What attitudes toward women do the Sheriff and the County Attorney express?
How do Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters react to these sentiments?
2.Why does the County Attorney care so much about discovering a motive for the killing?
3.What does Glaspell show us about the position of women in this early twentieth-century community?
4.What do we learn about the married life of the Wrights? By what means is this knowledge revealed to us?
5.What is the setting of this play, and how does it help us to understand Mrs. Wright’s deed?
6.What do you infer from the wildly stitched block in Minnie’s quilt? Why does Mrs. Hale rip out the crazy stitches?
7.What is so suggestive in the ruined birdcage and the dead canary wrapped in silk? What do these objects have to do with Minnie Foster Wright? What similarity do you notice between the way the canary died and John Wright’s own death?
8.What thoughts and memories confirm Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale in their decision to help Minnie beat the murder rap?
9.In what places does Mrs. Peters show that she is trying to be a loyal, law-abiding sheriff’s wife? How do she and Mrs. Hale differ in background and temperament?10.What ironies does the play contain? Comment on Mrs. Hale’s closing speech: "We call it –knot it, Mr. Henderson." Why is that little hesitation before "knot it" such a meaningful pause? 11.Point out some moments in the play when the playwright conveys much to the audience without needing dialogue.
12.How would you sum up the play’s major theme?
