In,
A Jury of Her Peers, the text characterizes the relationship between the
individual and social identity of Mrs. Peters.
Mrs. Peters is the sheriff’s wife. As the sheriff’s wife, she is
expected to always do what is legally right and obey the law. But what is
lawful is not necessarily what is morally right. Early in the story, Mrs. Hale,
the farmer’s wife states that Mrs. Peters doesn’t look like a sheriff’s
wife. She is small and thin and doesn’t
have a strong voice. This is the first
clue that her individual identity is at odds with her social identity as the
wife of the sheriff. Mrs. Peters is a
compassionate and caring woman, who feels the pain, emptiness, and loneliness
of Mrs. Wright as does the farmer’s wife, Mrs Hale. In the scene where the two women find the
dead canary and discuss how lonely the stillness must have been for Mrs. Wright
without the bird’s song, Mrs. Peters describes her own pain and stillness at
the loss of her child. We see Mrs. Peters
struggle with her choice to either obey the law and disclose the dead bird
which would seal the fate of poor Mrs. Wright who has already served twenty
years imprisoned in marriage or to conceal the dead bird and protect Mrs.
Wright from further pain and imprisonment for the murder of her husband.
The
scene at the end of the story proves this conflict between her individual
identity as a compassionate woman and her social identity as the wife of the
sheriff. Mrs. Hale’s hand was on the
sewing basket that held the box with the dead bird and Mrs. Peters was standing
next her. The sheriff and attorney came
in to the room. The sheriff asked if the
attorney wanted to see what Mrs. Peters was going to take to Mrs. Wright. The attorney laughed and said that the
clothing, apron, and sewing items were not very dangerous. He goes on to say that Mrs. Peters doesn’t
need supervising because she is married to the law. When the men turn away, Mrs. Peters makes her
choice. She tries to put the box with
the dead bird in to her handbag to prevent the men from finding it. When it doesn’t fit, Mrs. Hale quickly takes
it and hides it in her coat. The two women protect Mrs. Wright. They are her jury and find she acted in self
defense.
It truly is significant talking about the individual identity as compassionate and the social identity as the wife belonging to Mrs. Peters. I think it would be difficult to keep one's identity. Socially she needs to fit in but at the same she wants to be different compared to everyone else. You can tell she has a hard time deciphering what to do. Of course the bird doesn't fit in her pocket, but the bird does fit in the coat. Do you think the bird fitting in the coat is a metaphor or symbol of something else? What would you do if you were in her shoes?
ReplyDeleteIn the story, when Mrs. Peters tries to put the box with the bird in her handbag and it doesn’t fit, she starts to take the dead bird out of the box. But she couldn’t do it. The text states that she broke and could not touch the bird. Maybe this shows that even though she wants to do what is right, the lawful side of her can’t bring herself to get her hands dirty. The fact that the box fits in the pocket of Mrs. Hales’s big coat may mean that she is not conflicted and has the courage to do what needs to be done to save Mrs. Wright.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis is a fabulous post. Your attention to details is amazing. My post focused on similar things but I did not notice or pay attention to Mrs. Peter's appearance in the beginning of the story. I noticed the bigger picture things. I like how you pointed out how Mrs. Hale’s experience of losing a child and how it has meaning in the story. As a woman, it seems easy to identify with Minnie. The time period of the story is obviously set many years ago. The law is different today. These days women have alternatives in our society if in an abusive relationship. Back then, Minnie most likely must have felt trapped in her marriage. She must have felt like she had no other way out.
ReplyDelete