A Jury Of Her Peers Summary

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Of all the elements explained in Perrine’s Literature, “Plot and Structure” seem to be easily identified and the most superficial. Plot can be defined simply as “What happened?” The structure, however is the complex meaning BEHIND the plot. Analyzing the short story “A Jury of Her Peers”, for example, can reveal the different aspects of plot and structure. Protagonist Minnie Wright is under the suspicion of committing murder against her late husband, John Wright. As the antagonists Martha Hale, Mr. Hale, Mr. Peters, and Mrs. Peters collaborate in an effort to solve the question of how John Wright dies, the different elements of plot are exposed. Protagonists and antagonists are both examples of plot elements. Other elements consist of conflict, suspense, mystery, surprise, various types of endings, and many more. “A Jury of Her Peers” is a wonderful short story that displays the use of these different elements in its structure. Conflict is an essential element in any story. If there’s no conflict, is there really a story? Whether it’s man to man conflict in commercial fiction or different shades of moral conflict in …show more content…
Although it is an unexpected turn or twist, surprise must be a meaningful illumination of the story, not just a reversal of expectation. Perrine teaches us that we can judge a surprise by the fairness surprise is achieved and the purpose it serves. In “A Jury of Her Peers,” the fact that Minnie Wright is assumed to be the murderer of John Wright is not as much as a surprise as the actions of the neighbors in the end: hide the biggest piece of evidence in order to protect Minnie. After Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters find the mangled, dead bird in a case away from its cage they piece together the puzzle of the mystery and realize Minnie did commit the murder. They decide to hide the bird because Minnie’s actions were for her own protection, not for pure maliciousness towards