Society: The Breaker and Punisher

In A Jury of Her Peers, though Mrs Wright is not present in the story, her story is told with her household items.  They disclose evidence that she had a conflict with her personal individuality and conformity.  She was thought to be a regular woman, who was like all other women.  It was thought that she conformed much like the other women.  In the societal setting in the book, it was a time when women were thought of as a much lesser gender.  This is shown when the men laugh at the women taking interest in the kitchen and quilting.  The women are expected to do what they're told, keep things clean and be quiet about it.

Societal expectations changed Mrs. Wright's individual personality.  At the time of the story, she is in jail and her house is described using words such as lonesome and not cheerful.  I conclude from the story that her household and living environment is gloomy and not homey at all. This is not the way she used to be.  Hrs. Hale describes her before getting married 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" (99).
Throughout the story, it is apparent that Mrs. Wright's home life was dangerous and it ruined her.  She was most likely abused and unappreciated by her husband. She was stuck in a lonely house and no one visited her.  She was at the back of everyone's mind because she was a women.  Societies expectations of her not only hurt her physically and mentally but it completely changed her and broke her of who she really was--a cheery, happy girl who enjoyed life.  The community also ignored it, or chose not to see it, and she finally broke.  She is being punitively punished by society for breaking because of the situation society put her in.