Story-Telling and the Preservation of Law & Justice

In Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers,” Minnie Wright is evidently guilty of murdering her abusive husband, John. Still, a metaphorical self-appointed jury of women secures her legal innocence in defiance of the law. While the narrative justifies this action, it also implies that deviance from the law is necessary to achieve justice in such an unfortunately common scenario for women in patriarchal societies. By outlining the separation between law and morality, “a Jury of Her Peers” promotes story-telling to rectify this shortcoming. The botched case of Minnie Wright proves that when stories go unheard, dishonesty finds its way into a case, contributing to the degradation of law as a tool of justice.