"Jury of Her Peers" Mrs. Hale Essay Example

Although the theme of Susan Glaspell's "Jury of Her peers" is about the ultimate fate of Minnie Wright, the central story line is about a key character that determines Mrs. Wright's fate. Mrs. Hale's influence to the story is almost accidental because she unintentionally stumbles upon evidence that links Minnie to the murder. She never had the intent to find evidence against Minnie, she was just there to pack up a few things for her and be done with it. Her curiosity and wonder arose when she found certain things in the Wright's home that seems peculiar and out of place for the Minnie Foster she had known twenty years prior to her marriage to Mr. Wright. Her character traits which include but are diffidently not limited too sympathy, assertiveness, and her attention to detail are brought out by the comments and actions of others; yet the author picks certain ways to bring out these qualities.
The women characters in "A Jury of Her Peers" are quiet, looked down upon, and are to be kept in their place as women and nothing more; but it's because of the Observant personality trait of Mrs. Hale that leads you to the stories conclusion. Much of the tension in this story is a result of what the women find out on their own that the men are blind too. The story starts off with Mrs. Hale thinking to herself "But what her eye took in was that her kitchen was in no shape for leaving her bread already for mixing, half the flour sifted and half unsifted."(172) it was because of this type of thinking that she was able to figure out evidence that the men were not. She is not the type to leave anything half done and notices when tings are not finished or out of place. "The cover was off the wooden bucket, and beside it was a paper bag half-full."(177) "She was putting this in there," she said to herself-slowly."(177) Without consciously thinking that it was evidence against Mrs. Wright, Ms. Hale was slowly piecing together the thoughts that were going through Mrs. Wright's