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“A Jury of Her Peers” takes place in early 19th-century United States, in a farming community where farmsteads are clustered around a small town that serves as the area’s center of social activity. Traditional gender roles are largely unquestioned in this setting. Men farm, handle matters of law and business, and are the authorities in their families. Women keep the home, help with farm chores, raise children, and generally follow their husbands’ leadership. John Wright uses his unquestioned authority to isolate and bully his wife.
The story’s action takes place primarily in an isolated farmhouse devoid of comforts or company. More specifically, Glaspell sets most of the action in the run-down kitchen of the farmhouse. The murder occurs in the bedroom, but readers never learn details about that room. Only Minnie’s kitchen is described in detail. Readers can think of reading the story as if they were watching a play or a movie. Every prop in the scene is carefully chosen to convey the state of the Wrights’ marriage. As the women gather clues in the setting and draw their incriminating conclusions, so do readers.
For example, when the characters are in the kitchen, Mr. Henderson asks the sheriff, “You’re convinced there was nothing important in here?” just before examining the cupboard: “a peculiar, ungainly structure” half built into the wall and clearly cobbled together with little thought to its importance in the daily life of the woman who will spend her years working in this kitchen. Mr. Henderson must stand on a chair to see the upper shelves, which means that Minnie had to do so as well. This is one of the first indications, provided by Glaspell’s carefully designed setting, that Minnie has for years made do with an ill-equipped kitchen because of her husband’s neglect and inattention. The motive for the crime is embedded in this setting.
