A Comparison between “Trifles” and “A Jury of Her Peers” Susan Keating Glaspell was an American playwright, novelist, journalist and actress. She was born July 1, 1876, in Davenport, Iowa. To most readers Susan Glaspell (1876-1948) is still known primarily as the author of Trifles, the frequently anthologized, classic feminist play about two women’s secret discovery of a wife’s murder of her husband, or the short-story “A Jury of Her Peers,” a re-writing of that piece. “Trifles” and “A Jury of Her Peers” are extremely similar to one another in almost every respect. Much of the dialogue is lifted directly from the play and placed into the short story. Additionally, all of the plot points are the same, with some insignificant differences. An …show more content…
In “A Jury of Her Peers,” men and women have distinctly different gender roles and the story portrays the different opportunities available to men and women both in terms of the division of labor and in society as a whole. This world is controlled by men because social rules restrict women’s ability to move about, to choose their own interests, or to exist as separate beings from their husbands. Minnie Wright and Martha Hale are continuously defined as housekeepers. The responsibilities of caring for a house, and a kitchen in particular, are linked only to women. Martha Hale still thinks of Minnie Wright as Minnie Foster, emphasizing the identity change each woman undergoes when she marries and takes her husband’s name as her own, when she becomes defined by her husband’s identity and her own separate personality is lost. One aspect of this social subjugation of women explored in the story is the loneliness that results from being stuck in the home. Men have each other’s company, but women must remain at home, alone. A childless woman, like Minnie Wright, would have felt this loneliness even more …show more content…
The male characters add to these social rules and expectations with a more personalized form of oppression: by belittling individual women for their weaknesses and their interests. Mr. Peters mocks his own wife’s fear of traveling to the home that is the scene of a murder. The men repeatedly say that the items in the kitchen, or the items Mrs. Wright has requested in prison, are below their notice. In this way, the men devalue the women by devaluing the only things that have been left to the control of women. In many ways, Mrs. Peters and Martha Hale accept the treatment they receive from the male characters. In fact, they contribute to the gender roles by believing certain things are only the men’s responsibility, such as finding serious evidence. Over the course of the story, though, the women are able to acknowledge their situation to themselves and to each other. They are united by Minnie’s predicament because they see that they each have experienced the loneliness, isolation, and mistreatment that led her to kill her husband. In recognizing their shared experience through Minnie’s tragic dilemma, the women begin to see themselves as part of a group of all women, and they are unwilling to judge another women who experienced the same subjugation. In concealing the evidence of Minnie’s motive, the dead bird, the women stand up against the oppression they’ve experienced by creating a
“A Jury of Her Peers” is refers to the people who are judging Minnie Wright for her crime. In the story, Mrs. Hale and the sheriff’s wife, Mrs. Peters, are the peers whom the author is referring to and who are judging Minnie Wright. These women know Mrs. Wright and their views of her are altered by the fact that she is their neighbor and also a woman. The women feel sorry for Mrs. Wright because her husband was emotionally abusive to her. They do not pay attention to the fact that she did indeed kill someone. If Susan Glaspell had really wanted women to be treated just like men, she would have written the story so that Minnie Wright had a normal trial. Minnie Wright should have gotten a trial with a jury consisting of people who did not know her or anything about her past.
The “Jury of her Peers” and Trifles by Susan Glaspell are both comparable in many ways, they also have some vast differences to consider.
“Trifles” and “A Jury of Her Peers” are extremely similar to one another. Most of the dialogue is taken directly from the play and placed into the short story. There are two main differences: the first is the difference between the titles and the second is the difference in characterization.
Has justice ever been served outside of the courts? Two stories, “Trifles,” and “ A Jury of Her Peers,” are both written by Susan Glaspell. They both tell the same story except, they are told from two different points of view. The two points of view keep quotes from characters the same, but it changes what kinds of details the reader is given.
“A jury of her Peers” and Trifles are works of literature. In these works, they depict the murder of Mr. Wright. The men accuse Mrs. Wright to the murder of her husband, however are they are trying to find evidence to prove this. Both works are loosely based on the murder of John Hossack, which Glaspell reported on while working as a news journalist for the Des Moines Daily News. Hossack's wife, Margaret, was accused of killing her husband. However, Margaret argued that an intruder had killed John with an axe. She was convicted but it was overturned on appeal. In the play Trifles and the short story “A Jury of her Peers”, Susan Glaspell conveys how she transforms the play to the short story by change in the plot, the characters, and the themes of Female vs men and freedom
Between December 1st and 2nd 1900, John Hossack (a farmer from Warren County, Iowa) was murdered with an ax by his wife while in bed (Iowa Cold Cases, Inc). This play was inspired by the true story of Margaret Hossack, an Iowa farm wife who was charged with the murder of her husband John. One of the reporters, Susan Glaspell, decided to write a literary version of this investigation and “Trifles” came to be. Susan Glaspell is a feminist writer from Davenport, Iowa who started off writing for a newspaper called Des Moines Daily News. Later on in her literary career she left the journalism industry and founded a theatrical organization called ‘Provincetown Players’ on Cape Cod, Massachusetts (Waterman). In Trifles, Susan Glaspell exposes women’s suffrage through a feminist voice by covering issues regarding female oppression and patriarchal domination and symbolically illustrating the 19th century married woman as a caged bird.
“A Jury of Her Peers” is a short story written by Susan Glaspell in 1917 illustrates early feminist literature. The two female characters, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, is able to solve the mystery of who the murderer of John Wright while their male counterparts could not. This short story had been adapted from Glaspell’s one-act play Trifles written the previous year. The play consists of the same characters and plotline as the story. In both works, Glaspell depicts how the men, Sheriff Peters and Mr. Hale, disregard the most important area in the house, the kitchen, when it comes to their investigation. In the end, the women are the ones who find clues that lead to the conclusion of Minnie Wright, John Wright’s wife, is the one who murdered him. Both of Glaspell’s female characters illustrate the ability to step into a male dominated profession by taking on the role of detective. According to Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide, written by Lois Tyson, a reader-response critique “focuses on readers’ response to literary texts” and it’s a diverse area (169). Through a reader-response criticism from a feminist lens, we are able to analyze how “A Jury of Her Peers” and Trifles depict how a patriarchal society oppresses women in the early twentieth century, gender stereotypes confined both men and women and the emergence of the New Woman is illustrated.
One critic, Leonard Mustazza, argues that Mrs. Hale recruits Mrs. Peters “as a fellow ‘juror’ in the case, moving the sheriff’s wife away from her sympathy for her husband’s position and towards identification with the accused woman” (494). Though this is true, Mrs. Peters also comes to her own understanding. What she sees in the kitchen led her to understand Minnie’s lonely plight as the wife of an abusive farmer. The first evidence Mrs. Peters reaches understanding on her own surfaces in the following passage: “The sheriff’s wife had looked from the stove to the sink to the pail of water which had been
Mrs. Peters is the sheriff's wife and in the beginning of the story she believes that "the law is the law". (paragraph 143). As the story progresses, Mrs. Peters gains a better understanding of what life was like for Minnie and relates with her after the dead bird is found. "When I was a girl,' said Mrs. Peters, under her breath, 'my kitten -- there was a boy took a hatchet, and before my eyes -- before I could get there --' she covered her face an instant. 'If they hadn't held me back I would have' -- she caught herself, looked upstairs where footsteps were heard, and finished weakly -- 'hurt him.' "(paragraph 242). After Mrs. Peters has told Mrs. Hale this, she tells her something else that shows she is bonding with Minnie. "I know what stillness is,' she said, in a queer, monotonous voice. 'When we were homesteaded in Dakota, and my first baby died -- after he was two years old -- and me with no other then --'." (paragraph 254). Glaspell shows that Mrs. Peters is understanding and bonding
“Trifles” a play written by Susan Glaspell is also a short story named “A Jury of her Peers”. These two forms of writing that are similar in many regards but somewhat different when taken a closer look through. The following with compare and contrast the genres of the story, give a detailed reasoning on why one is better than the other, and a preference on which title is better and alludes more to the writing.
In the short story "A Jury of Her Peers" a woman named Minnie Wright is accused of the murder of her husband. Minnie Wright is a farmer's wife and is also isolated from the out side world. There is an investigation that takes place in the home of the murder. There are three men that are involved on the case and two women accompany, but are not there to really help solve the murder. These two women will
“A Jury of Her Peers” and Trifles are both written by Susan Glaspell. Susan Glaspell wrote many things that showed women’s role in society. Both writings tell a story about a man, John Wright, that was mysteriously murdered in his sleep. The men in the story are trying to solve the mystery, but look down on the women and their opinions. The women are the ones that end up finding most of the mystery solving clues. Susan Glaspell hides many messages in her writings. “A Jury of Her Peers” and Trifles are the same story, but have different components also set up differently.
Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles” is a dark, minimal, one act play that leaves you with more questions in the end. It tells a lot of story without using a lot of resources. So, I of course loved it. The use of language is great, “'He died of a rope round his neck” (Roberts, 985) works well with its matter of fact timing from Mrs. Wright. The time in America that this is set, assuming turn of the century America, works in its favor as well; we know that women were not treated favorably during this time. All of
Another major issue presented to readers revolves around justice and judgment- pointedly if distinctions like guilty or innocent can even be drawn in such the circumstances of Trifles. An undeniable fact of this play is that the characters: Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, after solving the mystery, save the murderer from persecution by hiding their findings. Many readers come to question whether the characters are morally right in helping Mrs. Wright, or despite the emotionally just act, are they still wrong in defying the law. Before the subsequent revelations Mrs. Peters, the Sheriff's wife, appears indifferent to the plight of Mrs. Wright. During one exchange this is quite apparent: “MRS. HALE: I'd hate to have men coming into my kitchen, snooping around and criticizing. [...]MRS. PETERS: Of course it's no more than their duty.” (act one, 51-52) Mrs. Peters, the ever faithful textbook loyal wife defends her husband's job and position to a questioning Mrs. Hale. As the play continues Mrs. Hale fully explains the disposition of Mr. Wright and the inferred abuses his wife suffered. Both women contemplate and ponder the cruelties of men. The at first indifferent figure shares: “When I was a girl--my kitten--there was a boy took a hatchet, and before my eyes--and before I could get there-- If they hadn't held me back, I would have--hurt him.” (Mrs. Peters, act 1) This confession was made after the discovery of Mrs. Wright’s dead bird. The woman in questions beloved canary
The overall theme of “A Jury of Her Peers” is that stereotypes can hinder one’s own judgment. Throughout the story, the county attorney and Mr. Hale spits out sexist remarks toward the women characters of the short story. For example, Mr. Hale remarks, “But would the women know a clue if they did come upon it!” after the county attorney asked his wife to keep a look out for clues (Arp and Johnson 557). However, it is the women who found out that Minnie Foster killed her husband because she was being abused when describing John Wright as a “hard man” and