& # 8217 ; s, & # 8216 ; A Jury Of Her Peer Essay, Research Paper

The usage of Symbolism in & # 8220 ; A Jury of Her Peers. & # 8221 ;

Susan Glaspell & # 8217 ; s short narrative, A Jury of Her Peers, was written long before the

modern adult females & # 8217 ; s motion began, yet her narrative reveals, through Glaspell & # 8217 ; s usage of symbolism, the function that adult females are expected to play in society. Glaspell illustrates how this extremely stereotyped function can make subjugation for adult females and besides convey injury to work forces every bit good.

Character names are really of import in A Jury of her Peers. The two characters, John and Minnie Wright, are the focal point of the narrative. The name Minnie has important symbolism. Minnie is derived from mini or minimized, which was really descriptive of her laden relationship with John and besides the male insensitiveness toward most adult females in society. Womans taking their hubby & # 8217 ; s last names is besides really important in the narrative. The adult females in the narrative are non given first names, and are referred to merely as Mrs.Hale and Mrs.Peters. The function that society has cast upon them is defined by their hubbies. Mrs. Peters, who is married to the sheriff, is viewed in those footings. Mr. Peter, the county lawyer, says & # 8220 ; for that affair a sheriff & # 8217 ; s married woman is married to the jurisprudence & # 8221 ; ( glaspell 168 ) . She reinforces that individuality until she is faced with the ferociousness of what John Wright did to Minnie. She says & # 8220 ; I know what hush is. The jurisprudence has got to penalize Crime, Mrs. Hale & # 8221 ; ( glaspell 167 ) . The difference is she is speaking about the offense committed against Minnie, non the slaying of John by Minnie.

The Rocking chair is another of import symbol in the narrative. The chair symbolizes the absent Minnie Wright. The swaying chair & # 8220 ; was begrimed, with wooden rounds up the dorsum, and the in-between round was gone, and the chair sagged to one side & # 8221 ; ( glaspell 157 ) , which was non anything like Mrs.Hale used to retrieve it being. Mrs. Hale besides speaks of Minnie Foster, Foster being her maiden name, & # 8220 ; I wish you & # 8217 ; d seen Minnie Foster when she wore a white frock with bluish threads and stood up at that place in the choir and American ginseng & # 8221 ; ( glaspell 167 ) . Mrs. Hale so says & # 8220 ; how-she- did-change & # 8221 ; ( 165 ) . The swaying chair had depreciated over the old ages merely like Minnie Foster, but Minnie Foster & # 8217 ; s alteration was due to John & # 8217 ; s abuse which denied her individualism and imprisoned her in a stereotype that was mentally enfeebling. This finally led Minnie to kill John and get away the maltreatment.

Other important symbols in the narrative are the bird and the birdcage. Mrs. Hale describes Minnie, before her matrimony, as & # 8220 ; sort of like a bird herself-real Sweet and reasonably, but sort of cautious and fluttery & # 8221 ; ( glaspell 165 ) . The bird is caged merely as Minnie is trapped in the opprobrious R

elationship with John. John figuratively strangles the life out of Minnie like he literally strangles the bird. When he kills the bird, he kills the last spot of Minnie and her spirit. Mrs.Hale and Mrs. Peters find Minnie’s bird coop in the closet, but they don’t recognize the importance of it until they find the dead bird with its cervix twisted to one side. The birdcage symbolizes Minnie’s life. The bird and the birdcage is a private symbol which is besides representative of the function adult females are forced into in society, the bird being adult females and the coop being work forces. Minnie so strangles the life out of John like he strangled the life out of her bird.

Another major symbol, which the educated law officers considered a & # 8220 ; trifle & # 8221 ; , is the comforter which Mrs.Hale and Mrs.Peters stumble across. Minnie had taken the garbages and set them into a nice neat comforter, but one square was randomly sewed. This befuddles the adult females for & # 8220 ; It looks like she didn & # 8217 ; t cognize what she was approximately & # 8221 ; ( glaspell 163 ) . This represented her life, for her life was neat on the outside, but indoors was genuinely made of garbages. When John killed the bird, he destroyed the last spot of personality that Minnie held for herself. She was angry, baffled, and literally & # 8220 ; didn & # 8217 ; t cognize what she was approximately & # 8221 ; ( glaspell 163 ) . The inquiry that is asked is whether Minnie was traveling to & # 8220 ; quilt or merely knot it & # 8221 ; ( glaspell 163 ) . This is the determination Minnie had to do. She either had to quilt it, intending she had to digest the maltreatment, or she would knot it and make up one’s mind that her life as it exists was & # 8220 ; non it & # 8221 ; and she would make something to alter it.

The referral to the comforter as a trifle is really symbolic in the narrative. Mr. Hale says & # 8220 ; Womans are used to worrying over trifles & # 8221 ; ( glaspell 159 ) . This is really symbolic and dry. A trifle is something that is little and of no effect. This is a contemplation of how the work forces in the narrative, and society in general viewed and treated the adult females. This is really dry because while the work forces are looking for hints, the adult females discover the key to the enigma among what the work forces see as merely cockamamie adult females & # 8217 ; s work, or trifles. The adult females rebel against their hubbies, as they conspire to hide the incriminating grounds that points to Minnie.

Glaspell efficaciously uses symbolism in the narrative to assist convey the feminist subject. Through the usage of symbols, she illustrates merely how the suicidal self-contemplation of John had easy overwhelmed the vernal vivacity of his married woman. The symbolisms pigment non merely a image of Minnie & # 8217 ; s life, but besides the lives of all adult females who live oppressed under male domination. The narrative is a warning to work forces that a system where work forces rule and oppress adult females can non and will non be tolerated.