A Jury of Her Peers

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"A Jury of Her Peers" is a short story by Susan Glaspell, loosely based on the murder of John Hossack, which Glaspell covered while working as a journalist. It is seen as an example of early feminist literature, because two female characters are able to solve a mystery that the male characters cannot, aided by their knowledge of women's psychology. Glaspell originally wrote the story as a one-act play entitled "Trifles" for the Provincetown Players in 1916.

[edit] Plot summary

The story is about the investigation of the murder of John Wright, who was strangled in bed. His wife, Minnie, has been taken into custody as the only suspect, but county attorney George Henderson and sheriff Henry Peters know they cannot convict her without a motive. While neighboring farmer Lewis Hale shows the officers around the Wrights' farmhouse, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters remain in the kitchen and discuss Minnie's life. Mrs. Hale, a friend of Minnie's before her marriage, appears to realize that Minnie's life was oppressed by her husband. The two women find that Minnie's preserves have frozen and cracked, and notice evidence of John's carelessness in the house, dirtying Minnie's clean kitchen; if they comment on this while the men are around, the men dismiss it as "trifles." The women notice that Minnie's most recent quilting was done recklessly and in anger, clearly different from her usual perfection. They also find a broken birdcage, and Mrs. Hale recalls a man that came around selling songbirds a year earlier, commenting that this would have made a good companion for the lonely Minnie. The women are proven right when they find a dead canary, placed in a decorated box with a piece of silk, that had been strangled. When the men return, the women silently agree to keep the bird hidden from the men, and the reader can conclude that Minnie will be freed because of it. Even as they leave the crime scene, the men are still joking among themselves about the women's worrying over these "trifles".