She worried about that when it turned so cold last night. She said the fire would go out and her jars might burst'" (192). Mr. Peters laughs and says, "'Well, can you beat the woman! Held for murder, and worrying about her preserves!'" (192). The county attorney replies, "'I guess before we're through with her she may have something more serious than preserves to worry about'" (192). Mr. Hale, like other men during that time who thinks men are superior to women, says, "'women are used to worrying over trifles'" (192). " "Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters understand the physical labor involved in boiling fruit in Iowa heat that one historian has described as 'oppressive and inescapable.' By the same token, they can appreciate the seriousness of the loss when that work is destroyed by the winter cold...." (Hedges, par. 11-12)

As the men start to leave the kitchen, the county attorney says that Mrs. Peters "'is