How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #7
MRS. PETERS: (examining the cage) Why, look at this door. It's broke. One hinge is pulled apart.
MRS. HALE: (looking too) Looks as if someone must have been rough with it. (94-95)
Uh oh. Here's our first clue about the other murder that happened in this house. The rough way the door was ripped off its hinges immediately gives the ladies a bad feeling even though they don't know the whole story yet. You could see the image of a cage with its door violently ripped off as a symbol for the way Mrs. Wright used violence to escape the cage of her life.
Quote #8
MRS. PETERS: It's the bird.
MRS. HALE: (jumping up) But, Mrs. Peters—look at it! It's neck! Look at its neck!
It's all—other side to.MRS. PETERS: Somebody—wrung—its—neck. (114-116)
The second corpse is found and the ladies put together the whole violet story. Mrs. Wright decided the whole eye-for-an-eye philosophy was a good idea. Mr. Wright wrung the neck of her bird, so she wrung his neck. Do you think the play is saying violent revenge is the way to go? Or does it leave things a little more ambiguous than that?
Quote #9
MRS. PETERS: (in a whisper) When I was a girl—my kitten—there was a boy took a hatchet, and before my eyes—and before I could get there—(covers her face an instant) If they hadn't held me back I would have—(catches herself, looks upstairs where steps are heard, falters weakly)—hurt him. (126)
Here, Mrs. Peters admits that she had violent feelings herself once. We get it. If we watched somebody murder our kitten with a hatchet... grrrrr. Of course, even though Mrs. Peters understands Mrs. Wright's violent impulses, in the end Mrs. Peters didn't find the boy in his bed and chop him up with an axe. What does this say about the differences between the two women and the lives that helped to shape who they are?