Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Why are the women able to discover the motive for the murder better than the men in "A Jury of Her Peers"?

The women are better able than the men to find the motive for Mrs. Wright's murder of her husband because they understand her psychology better. The women understand what it is like to live in an isolated farmhouse, and they understand the way in which Mrs. Wright likely felt lonely and overworked as a farmer's wife. Because they have lived the same kind of life, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters know how to interpret Mrs. Wright's household effects. For example, they immediately comprehend why Mrs. Wright would have been upset by her fruit preserves that she worked so hard to make exploding in the cold. They also understand that the death of Mrs. Wright's songbird, likely at the hands of her husband, would have driven her to murder. The men are not open to these types of clues, as they do not understand the psychology of a hardworking farmer's wife as well as the women do.

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