Gender Roles In Susan Glaspell's A Jury Of Her Peers

In Susan Glaspell’s, “A Jury of her Peers”, it is the women who take center stage and captivate the reader’s emotions. Throughout the feministic short story, which was written in 1917, several repeating patterns and symbols help the audience to gain a deeper understanding of the difficulty of prairie life for women and of the bond that women share. The incredible cunning the women in the story demonstrate provides insight into the innate independence that women had even during days of deep sexual discrimination. In “A Jury of her Peers”, the hardships women of the early twentieth century must endure and the sisterhood that they can still manage to maintain are manifested as a mysterious, small-town murder unfolds.

It's not what you did, it's why you did it. Susan Glaspell's "A Jury of Her Peers" describes the murder investigation of John Wright. Townspeople assumed Minnie Wright is guilty of murdering her husband and as a result, she is imprisoned so that a group of men can inspect her home for clues. The men bring along two women, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, to gather some personal belongings for Mrs. Wright. The men search for a motive to prove Mrs. Wright’s guilt meanwhile, the women discover why she committed the crime and judge her justified in her action. Through theme, symbolism, and imagery, Glaspell illustrates that oppressed women form bonds and have a different perception of events than men.

Women yearn for their voices to speak loud enough for the entire world to hear. Women crave for their voices to travel the nations in a society where they are expected to turn the volume all the way down. The world expects females to stay quiet and ignore the pain brought onto them from sexual crime. They do not dare stand up for what they believe in or discuss their experiences that bring them pain. Poets such as Ana Castillo and Lawrence Ferlinghetti describe parts of life that society often ignores. E. E. Cummings supports the ideas of Castillo and Ferlinghetti by appropriating a more disturbing mindset. These poets demonstrate the way in which women obtained a supposable to behave and react to situations that have caused them harm or have the potential to.

A spouse is a filter for how ones significant other is viewed by society. All through the ages women have been judged by their husband’s social standing. In the short story, “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell, Mrs. Peters has to live a life of multiple roles because she is the sheriff’s wife. Having more than one role is a burden on Mrs. Peter’s, and her actions occasionally don’t comply with the ideals that are associated with and expected of a sheriff’s wife. Mrs. Peters is a very quiet person who tended to keep to herself.

“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.

In Susan Glaspell’s short story “A Jury of Her Peers”, Sheriff Henry Peters, Mrs. Peters, and George Henderson, the county attorney, go to the Wright’s house to investigate the murder of Mr. Wright. Along the way the Wright’s neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Hale, come to help aid with the investigation. The prime suspect being accused for this murder was Minnie Wright, Mr. Wright’s wife. Then the story starts to unravel as the characters walk into the Wright’s home. In the series of events in “A Jury of Her Peers”, Glaspell suggests that men subjugated women through the use of symbolism, irony, and foreshadowing.

From beginning to end, Susan Glaspell’s 1917 short story “A Jury of Her Peers,” has several repetitive patterns and symbols that help the reader gain a profound understanding of how hard life is for women at the turn-of-the-century, as well as the bonds women share. In the story two women go with their husbands and county attorney to a remote house where Mr. Wright has been killed in his bed with a rope and he suspect is Minnie, his wife. Early in the story, Mrs. Hale sympathizes with Minnie and objects to the way the male investigators are “snoopin’ round and criticizin’ ” her kitchen. In contrast, Mrs. Peters, the Sheriffs wife, shows respect for the law, saying that the men are doing “no more than their duty”. However, by the end of the story Mrs. Peters unites with Mrs. Hale in a conspiracy of silence and concealing evidence. What causes this dramatic transformation?

Susan Glaspell's short story, A Jury of Her Peers, was written long before the modern women's movement began, yet her story reveals, through Glaspell's use of symbolism, the role that women are expected to play in society. Glaspell illustrates how this highly stereotypical role can create oppression for women and also bring harm to men as well.

Sexuality has an inherent connection to human nature. Yet, even in regards to something so natural, societies throughout times have imposed expectations and gender roles upon it. Ultimately, these come to oppress women, and confine them within the limits that the world has set for them. However, society is constantly evolving, and within the past 200 years, the role of women has changed. These changes in society can be seen within the intricacies of literature in each era. Specifically, through analyzing The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, one can observe the dynamics of society in regards to the role of women through the lens of the theme of sexuality. In both novels, the confinement and oppression of women can be visibly seen as a result of these gender roles. Yet, from the time The Scarlet Letter was published to the time The Bell Jar was written, the place of women in society ultimately changed as well. Hence when evaluating the gender roles that are derived from sexuality, the difference between the portrayals of women’s oppression in each novel becomes apparent, and shows how the subjugation of women has evolved. The guiding question of this investigation is to what extent does the theme of sexuality reflect the expectations for women in society at the time each novel was written. The essay will explore how the literary elements that form each novel demonstrate each author’s independent vision which questions the

Andrea Dworkin, a prominent radical feminist, tries to explain why women fail to put themselves out from where they are: “Women have been taught that, for us, the earth is flat, and that if we venture out, we will fall off the edge.” Women are often conditioned by different factors in their life to stay in their position, especially from societal norms and expectations of them from the men in their lives. However, over time, this could be emotionally and mentally burdensome to a woman’s state of mind, leading them to nowhere. This theme of oppression is prevalent in the feminist short stories titled “A Jury of her Peers”, written by Susan Glaspell, and “Sweat”, written by Zora Neale Hurston. In these works, Glaspell and Hurston elaborate on how powerful female protagonists are able to decide for themselves, but explain their mentally-taxing processes and reasons in accomplishing such a feat. In these short stories, women are able to rise over oppression, but primarily to overcome a grief or insecurity that stems from within and after being pushed to their limits and accustomed to their roles by men.

First of all, Glaspell largely examines the repression of women in the 1900s. Women were highly looked down upon by men, and were seen mostly as housekeepers and child bearers, and were definitely not seen as intelligent people. The women in this play prove that the stereotypes against them are completely wrong. The men in this story are sent out to discover the details of a murder, while the women come along to gather some things for Mrs. Wright, who was accused of killing her husband. Throughout the play, the men mock the

Susan Glaspell, a lady of many spoken words, gives the best of both worlds by creating two stories that are closely related to one another. Mrs.Wright was the wife of the deceased Mr.Wight ,who had been strangles in his bed next to his love of his very own life.Without any culprit or motives, who is there to blame? By the use of many other characters, it must be up to them to figure out the what, who, where, and why. Glaspell’s sense of humor and broad detailing to both stories,make it very hard for a reader not to want more. While both stories utilize the same whimsical matters, their point of view, genre, and mood differ dramatically.

Susan Glaspell wrote Trifles in 1916 and later made a short story out of it. They both explain the plot of Minnie who is accused of murdering her husband. He is found dead in bed with a rope around his neck. Three men come to Minnie’s house to carry out an investigation of the murder of her husband. Due to the year the story takes place in, women didn’t have the rights they do today. This plays a significant role in the two stories as it depicts how men looked at women. A comparison of “Trifles” and “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell will explain the changes of the dialog, plot, and how they are explained.

These two stories exemplify the epitome of women’s repression in the male-dominated society of the late nineteenth century by conveying the feelings of

You can't be shining lights at the bar because you are too kind. You can never be corporation lawyers because you are not cold-blooded. You have not a high grade of intellect. You can never expect to get the fees men get. I doubt if you [can] ever make a living. Of course you can be divorce lawyers. That is a useful field. And there is another field you can have solely for your own. You can't make a living at it, but it's worthwhile and you'll have no competition. That is the free defense of criminals. (Champagne).