First we must ask ourselves, what is it that truly classifies a woman to be 'battered?' "We consider a woman to be battered if she is subjected repeatedly to coercive behavior (physical, sexual, or psychological) by a man attempting to force her to do what he wants her to do regardless of her own desires, rights, or best interests" (Walker 102). We are not able to hear directly from Mrs. Wright in Glaspell's play. The evidence and clues that lead us to believe that Mr

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le makes many references to Mr. Hale as being a "hard man." As she continues to speak of Mr. Wright she shivers as she says "Just to pass the time of day with him- Like a raw wind that gets to the bone." This proves that there was indeed something about Mr. Wright that was quite terrifying and implies that he obviously was an intimidating man. Mrs. Hale also goes onto describe the home of the Wright's as a "lonesome place" and that the reason she chose to stay away was because "it weren't a cheerful place." She elaborates on that idea by adding "But I don't think a place'd be any cheerfuller for John Wright's being in it." The Wright's neighbor, Hale, also made a statement concerning the neglection of Mrs. Wright's opinion or desires by her husband. Mr. Hale was speaking about coming by to see if he could mention a 'party line' to Mr. Wright in front of his wife hoping that it would possibly persuade him as he said "...but I thought maybe if I went to the house and talk!

Mrs. Wright was trapped, with no means nor power to free herself. The only thing that seemed to have kept her going was her pet canary. When her husband killed that canary he had also killed the only life that had sustained in his wife. "As a way to terrorize and control their women, batterers have even been known to hold pets hostage." (Walker 76) In Mrs. Wright's case, not only did her husband hold the canary hostage, he actually killed it. This incident could very well be what put Mrs. Wright into her temporary "insanity" (or "sanity" in my own opinion) state as she murdered her batterer, Mr. Wright. "In context, the 'crazy' actions of battered women may actually be effective survival techniques" (Walker 171). All of Mrs. Wright's fear and anger were surfaced giving her the strength to fight for what he had taken from her. That canary seemed to have been all that she had left. Not only was she fighting for the life of the canary, but also for her own life. She !

was fighting back for all of the times that she had remained timid in the face of her husband's tyranny. Many battered women, after killing their batterers, are in a state of shock. This is the state that Mrs. Wright is perceived to be in when Mr. Hale had arrived at the Wright farm. Hale described that when he arrived to the Wright's home that morning, Mrs. Wright "looked queer." He mentioned that the way

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Approximate Word count = 1654
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)