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CHRISTOPHER DEMUTH: Let me say a word about the other man, the man who's not there because
he was murdered the night before, John Wright. John Wright is not simply a man who has the
hard life of a farmer and providing for a home. He clearly is a terrible husband. He's
cold, he has no sympathy for his wife. I think we're not supposed to think it is simply the
perspective of Martha Hale, Mrs. Hale, but the truth of the matter that he did in a sense
kill Minnie. She used to be a singer, she used to be a happy person, and she was clearly
on the brink of a nervous breakdown at the time her canary was strangled. She had this
one little piece of happiness in her life and something happened and he came in and
he wrung the canary's neck. He killed the canary.
AMY KASS: The reader is urged really to rethink the meaning of victim in this story. Mr. Wright
is the one who's been killed, but the real trial seems to be the trial of John Wright
in particular, and of men in general, while Mrs. Wright comes to be seen as a victim.
And that has something to do with the condescending ways in which the men speak about what the
women do, not only what they do, but also their stupidity. ‘They wouldn’t even recognize
evidence if they saw it.’
DIANA SCHAUB: And it's in a way the entire male sex that is put on trial because the
behavior of the men in the story is somewhat tamped down version of what John Wright has
done to his wife.
AMY KASS: You can't help but feel some kind of sympathy for what they're doing as you
read along with this. There's one thing that's said about Mr. Wright in addition to the fact
he's reputed to be a good man in town and he doesn't drink and pays his debts and he
doesn't beat her, but Mrs. Hale says, there’s a quote, "He's like a raw wind that gets to
the bone." Now anyone with a soul in her body. . .
LEON KASS: Look, there are bad marriages, there are bad marriages, they’re very sad,
they don't generally justify killing your husband. This has got to be more than sympathy.
I didn’t say I simply sympathized with these women. They’re moved by female solidarity
in part. I’m not. I’m moved by justice.
AMY KASS: I think they are too.