I really liked this one! Like “The Yellow Wallpaper,” this story (written in 1917) explores the subjugation of women and how, in their small way, two women take control of a bad situation.

Mrs. Hale is asked to accompany Mrs. Peters, the sheriff’s wife, to the scene of a suspected murder. Mrs. Peters is retrieving clothes, etc. for Minnie (Foster) Wright, who is in jail under suspicion of murdering her husband. When they get to the home, the lawyer Mr. Henderson and even, to a smaller degree, Mr. Hale and Sheriff Peters say sexist things to the women, regarding Minnie’s messy kitchen, how she was concerned about her canned fruit, how she requested an apron, and just an overall denigration of the women as merely housekeepers. While the men go and investigate the scene of the crime, the women talk and end up finding an empty bird cage and then the dead bird (snapped neck) wrapped up in Minnie’s sewing kit. Mrs. Hale laments how before she was married, Minnie was a glorious singer and how she herself didn’t go visit the obviously lonely Minnie very often. The women end up hiding the bird from the men, deciding that Minnie killed her husband after years of overbearing behavior and after he killed her beloved bird.

Interestingly, Glaspell wrote this after she witnessed a similar case while she was a journalist and, I’m sure, based on the realities of a woman’s life and lack of rights during her time. The dynamics between the men and the women here are fascinating and I really like how the suspense is built up: you know Minnie killed him but you want to know the why/how of it all. The sexist comments by Mr. Henderson especially get more and more infuriating and work to help the reader sympathize with Minnie and Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters. Glaspell does a great job hinting at the ending, how Mrs. Hale and the even more timid Mrs. Peters are going to conspire in solidarity to help Minnie out. This mix of a whodunit with an exploration of gender dynamics during the early 1900s is wonderful. I highly recommend it!