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Susan Glaspell 's A Jury Of Her Peers

Decent Essays
The subordination of women was a prominent theme in the 1900’s, during a time when women were often treated as second class citizens to men. Susan Glaspell wrote the play “Trifles,” in 1916, which portrayed how women’s lives were seen as less significant throughout American society. The following year, Glaspell wrote the short story “A Jury of Her Peers,” which was essentially a longer and more detailed version of “Trifles.” The stories are alike in many societal implications, since “A Jury of Her Peers” was based off of “Trifles.” However, they also have some notable differences. The most striking distinction between the two stories would have to be the significance of the titles and the portrayal of the characters. These differences…show more content…
In the play “Trifles,” the characters use communication in the form of visuals, stage actions, and body language. This differs from “A Jury of Her Peers,” where the women describe how they feel with descriptive language. For instance, in A Jury of Her Peers, the reader can tell some of what the women are feeling. Evidence of how the women feel and think is shown on p.5 in “A Jury of Her Peers” when it says “She thought of the flour in her kitchen at home…” and continues describing about Mrs. Hale’s thoughts. Not only that, but the short story is very detailed when it comes to the characters and what they are feeling. This can be observed on p. 8 in “A jury of Her Peers” when the text says “Again their eyes met-- startled, questioning, apprehensive…” The short story uses a lot of expressive language to capture how the women feel. The play does not show exactly how the female roles feel. In the play the observer can see what gestures the characters make and what they say, but the observer never really knows how the characters are feeling. There are times when the play used descriptive language in the stage directions. In Trifles, one stage direction stated “(in a frightened voice),” but other than that there was not much descriptive language. Compared to the short story, the play was considerably less descriptive and express how the women felt. The short story is more detailed and it helps the reader empathize with Minnie Foster
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