A Jury Of Her Peers Essay

Serving on a jury is a civic duty and an American tradition. However, some people view jury duty as a chore or as an event that negatively interrupts their lives. Some independent studies have shown that even jury duty has a devastating effect on married life. Due to this and other extraneous situations, there are only a few people who actually want to serve on a jury. This may lead to efforts by potential jurors to, in some way get out of their duty in a jury. What we know of as the current jury duty system should be changed so citizens are not forced to serve in this capacity and can still be regarded as a responsible civilian. As per the status quo, a trial jury is a constitutional right, a jury of ones peers or equals. However,

Ben-Zvi, Linda. "'Murder, She Wrote': The Genesis of Susan Glaspell's Trifles." Theatre Journal, 44 (March 1992): 141-62.

Mrs. Wright eventually deteriorated just has her environment, her rocking chair, and the canary. In “Jury of Her Peers” Minnie Wright’s situation illustrates many women of the world. In the story and in our society many woman are stereotyped in the marriage to complete all home duties and take of care the children while consumed in pleasing their husband. While doing so we lose ourselves. While reading the store I also realized how blessed I am to be symbolized as a modern

Inside a room where life or death decisions are made, twelve men sit with wandering thoughts. The made up minds of some jurors are to send a boy to his death without a second thought, but one other juror may change that. Inside of the play Twelve Angry Men written by Reginald Rose, Juror 8 has the persuasive evidence to change the minds of his fellow Jurors and save a boy from his execution. The other Juror’s seem like they won’t budge with their mind set on the decision of guilty, but after Juror 8 proves his thoughts on the decision of innocent, he may just be able to save a young life.

All the men notice is clutter. The men do not look deeper behind the meanings of this disarray. However, the women do. The women understand that the reason that things such as the towels are not clean is because she more than likely was busy doing her many other chores of the household. They also considered how much trouble Mrs. Wright went to fix the preserves. The women reason that the uncaring concern John had for Minnie and the attention he paid to the house perhaps forced Minnie to resort to killing. Even the County Attorney, Sheriff, and Mr. Hale could not understand all the difficulties women go through. They criticize Mrs. Wright as well as insult all women. Mr. Hale says, "Well, women are used to worrying over trifles." The actions of just these men show how women were taken for granted in this era. Inevitably, the men are unable to prove that Mrs. Wright murdered her husband but are going to convict her anyway. However, the women have solved the case. They come to the conclusion that Mrs. Wright was not treated very well by her husband and was not able to withstand the mistreatment anymore. They could tell the lack of attention he paid to his wife. The men still have a hard time accepting this concept because they do not believe that men treat women badly.

As the women walk through the house, they begin to get a feel for what Mrs. Wright’s life is like. They notice things like the limited kitchen space, the broken stove, and the broken jars of fruit and begin to realize the day-to-day struggles that Mrs. Wright endured. The entire house has a solemn, depressing atmosphere. Mrs. Hale regretfully comments that, for this reason and the fact that Mr. Wright is a difficult man to be around, she never came to visit her old friend, Mrs. Wright.

Additionally, gender roles affect Mrs. Wright’s (also known as Minnie) reaction to oppressive marriage. Before marriage, Minnie was a carefree independent woman who was active in her community. She always dressed in pretty clothes and was one of the town girls singing in the choir (Glaspell 1111). After marriage, Minnie’s life became sad and lonely due to the lack of children and the lack of empathy and warmth from her husband. Glaspell provides the reader glimpse of Mr. Wright’s character through Mrs. Hale’s description of him being honest and upright, but he was a “hard man” and not very amiable (1114). The Wright’s marriage is a perfect example of the effects of traditional gender roles. Mr. Wright represents the traditional role of male dominance in marriage by controlling Minnie’s life through isolation and removing anything that would bring her happiness. Although Minnie became submissive in order to conform to the demands of her husband, she took back control when she murdered her husband in the same fashion as he did to her pet canary (1116).

In the eyes of the general public, the fight for women’s rights throughout the 19th and 20th century tends to be perceived as a united fight where women of all ages simultaneously broke glass ceilings and transcended societal expectation. However, for most women in the United States during this era, marriage and child rearing were the most prevalent factor in their lives, thrust upon them at an early age. Along with the societal expectation of becoming a mother-woman, society expected women to marry very young. If a woman entered a marriage as an immature girl, she would be unable to fulfill this expectation and would act in childish ways; this led to detrimental consequences. As suggested by the nature and behaviors of children, Edna Pontellier

In the movie ‘Rear Window’ by Alfred Hitchcock, there is a distinct view of the world and how, in the director’s opinion, men and women fit in. It helped pinpoint some recurring elements about men and women and how they interact together. Men are shown as damaged and needing help, while women are shown as caregivers. Throughout the movie, feminine independence and strength are shown multiple times through the characters and their dialogs, despite taking place during a time period where men were dominate. Feminism plays an important role in the film throughout several different scenes.

Finally, the reader is introduced to the character around whom the story is centered, the accursed murderess, Mrs. Wright. She is depicted to be a person of great life and vitality in her younger years, yet her life as Mrs. Wright is portrayed as one of grim sameness, maintaining a humorless daily grind, devoid of life as one regards it in a normal social sense. Although it is clear to the reader that Mrs. Wright is indeed the culprit, she is portrayed sympathetically because of that very lack of normalcy in her daily routine. Where she was once a girl of fun and laughter, it is clear that over the years she has been forced into a reclusive shell by a marriage to a man who has been singularly oppressive. It is equally clear that she finally was brought to her personal breaking point, dealing with her situation in a manner that was at once final and yet inconclusive, depending on the outcome of the legal investigation. It is notable that regardless of the outcome, Mrs. Wright had finally realized a state of peace within herself, a state which had been denied her for the duration of her relationship with the deceased.

Trifles and “A Jury of Her Peers” are two texts written by Susan Glaspell about the mysterious death of John Wright. These two stories consist of the same plot, but are both written with a different genre and point of view. Trifles is a drama while “A Jury of Her Peers” is a short story. The point of view of Trifles is third person objective, and the point of view of “Jury of Her Peers” is written in third person limited. Although the texts have the same plot, the knowledge of the reader is affected by the different genre and point of view of each text.

Mrs. Minnie Foster had killed her husband in his sleep. In the story, the men’s failure to recognize the small details that must be related to the murder tells how men value themselves and not so emotional that the women successfully taken into account and led them to the truth or the missing link. (“ Introduction”) The messy kitchen, the quilt, the bird cage, the dead canary wrapped in a silk clothing, and other things and parts of the house were considered as trifles by the men, which were given accreditation and life by the women. This suggests that women need accreditation.

The attorney asks Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, “Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies” (620)? Later, a half-cleaned table and a loaf of bread out of its box are noted by the ladies. If we are to presume guilt on the part of Mrs. Wright, it is difficult not to

When the men leave the kitchen the ladies then feel free to look around. They gently handle the unbroken fruit knowing how much work it involved. The empty rocking chair strikes a nerve in them that the owner is gone from her somber kitchen. The women set about their duties of gathering up clothes for Mrs. Wright in a businesslike way.

Hale had often thought of visiting Minnie Wright but had been discouraged by the environment, not to mention her own households’ needs. Behind padlocked doors Mrs. Wright was being influenced by her husband, who was known by Mrs. Hale to be a “hard man”(Glaspell 1392) that remained burdensome to get along with up until his last