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What picture of Minnie Foster (after her marriage) does her conversation with Mrs. Peters help the reader develop? What does hiding the bird say...

Mrs. Hale is a dynamic and round character in the story "A Jury of Her Peers." Even though she always suspects something is not entirely clear at the scene of the crime, her discoveries continuously make her more sure of her assertions, and about her views on the case.


As such, she is able to create a mental tableau of the life of Minnie Wright. She already knew Minnie, whose maiden name was "Foster" before Minnie married John Wright. She describes a very different person from the nervous, anxiety-ridden woman now being held at the county jail because she is expected of murdering her husband.


Mrs. Hale explains that Minnie Foster, the name she prefers to use for Minnie Wright, was a much happier woman before she married.



She used to wear pretty clothes and be lively—when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls, singing in the choir. But that—oh, that was twenty years ago."



Still, Mrs. Hale is able to show compassion toward the woman who now awaits her fate by a future jury of her peers; a woman who is a mere memory of who she was. She no longer has any of her former youth or beauty as a result of an unhappy and abusive marriage.



I s'pose she felt she couldn't do her part; and then, you don't enjoy things when you feel shabby.



When Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters discover the dead bird and busted canary cage, they are able to piece together the night's events. John Wright must have killed Minnie Foster's only source of joy, her canary, and that caused her to snap and kill him.


Because of their mutual understanding of Minnie's sad situation, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters silently agree to hide the evidence of the bird. This is because it could have been used as evidence to establish a motive for murder. Since this could incriminate Minnie, and the women knew that a jury of her peers is likely to find Minnie guilty and put her to death, they choose to hide it. They believe Minnie murdering her husband was justified.

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