A Jury to Her Peers

In the short story, "A Jury to her Peers", Susan Glaspell creates an extended metaphor between the yellow canary and Minnie Foster. A canary sings beautifully like Minnie had before marrying Mr. Wright. Mrs. Hale reminisces on her, saying, "I wish you'd seen Minnie Foster when she wore a white dress with blue ribbons, and stood up there in the choir and sang (423)." After her marriage, Minnie had been caged by Mr. Wright. She could not be herself as she lives in her own house. Mr. Wright is a man that dislikes extra noise and color. They did not have children and live far away from Mrs. Hale, who did not visit in the past year. Finally, Mr. Wright killed the bird by strangulation because it sang. Finally, Minnie could not handle her situation and decided to kill her husband. Her revenge is strangulation, the same act that killed her bird. Now, the metaphor shifts. The bird now is compared to Mr. Wright, and Minnie set herself free.