A Jury of Her Peers

In the short story, A Jury of Her Peers, Susan Glaspell displays the outcome of a "prisoned marriage" and how women were not treated fairly. While searching for clues, it appeared as though the women and men were working separately and that the men believed all the clues the women found were of no use. The women had no rights and they were just there because of their husbands. The separation of the men and women symbolizes the rise of women gaining rights and becoming less dependent on the men. The conclusion to the mystery of Mr. Wright's death was that it was his own wife who was to blame. Mr. Wright was the kind of husband who thought he was more powerful than Mrs. Wright and would take advantage of her -- knowing she could do nothing to him -- this being an example of a "prisoned marriage." Mrs. Wright owned a singing canary; it was what kept her going, it was the only light in her life. When Mr. Wright got annoyed with this small yellow bird he decided to go against his wife's will and hanged the innocent creature. A canary represents freedom and intelligence. When this was taken away from Mrs. Wright she acted in a non-intelligent manner-- she hanged her husband. Because the canary was dead, Mrs. Wright was drowned of all the light in her life, which caused her to go insane. Although there was a gun in the house, she wanted to have her husband suffer a long painful death just as she will suffer a long painful life without the canary.