Minnie's Breakdown

Minnie’s Breakdown In “A Jury of Her Peers”, it is difficult for the reader not to be thrown into the mindset of Mrs. Wright. Minnie Foster Wright was a sweet woman who died over a 20 year period. This story shows how belittled women were in these days. The two women who joined their husbands to witness the scene were privy to every scornful thing the men had to say about Minnie’s upkeep of the place. What the men didn’t realize is that the only evidence they could possibly find to convict Minnie was invisible to them but not their wives. The women saw the abuse all through the clues left behind; it was the abuse that killed John Wright. According to a source it is said that “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?"… (Gale, Bookrags)” These examples are what support the feminists theme given to this story. The men care not over “trifles” as said in the story which gives the ladies a perfect view to all the facts of what actually happened. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters knew that Minnie never came out and socialized, but they did not know the reason. They knew John Wright to be a good man and might have thought it was of her own accord to stay in and be a good housewife. Once they