A Jury of Her Peers

A Jury of Her Peers Summary | Detailed Summary

As Martha Hale leaves her house to join her husband on that cold winter's day, she casts a hasty glance around her kitchen. She is uneasy about leaving her house in such a state; she had been in the middle of making bread when she and her husband were called upon by the town sheriff to assist in a murder case, the likes of which had never been seen before in Dickson County. Martha's husband calls her as she hovers in the doorway, reluctant to leave with the kitchen in such a state, and she hurriedly closes the door and gets into the big two-seater buggy that has come to collect them to take them to the crime scene.

The woman sitting next to her on the back seat of the buggy is Mrs. Peters, the sheriff's wife, whom Martha has met once and decidedly dislikes. Mrs. Peters is not in any way as a sheriff's wife should be, in Mrs. Hale's opinion; she is small, thin and softly spoken, unlike the previous sheriff's wife in every way. Sheriff Peters, however, makes up for his wife's deficiencies by being exactly the type of man one would expect to be elected sheriff.

Mrs. Peters tries to make small talk, but Mrs. Hale is in no mood for talking as the buggy reaches the crest of the hill, and the Wright property comes into view. It had always been lonesome looking, but now that it was the scene of such a crime, it seemed to Mrs. Hale to appear more forlorn than ever.

When they enter the house, both women are so affected by the sadness in the room that they do not warm themselves by the fire, but simply stand by the door, not even looking around.

The investigation begins with the Sheriff Peters requesting that Mr. Hale recount to himself and Mr. Henderson, the county attorney, exactly what he had seen the previous morning when he dropped by. The county attorney interrupts, asking if anything had been moved since that time, and reprimands the sheriff lightly for not having left someone to guard the scene. He then encourages Mr. Hale to begin his story.

Mrs. Hale watches her husband, noticing that he looks queer, almost as if the memory of the previous day's events were making him ill. Mr. Hale recounts that he and his oldest son had started out for town with a load of potatoes. He had decided to stop off at the Wright's house to ask John Wright once again if he wanted a telephone installed, clarifying to the men that unless two houses request telephones in the area the phone company will not install the line.

Mr. Hale recalls the stillness of the morning on the Wright's porch, and the silence that followed his knock on the door. He knocked harder, and remembers that he thought he heard someone say, "Come in," although he was not sure. Opening the door, he recounts, he saw Mrs. Wright sitting in the rocker. Mrs. Hale thinks fleetingly as her husband tells the story that the dingy red rocker in the middle of the floor did not look like the type of chair the Minnie Foster of twenty years before would have sat in.

The county attorney presses Hale for details on how Mrs. Wright looked. Queer was the only word Hale could think of to describe her appearance, and when the county attorney asks him to clarify, taking out a notebook and pencil to take notes, he begins to speak more guardedly. She looked, Hale said, "as if she didn't know what she was going to do next. And kind of - done up." He describes how she did not seem to care that he had entered the house, how she did not pay much attention when he tried making small talk with her about the weather, so he had asked finally to see Mr. Wright. He recalls that at that request she had laughed. When he pursued the matter, asking if he was home, she told him that he was. When he asked why he could not see John Wright if he was home, she said, "Cause he's dead." By this time, Mr. Hale did not know what to say, and Mrs. Wright just continued rocking back and forth in her rocking chair. Mr. Hale asked where he was, and Mrs. Wright indicated that he was upstairs with a point of her finger. Before Mr. Hale started up the stairs, he asked of what he died. "He died of a rope around his neck," said Mrs. Wright, and Hale recalls that as she said it she went on pleating her apron and rocking back and forth.

Mr. Hale recalls that he called his son Harry in from the truck where he had been waiting, in case he needed help. However, when they got upstairs it was clear enough that Mr. Wright was dead, his wind cut off permanently by the rope still wound tight around his neck. They went back downstairs, and began to question Mrs. Wright. Mrs. Wright claimed that nobody had been notified and she had no idea who the murderer was. In addition, she claimed that she was asleep during the strangling.

Mr. Hale then recalls that Harry went to find a phone to notify the police station, and as he waited with Mrs. Wright, he tried once again to make small talk, telling her that they had stopped by in the first place to see if the Wrights had wanted a telephone installed. Mrs. Wright laughed suddenly at that, then stopped and looked a little scared.

When Hale saw that the county attorney was taking note of the word scared, he stopped, clarifying that maybe it was not scared exactly, but perhaps something else. Then he recalls that soon after their brief exchange Harry came back with Dr. Lloyd and Mr. Peters, and thus ended his tale.

Hale is visibly relieved to have finished his story, and the county attorney decides that they will continue the investigation upstairs. Before going upstairs, he asks the sheriff if he is sure that there was not anything in the kitchen of any importance to the motive of the murder. The sheriff confirms that there is nothing.

The county attorney is drawn to a certain cupboard in the kitchen, and peers into it. He quickly withdraws his hand, which is sticky with something that had obviously spilled in the cupboard. Mrs. Peters exclaims sympathetically that when she had spoken to Mrs. Wright the previous night she had been worried that her jam jars would break because of the sudden change in weather. This is extremely amusing to the men, who remark at the absurdity of being held for murder and being worried about preserves. "Oh, well," Mr. Hale remarks condescendingly, "women are used to worrying over trifles."

The county attorney washes the jam off his hands, but is unable to find a clean place to wipe his hands dry, as the roller towel is dirty. He remarks snidely that Mrs. Wright is not much of a housekeeper, noting the dirty pans under the sink as well.

When the county attorney asks if Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Wright had been friends, Martha Hale shakes her head, recalling that she has not been to the Wright house in over a year. When asked the reason, Mrs. Hale claims that she had been very busy, but that it also had to do with the house not being a very cheerful place to visit. Mr. Henderson agrees, commenting that Mrs. Wright did not seem to have much of a home-making instinct. Mrs. Hale mutters under her breath that Mr. Wright had as little or less than his wife did. Henderson asks her for clarification, and Mrs. Hale replies that a place would not be "any the cheerfuller for John Wright's bein' in it."

As the men make their way upstairs, the sheriff asks if there is anything his wife should not touch while she prepares the items she has promised to take to Mrs. Wright in the prison. Mr. Henderson says that Mrs. Peters is one of them, and urges the women condescendingly to look for clues. Mr. Hale chimes in that the women would not know a clue if they came upon it.

As soon as they leave, Mrs. Hale busies herself tidying the kitchen, grumbling that she would hate to have men coming in and criticizing her kitchen when she was not around. She notices a bucket of sugar uncovered on a shelf, with a paper bag next to it half full. Suddenly, she begins to recreate a scene in her head. "She was putting this in there," she says to herself slowly. She remembers the bread she was making when she was interrupted, and wonders what had interrupted Minnie Foster as she was scooping her sugar.

Lost in thought, Mrs. Hale is shaken from her reverie by the thin voice of Mrs. Peters, asking if Mrs. Hale would help her put together Mrs. Wright's belongings from the front-room closet. As they sort through the articles of clothing Mrs. Peters will take to Mrs. Wright, Martha Hale can't help noticing how worn out and patched all of her clothes were, exclaiming over Mr. Wright's excessive frugality, and pointed to them as the probable cause of Mrs. Wright not being seen out in society much.

While Mrs. Peters is looking for her shawl and apron to complete her package for Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Hale asks her suddenly if she believes that Mrs. Wright was guilty of the crime for which she is being accused. Mrs. Peters looks frightened, and says in a tremulous voice that she does not know. Mrs. Hale says confidently that she believes Mrs. Wright is innocent. Mrs. Peters replies softly that her husband says it does not look good for her. They both confirm that their husbands find the weapon of choice odd. Mr. Hale knew there was a gun in the house, and could not understand why the murder would not have simply shot Mr. Wright if they had wanted him dead. Mrs. Peters confides that Mr. Henderson had said that what they needed for the case was a motive. "Something to show anger-or sudden feeling."

As Mrs. Hale begins to comment that there are no signs of anger in the house, her eyes brush past the sugar, half-transferred into the sugar bowl, and then notices the table, half-wiped. She notices that the fire in the stove is not very bright, and wonders, "What it would mean, year after year, to have that stove to wrestle with." She remembers her own crime of never going to see Minnie Foster, leaving her to struggle with her stove alone, year after year. She is shaken from her reverie by Mrs. Peters. "A person gets discouraged-and loses heart," she says, and suddenly she too has a look of understanding in her eyes.

Mrs. Peters finds a large quilting basket in the living room, and as the two women are exclaiming over how lovely the quilt would be when finished, the door opened and the men walk in, interrupting Mrs. Hale as she is wondering aloud whether Mrs. Wright was going to quilt or knot the pieces. The men laugh condescendingly at this triviality, and at the ways of women. They leave to inspect the barn, and Mrs. Hale is resentful at their comments, but Mrs. Peters has just discovered something. She shows Mrs. Hale one of the blocks of the quilt, commenting on how different the sewing is on this particular block, crooked and uneven, compared to the others, which were all very neat and even. Their eyes meet for an instant, and something passes between them, as Mrs. Hale takes the block, and calmly begins to undo the uneven stitches. Mrs. Peters questions her, alarmed. Mrs. Hale replies calmly that she is just redoing a couple of stitches that looked uneven.

Mrs. Peters watches her nervously as she replaces the bad sewing for good. Then she calls out to Mrs. Hale. "What do you suppose she was so-nervous about?" Mrs. Hale replies dismissively, "Oh, I don't know. I don't know as she was-nervous. I sew awful queer sometimes when I'm just tired." She is examining her handiwork, and comparing it to the erratic sewing of the rest of the block, when she is suddenly startled by the piercing voice of Mrs. Peters, who has discovered an empty birdcage, and questions Mrs. Hale if Mrs. Wright kept a bird. Mrs. Hale replies that she did not know, and recalls that Mrs. Wright herself had had a beautiful singing voice. They wonder aloud what had happened to Mrs. Wright's bird, and Mrs. Peters notices that one of the hinges on the door of the birdcage had been roughly pulled apart. Once again, their eyes meet, and they fall silent.

Mrs. Hale breaks the silence abruptly, chastising herself for not having been a better neighbor and friend. Mrs. Peters tries to console her, but Mrs. Hale understands her own reasons for not coming, and cannot absolve herself of the fact that she had avoided the Wright household because it was not cheerful, and now understands that it is the very reason why she should have made the effort to come.

She thinks aloud how quiet the house would have been without children, and with only Mr. Wright to keep Minnie Foster company each day. Martha Hale asks Mrs. Peters if she had known Mr. Wright. She admits that she did not, but had heard he was a good man. Mrs. Hale concedes grimly that he was good in the moral sense, but that he was a hard man as well, "Like a raw wind that gets to the bone…I should think she would've wanted a bird!" Their eyes move back to the broken cage door, and Mrs. Hale wonders aloud again, what could have happened to the bird.

She then steers the subject to more cheerful topics, suggesting that Mrs. Peters take the quilt to Mrs. Wright so that she would have something to keep her occupied. They agree upon this course of action, and begin to look for thread and patches in the sewing basket. As they rummage through the basket, Mrs. Hale comes upon a pretty box. Thinking it might be where the scissors were kept, she opens it. In it is not scissors, but a small dead bird, its small neck wrung brutally. Again, the eyes of the two women meet, this time with a look of mutual understanding and growing horror. Suddenly there is a sound outside the door, and Mrs. Hale makes a rapid decision, closing the box and hiding it at the bottom of the sewing basket. The men stay only a moment, and then are back upstairs reviewing the details, frustrated that they have not yet found a single clue.

It is Mrs. Hale that breaks the silence, musing that she obviously liked the bird, and had plans to bury it in the box. Mrs. Peters remembers that she herself had had a kitten when she was younger, and that one day a neighborhood boy had killed it with a hatchet before her eyes. She recalls that if the adults had not have held her back, she would have, her voice faltering for a moment, hurt him. Mrs. Hale ponders the idea once again of not having children around, thinking how quiet it would have been. No, she concluded finally, Wright would not have liked a bird, or anything that was cheerful or sang. "She used to sing. He killed that too," she said in a voice that tightened with each word.

Mrs. Peters says, hesitatingly, that they have no way of knowing who really killed the bird. "I knew John Wright," Mrs. Hale replies grimly. The sheriff's wife says pleadingly, in defense of the dead man, "It was an awful thing was done in this house that night, Mrs. Hale…Killing a man while he slept-slipping a thing round his neck that choked the life out of him." As if bewitched by the sight of the broken birdcage, Mrs. Hale murmurs, "If there had been years and years of-nothing, then a bird to sing to you, it would be awful-still-after the bird was still."

Mrs. Peters suddenly breaks, recounting the story of when she and her husband lived in Dakota, and her firstborn child had died, at the age of two. "I know what stillness is," she says, her voice queerly monotonous. Martha Hale though, is lost in the memory of the beautiful girl Minnie Foster had been twenty years ago. She once again chastises herself harshly for not having come to visit more often, crying out, "That was a crime! Who's going to punish that?

The men re-enter the room where the two women sit, lost in thought. As they enter, the county attorney is explaining to the sheriff that the guilt of Mrs. Wright is inevitable; the only thing missing is a motive that would hold up in front of a jury. "You know juries when it comes to women," he says. "If there was some definite thing-something to show. Something to make a story about. A thing that would connect up with this clumsy way of doing it."

Sheriff Peters comes up to the table where they are sitting, and asks the county attorney if he would like to see the items Mrs. Peters had picked out for Mrs. Wright. He chuckles condescendingly, his hand on the sewing basket, which held the box with the bird, remarking that the women would not have picked out anything dangerous. They leave once again to check one last area of the house. As soon as they are through the door, Martha Hale springs up, and the women's eyes lock once more, finally. Martha Hale's penetrating gaze tells Mrs. Peters what she must do, but for a moment, Mrs. Peters is frozen. Then she rushes forward suddenly, and, rummaging through the sewing basket, finds the box. She tries to fit it in her handbag, but the box is too big. She opens the box as if to take the bird out, but is unable to touch it and simply stares at it helplessly. The knob to the inner door turns, and ahead of the men by less than an instant, Martha Hale grabs the box from the Mrs. Peters, shoving it into the pocket of her coat just as the men enter the kitchen. Sarcastically, Mr. Henderson comments that although they had not found a motive to their crime, they had at least discovered that Mrs. Wright was going to knot her quilt, rather than quilt it.