A Jury Of Her Peers Literary Analysis

The women we’ve read about in both “A Jury of Her Peers,” and “The Yellow Wallpaper,” share two aspects. They share the bondage of male oppression, and their resilient spirits. I both stories, the characters face a struggle regarding both their household and the men within them, and must go to great lengths to overcome them. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale directly defy the men of the story, where the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” defies her husband in a fashion unimaginable.
Both sets of characters are faced with insufferable and condescending husbands. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are faced with Mrs. Hale’s husband, the sheriff, who is investigating the murder of the abusive John Wright. Throughout the story, the kitchen is referred to as
The women discovery many key factors that could symbolize disarray in the Wright house, such as the frayed stitching, the burst jars, or even the disheveled state of the kitchen. However, due to the men refusing to ‘trifle’ with the kitchen, they uncover the most convicting evidence of all: Minnie Wright’s songbird, dead with a broken neck: "Look at it! Its neck—look at its neck!" (Glaspell, 12). Considering the nature of John Wright’s murder, this certainly paints Minnie guilty and is enough to pass her through a trial as such with ease. However, due to the ignorance of the actual investigators, the women cover the evidence, and the men do not uncover the truth behind the murder. The narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” uncovers the ‘woman’ behind the wallpaper, much to the distress of her husband, due to his inability to understand her or see her mental unravelling. Due to the husband’s ignorance regarding her needs and her mental health, she is driven insane to the point of manifesting herself in a fictional woman in the wallpaper, who in turn breaks free and signifies her complete mental breakdown. Both of these instances signify that women are certainly just as capable of making discoveries as men, despite the discoveries not being that beneficial to them. Their defiance and independent discoveries would
Both stories exemplify amazing uses of irony and symbolism. In “A Jury of Her Peers,” alone, the symbolism is everywhere. The frayed knitting symbolizes the unravelling marriage: "One piece of craxy sewing remained unripped." (Glaspell, 9). (The burst jars symbolize the snapping of Minnie Wright, the kitchen left haphazardly put together, it all comes together to culminate a literary masterpiece. Also, the broken neck of the bird serves as a marker of immense symbolism, as John Wright’s neck was also wrung in a similar fashion. In the other story, the wallpaper and woman behind it was symbolic for the main character herself and the futile attempts at escape she musters during her short tenure in the room. The bed being nailed down serves as a reference to her immobile state, and she is also represented by the garden. These two stories intertwine so beautifully and do so to turn a corner in the women’s rights movement. They both present women as intelligent, capable, and susceptible to feelings, where most men of this era were satisfied to pass women off as objects without feelings or thoughts. They considered them background characters rather than equals or counterparts. This is very disturbing, and Gillman and Ibsen wholeheartedly agree considering how they penned together their characters as thoughtful, resilient, and bonded by sisterhood against the oppressive nature of their husbands. This is empowering and