Glaspell

Glaspell uses a wide variety of symbolism to give out certain ideas about what happened in this house. There was a crime set and the items are rhetorically showing the idea, but not logically which is why they say that there is really no evidence. Glaspell uses the objects at the crime scene not only to prove the woman guilty, but he gives the differences of detective work between the men and the ladies which led them each, to their differing conclusions. He creates a dual-sleuth atmosphere where each group comes up with a conclusion with their own sets of evidence.
The ladies talk about Ms. Wright alone while they walk around the house. They Mrs. Hale claimed, “Wright was closed,” indirectly meaning that she kept everything to herself (Glaspell 14). She kept all of her emotions inside and when they decide to come out, it can be dangerous, specifically for her husband. Not only was she closed, but she claimed that Mrs. Wright and her husband did not get together. That definitely is not a good thing for a bottled up woman. Also the description of the things she had sitting around her house—her rotten fruit, the half-clean half-dirty towel, the quilt, and the bird cage—raises some eyebrows about that really went on there that left her stuff that way. Then men laughed as the women wondered if Mrs. Wright was going to quilt or knot her sowing design (Glaspell 17). They also find another one that is nice at the start but messy and incomplete near the end which is a symbol of her marriage (Glaspell 18). Her marriage began very nice, as every marriage does, but then it got messy and was incomplete by the end with “bad sewing” or issues in the marriage. The men don’t touch or even pay attention to the sewing which is also their marriage while the relationship and motive is all the ladies talk about. The women are underestimated in this story, but it is them who come up with the actual case.
Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters also found the most important piece of evidence. There was a bird that had its neck wrung until it was dead. This canary could be the spirit of Mrs. Wright that was killed by Mr. Wright —which could explain the sewing—since Mrs. Hale knew Mr. Wright (Glaspell 26). In return she killed him the exact same way he killed her. Here is the motive for what she did. This idea is also proven by the interview Hale had with Mrs. Wright when he asked for Mr. Wright and she laughed and said “He’s dead,” (Glaspell 6). These women knew what they were talking about because most of the attention was given to the women in the story as the men did their searching. As the men neglect their ideas they end up being exactly right. The case could not be completely solved with just the sheriff and attorney’s work because they did not have a motive. The women found that easily. It can be said that Glaspell mocks their detective work because the attention is all on the women and they knew the victim and suspect and claims them as smarter. Mrs. Wright was also smarter because such a simple way of murdering someone and an easy lie led them to a dead end. It is obvious that she did it, but they cannot prove it. The women’s gossip led them where the men’s evidence stopped along with the evidence and the untidiness of the house splits their methods, and gives a complete case to the audience, but leaves the characters in the dark.