Example research essay topic: Jury Of Her Peers Minnie Foster - 1,440 words

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Short story: A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell I am Martha Hale. The action took place in Dickson County. It was a gloomy and cold March morning. Mr. Wrights farm-house. It was placed in the hollow and looked lonesome and sad.

Even the poplar trees which surrounded the farm were lonesome-looking. Everything was dark and quiet inside. I was in the kitchen, which was messy and dirty. Things were half done as if someone suddenly had taken away Mrs. Wright from doing her usual work: her bread all ready for mixing, half the flour sifted and half unsifted. [ 1, p. 257 ]. All pieces of furniture - cupboard, sink, the kitchen table, a small chair in the corner were old, worn, and ugly.

The cupboard was a queer structure: half closet and half cupboard, the upper part of it being built in the wall, and the lower part lower part just the old-fashioned kitchen cupboard. [p. 264 ]. The rocker was a real embodiment of a poor, lonely and full of silent protest life of peasant women: dingy red, with wooden rungs up the back, and the middle run was gone, and the chair sagged to one side. [p. 261 ]. I felt lonely and strange in the place where crime was committed. I did not like this farm before the crime and thats why I saw very little of my old friend - Minnie Foster, Mr. Wrights wife. The matter is I knew the truth about Minnie and her spouse.

They to my mind they did not treat each other as people in love should do. Since I had learned about the murder I instinctively tried to justify Minnie. I understood that being a peasant woman and a farmers wife was heard, sometimes even too heard to bear. I think that only children can save peasant women from loneliness and a blank despair. Unfortunately, Minnie and John Wright did not have children Maybe it wouldnt have happened if I felt pains of reproach. If I had seen my friend more, I could have prevented the murder Mrs.

Peters husband said: Well, can you beat the women! Held for murder, and worrying about her preserves! Then Mrs. Hales husband added with good-natured superiority: women are used to worrying over trifles. [p. 265 ] I did not answer. Nor did Mrs. Peters.

We just moved a little closer together. [ p. 265 ]. In fact, according to the rules of good behaviour, women should not contradict men. Women have nothing but keep silent in response to men treating them as something inferior and stupid. I came to the defence of Minnie when the county attorney kicked dirty pans and said: Not much of a housekeeper [p. 265 ] I answered: Theres a great deal of work to be done on a farm.

I said it stiffly because I was offended by the attorneys actions. It seemed to me, he disrespected Minnie. He did not know Minnie and he did not have any right to judge her by the mess in her kitchen. I added: Those towels get dirty awful quick.

Mens hands arent always as clean as they might be. Qh, my God! I said it! I shouldnt have! It sounded like a reproach not only for dirty hands but for something more for dirty words, hard and endless work, no love and care. These are the benefits we get from our spouses.

Men are not as good as they might be. Well, I sympathized with Minnie Foster, but not with her murdered husband. I understood that it was Minnie who was a real victim of the circumstances, of the routine, of the blind angle, she found herself in, of her fate. Minnie's fate had much common with mine and with that of every other peasant woman in Dickson County. But the problem was that I and the rest had much strength to put up with it while Minnie had strength to protest. My sympathy was called by the county attorney - being loyal to my sex. [ 1, p. 265 ] And he was right.

I took the part of Minnie as I would maybe take the part of any other woman. Peasant women are bound to keep the house, to give birth to children, to care about lots of trifles on the farm. Maybe it was an endless chain of cares and duties that hold away friends, and distance them far from each other, though in fact they might be neighbours. I have seen little of her of late years.

Ive not been in this house its more than a year, [p. 266 ] I liked her well enough, " I replied with spirit. "Farmers' wives have their hands full, Mr. Henderson. [ p 266 ]. And then I paused. How to put in words all thought about Minnie's house? It was gloomy, depressing, full of grief. Poor Minnie had to put up with all these things.

But not for long. I said: it never seemed a very cheerful place. I knew what I meant by this. Mr. Wright was just a man who fitted this house: as cold and as heartless. May he was the only person in Dickson County who liked it.

I said about it: Well, I dont know as Wright had, either. It was my response to the attorneys belief that nobody in the town would think Wrights farm-house was nice. Nobody except Wright himself, in fact. When the attorney asked me about the relationships between Minnie and her husband, I did not tell them what I knew. Because they might use it against Minnie, I am sure.

Actually I was afraid that sheriff and the county attorney would find any evidence of Minnie's culpability. And then nobody would stop them from putting her into prison. I was careful with every word I was going to say. I only said: I dont think the place would be any the cheerful for John Wright bein in it. [p. 266 ] Well, I think John deserved what he had got. He treated Minnie as a servant, even worse. Though Minnie committed it, she was not to blame.

Because it was not a murder, it was her liberation. Minnie released herself from the burden of a merely slavish life. Every of us should do the same. When the two men had gone upstairs, I felt relief. Nobody would criticize poor Minnie and kick or push ones foot against Minnie's kitchen stuff. Showing arrogance and disdain by doing this.

I said testily: I'd hate to have men comin' into my kitchen, -- snooping' round and criticizing'. " [ 1, p. 267 ]. I wouldnt allow him behaving like this in my kitchen. My kitchen is a sacred room for me, free from mens disdain and harshness. It is a warm place for love and children. I would kill anybody who wouldnt respect this! Why do these men think so little about us, women?

Why do they treat us so disdainfully? Minnie, she was bright and nice, she liked to sing And when she got married she turned into a woman with an empty glance and no hope in her words. We used to spend much time together first, but soon she became a Mrs. Wright, a woman John Wright wanted to see, a person he desired to have as his slave. Well, I do not justify murder as the best way out of the problem. Actually, Minnie liberated herself from one cage and got into another.

Is she happy now? I think not. Maybe, she should have spoken about it with somebody; she shouldnt have been so aloof. Maybe, he threatened her; maybe it was he, who said that he would kill her. What did she have to do? Being so weak, fragile, lonesome?

Do we deserve it? We all live like Minnie Foster, but we are not strong enough to admit it. Minnie committed the thing, I would not dare. It is the threshold I have always been afraid to step over. Why? Because did not know what will be after it.

Now I know. Now I think Minnie did only half of the thing, she did not free herself though she got rid of that stone on her heart. What should I do? First, find the evidence of her motive, until they are upstairs. Then help Minnie.

How shall I live afterwards? I do not know. Anyway, liberated. Bibliography: 1) Glaspell, Susan.

A Jury of Her Peers. Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library. Tuesday, January 18, 2005. 18 Jan. 2005 < web >

Research essay sample on Jury Of Her Peers Minnie Foster