A Jury of Her Peers (Themes)

Themes

Gender Roles

Much of the tension in “A Jury of Her Peers” results from what the women understand and what the men are blind to. The kitchen, during the time the story takes place, was the sole domain of the wife. Wives themselves, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are able to determine Mrs. Wright’s frame of mind from how she left her kitchen. The men are scornful of the messy kitchen, and ultimately dismissive of what it contains. The sheriff comments that there’s “nothing here but kitchen things,” and when Mrs. Peters laments that the jars of preserves have burst from the cold, Mr. Hale says that “women are used to worrying over trifles.” Yet the women know that Mrs. Wright would not choose to have such a shabby or ill-kept kitchen. When the attorney notices the filthy dish towels and says, “Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?” Mrs. Hale replies that “Those towels get dirty awful quick. Men’s hands aren’t always as clean as they might be.”

Because both women have been farmer’s wives themselves, they understand the loneliness of living in isolation on a farm, and they can understand how upset Mrs. Wright would be over the death of her canary. They also recognize that the erratic stitching on her quilting squares, which contradicts her earlier, neater stitching was the result of a distracted mind. Eventually, the men leave the women in the kitchen to search for clues in “more important” areas of the house, but not before telling Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale to keep their eyes open. The attorney’s comment — “you women might come upon a clue to the motive” indicates that he does not think they could deduct a motive, but only stumble on to evidence by mistake. Mr. Hale takes this line of reasoning even farther by asking “would the women know a clue if they did come upon it?” Such an attitude towards women in the room of the house they know best highlights not only the differences between men’s and women’s household roles, but also that the women’s role is devalued by men. The stark divisions between men’s and women’s roles is noted by Mrs. Hale, who says “I’d hate to have men comin’ into my kitchen . . . snoopin’ round and criticizin’.”

The story makes it clear that men have obligations in the home as well. The women note that Mrs. Wright’s clothing was worn and shabby. “You don’t enjoy things when you feel shabby,” Mrs. Hale says by way of explaining why she probably had not seen much of Minnie Wright in public since she had gotten married twenty years ago. They also note the decrepit state of the stove. When contemplating what they should do about the clues, Mrs. Hale says that “The law is the law — and a bad stove is a bad stove,” and thinks about “what it would mean, year after year, to have that stove to wrestle with.” Mr. Hale originally went to the Wrights’ house to ask if John Wright would install a telephone, “all the women-folks like the telephones,” he says, but by the way Minnie had laughed at his proposition, it is inferred that John Wright would have denied his wife even that bit of comfort in her own home.

Deception and Loyalty

As Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale piece together a probable scenario for Mr. Wright’s murder, they become torn between deceiving the men, particularly Mrs. Peters’ husband, who is the sheriff, and maintaining their loyalty to a woman with whom they identify. Because the men are so reluctant to consider the quilting, the preserves, and the state of the kitchen to be significant details of the crime, the women may feel that any attempts to convince them of how important these “trifles” really are will only be met with more dismissive sarcasm. “The law is the law — and a bad stove is a bad stove,” says Mrs. Hale, succinctly summarizing their quandary. Their deception is borne of their loyalty to another woman — even if it is someone neither of them knew well. Even after the men have searched the grounds and are returning to the kitchen, their minds are not made up. At the end, the attorney tells Mrs. Peters that “a sheriff’s wife is married to the law.” when asked if she sees it that way, and she replies “Not — just that way.”

Public Vs. Private Life

The men investigating the crime are unsuccessful in determining a motive that would have prompted Minnie to kill her husband because the are in unfamiliar territory. The division of public and private life in the early twentieth century was very clear. Women remained isolated in the private sphere as homemakers, and men were required to function in the public world as breadwinners. Women did not commonly have knowledge of the more male-dominated institutions of law or business, and men were generally unaware of what was involved in homemaking and raising children. Since the domestic realm of the kitchen is so foreign to the sheriff and his male companions, they do not view its contents with the same understanding that the women do. To them, a dirty towels and dishes can signify only one thing — sloppy housekeeping. But the women know that most homemakers are conscientious and that dirty towels and dishes may be symptoms of an unsettled or disrupted mind. Because they are unfamiliar with women’s work, the men are quick to dismiss it.

Topics for Further Study

• “A Jury of Her Peers” is based on Glaspell’s own one-act play Trifles. Consider what reasons the author may have had for rewriting the play in short story form. What are the main differences between telling a story through narration and telling it through drama? How might the story be different if it were adapted as another form, such as a poem or a film?
• Read Trifles and write an essay comparing the differences between the short story and the play. Which gives you a better idea of who Minnie is? Are there any improvements that you find notable in the short story? Any distractions?
• Think about the significance of the title “A Jury of Her Peers.” What images might it evoke for a reader? What might it represent in relation to the story?
• Glaspell’s story demonstrates the domestic roles women were expected to live by at the turn of the century. Research how most women lived back then. What things have changed and how? What has remained the same? Why might some things have changed while others have not?
• In what ways does “A Jury of Her Peers” resemble a classic murder mystery? In what ways does it differ from one? What do these similarities and differences say about justice and the duty of law-abiding citizens?
• Suppose the situation in “A Jury of Her Peers” were reversed: Suppose John Wright had been a pleasant man, full of the love of life until his marriage to Minnie Foster, at which point he found himself thoroughly dominated by someone who specialized in non-stop belittling remarks and verbal abuse. Suppose John were reduced to an emotional wreck after several years of this treatment, to the point that he killed Minnie; and suppose a handful of John’s similarly dominated friends covered up the crime by removing small pieces of circumstantial evidence from the crime scene. How would your view of John’s crime and his friends’ “male solidarity” differ from your view of Minnie’s crime and her friend’s “female solidarity” in “A Jury of Her Peers”? Why?