Never say Never :: essays research papers

A Jury of Her Peers "A Jury of Her Peers" is a story taut with violence. At no time do we see blood; there is no screaming; there are no corpses; there are none of the trappings our Gothic imaginations have come to expect. And yet in this homely little story about quilting and canning and pet canaries, the psychological tension is almost unendurable -- and much of the tension revolves around gender-specific ways of seeing the world. The story concerns a farmer, John Wright, who is found strangled in his bed; his wife is arrested for the murder. The story ¡Ã‚ ¯s action begins the following day, when the sheriff, the county attorney, the sheriff ¡Ã‚ ¯s wife, and a neighbor couple return to the Wrights ¡Ã‚ ¯ house. The women are there to pick out some clothes for the accused wife to wear in prison; the men, to check over the crime scene. Although the story ¡Ã‚ ¯s purpose is to penetrate the motive for Mrs. Wright ¡Ã‚ ¯s murder of her husband, the sheriff ¡Ã‚ ¯s wife, Mrs. Peters, and the neighbor Mrs. Hale occupy center stage -- and it is really their story. Sheriff Peters and Mr. Hale wander in and out, mostly passing through as they move from one part of the house to the other, commenting about the slovenly housekeeping and the general air of cheerlessness. At first it is clear that the women do not want to be here, either; the house is too cold and too still, and what happened here the day before was too awful. The women feel defensive in this house, partially because of the disparaging way the men refer to the little details of Mrs. Wright ¡Ã‚ ¯s life. The men laugh at their wives ¡Ã‚ ¯ admiration of Mrs. Wright ¡Ã‚ ¯s fine stitching on her quilt, and when the women express sadness over Mrs. Wright ¡Ã‚ ¯s broken jars of jam, Sheriff Peters finds this tremendously humorous: "Well, can you beat t he women! Held for murder, and worrying about her preserves. . . . I guess before we ¡Ã‚ ¯re through with her she may have something more serious than preserves to worry about." "Oh, well," said Mrs. Hale's husband, with good-natured superiority, "women are used to worrying over trifles." But it is precisely these types of "trifles" that eventually prove to them that Mrs. Wright did kill her husband, and why. It also convinces the two women to keep that information to themselves, lest it prove incriminating to this woman they barely know, but whom they feel certain was entirely justified in her act.