Thoughts on "A Jury of Her Peers"

I think it was Roald Dahl's Matilda that opened my eyes to the fact that there is point and purpose to the names authors assign to their characters.  As a young and impressionable fifth grade reader, I could not help but have a soft spot in my heart for the sweet and vulnerable Miss Honey, especially when juxtaposed with the domineering and terrifying Miss Trunchbull.  If, even after reading Dahl's over-the-top and vivid descriptions, a reader did not know how to respond to a particular character, Dahl would inevitably effect the desired emotional response with the simple repetition of his characters' names.

The same manipulation of reader opinion through the use of character names can be seen in "A Jury of Her Peers."  Although Susan Glaspell conveys meaning through names that are slightly more subtle than Dahl's, the effect on the reader is one in the same.  In considering the decisions of the female characters in the story, in particular those of Mrs. Wright, it was as though the voice of Glaspell was whispering in my ear: "Mrs. Wright is right."  Why would Glaspell have Minnie Foster marry Mr. Wright if not to show that the songbird of a young woman, now a hardened widow, is justified in her actions?  That said, if Glaspell does attach meaning to her characters' names, how does Mr. Wright, who is far from right in his emotionally abusive treatment of his wife, fit into this picture?  I suppose that Glaspell herself answers this question by repeatedly referring to Mr. Hale not as Mr. Hale, but as "Mrs. Hale's husband."  Despite the fact that tradition dictates that women adopt their husbands' names as their own, and, in an extreme interpretation, show that they somehow belong to their spouses, Glaspell turns this custom on its head by suggesting that Mr. Hale is in someway subservient to his wife.  If the same role reversal holds true in the Wright household, then the reader should no doubt sympathize with Mrs. Wright as opposed to Mrs. Wright's husband.

I am also fascinated by Glaspell's decision to give Mrs. Wright a first name of "Minnie."  The name seems to pander to the expectation that women are demure and sweet, as it is evocative of a woman with a slight build and a certain fragility.  Though Minnie Wright (nee Foster) does not occupy much space in the text insofar as she is never present in the live action, she is indirectly the focal point of Glaspell's piece.  Mrs. Hale, Mrs. Peters and their husbands are all trying to make sense of what happens in Minnie's house.  And, if the evidence is correct, it seems as though Minnie wielded the ultimate control over her husband by deciding where, when and how his life would end. Though Minnie may not be as small and powerless as her first name suggests, the reader's inevitable sympathy for this woman puts her in the Wright.