Susan Glaspell 's A Significant Scene

During the late 19th and early 20th century in America, the rise of Feminism challenged the traditional gender roles. The female authors of this time period represented realistic aspects of women’s struggles, which often reflected limitations from society and their own lives. The three female authors who advocated women’s struggles in their writings were Sojourner Truth, Willa Cather, and Edith Wharton. In the speech to the American Equal Rights Association, Truth reveals that women do not have rights to present their voices in the court. Cather addresses women’s devastating labor life after the marriage in “A Wagner Matinee.” Likewise, in “April Shower”, Wharton portrays men’s criticism upon economically successful women. American female authors of the late 19th and early 20th century demonstrates the ideas of Feminism by men objecting to representation in politics, prohibiting career over marriage, and criticizing economic self-sufficiency.

    As a strong feminist, Susan Glaspell wrote “Trifles” and then translated it to a story called “A Jury of Her Peers.”  These works express Glaspell’s view of the way women were treated at the turn of the century.  Even though Glaspell is an acclaimed feminist, her story does not contain the traditional feminist views of equal rights for both sexes.

She is most famous by her articles that she wrote on the Hossack Case. From this murderous conviction case she created a story line of similar actions yet with a few twists and turns along the way. Though there were many similarities and quite a bit of differences, Susan Glaspell wound up creating a spine chilling and infamous play that corresponds with history in the most adequate way for a woman writer in a world filled with little rights for those women who were willing to speak their

In the 21st century, many women, myself included, take for granted that we can wear whatever we desire and say what we want, in public, without the fear of being thrown in jail. However, that was not always the case. While the fight for the continued advance of women’s rights rages on, women of the 19th century lived a very different life than the one, us women, lead today. The feminist agenda was just emerging on the horizon. One particular woman was preparing to do her part to further the cause of women’s rights: Sarah Willis Parker. Parker was better known by her pen name, Fanny Fern. After facing and overcoming extreme adversity, she made the decision to start writing. To understand how truly ground breaking Fanny Fern was, we need to understand that in a 1997 edition of an anthology of American satire from colonial times to present, Fern was the only woman writer from the 19th century in that text. Her satiric style and controversial subject matter was just what the oppressed needed to gain some support and give them a voice.

In Trifles, Susan Glaspell debates the roles between men and women during a period where a debate was not widely conducted. Glaspell wrote Trifles in the early 1900s—a time when feminism was just getting started. In this play, Glaspell shows us her perspective on the roles of men and women and how she believes the situation would play out. Trifles seems like another murder mystery on the surface, but the play has a much more profound meaning behind it. Glaspell presents the idea that men and women analyze situations differently, and how these situations are resolved based on how we interpret them. Research shows that women’s brains “may be optimized for combining analytical and intuitive thinking.” On the other hand, male brains are predominately “optimized for motor skills and actions” (Lewis). In the play, this research shows true when the women, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, analyze details rather than looking at the apparent, physical evidence, and they find out the motive of the murder. The men, on the other hand, look at broader evidence that does not lead to any substantial conclusion. When Glaspell was writing this play, she wanted the women to be the real instigators, the ones that would end up solving the mystery. While the men in the story laugh at the ‘trifles’ that women worry about, these details mean a great deal in Glaspell’s eyes. Glaspell presents the idea what men and women are different in the way they live their lives through detail.

First, Glaspell uses conflict to show the inequalities of women in the 1900’s. One conflict in the story is between the groups of investigators (The Sheriff, Hale and The County Attorney) who were there to gather clues of the murder and the woman who came to with them (Sheriffs Wife and Mrs.Hale). The men entered the house and “go at once to the stove” (8) and leave the girls standing at the entrance close together.

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.

Susan Glaspell’s one-act play covers issues regarding female oppression and patriarchal domination. The play still exists as a fascinating hybrid of murder mystery and social commentary on the oppression of women. When Margaret Hossack was charged with the murder of her sixty year old husband John, the man she had been married to for thirty three years. Killed by two blows to his head with an ax, John Hossack was thought to be a cold mannered and difficult man to be married to, but he didn’t deserve his

“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.

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.

Susan Glaspell’s Trifles is a feminist drama that involves three women, a murder, and three over-controlling male counterparts. Although this play was published in 1916, some of the issues Glaspell introduces still plague our society today. Glaspell clearly introduces a divide between men and their masculinity and women and their femininity. Throughout the drama, there are three main conflicts that all support one main thesis; Mrs. Wright versus Mr. Wright, the lawmen bashing Mrs. Wright, and the two women hiding evidence. These conflicts demonstrate the gender divide and support Glaspell’s thesis: women must stick together to support other women in times of crisis and moral conflict.

Throughout history women have struggled to be seen as equals to men. Susan Glaspell displays the oppression that occurs towards the female gender in her drama, Trifles. This drama was published in 1916, during a time when women were seen as no more than wives and mothers. The author uses a theme of gender to show the negative effects of discrimination and gender stereotypes. In the drama, Trifles, Mrs. Peters’ character develops as she questions the idea of justice. She struggles in deciding whether she should stay loyal to her husband or to her gender. Mrs. Peters feels a responsibility to obey the law because she is the sheriff’s wife, however the relatability of the murder causes her to go against her belief of legalism to obtain justice for women and for Mrs. Wright.

While Susan Glaspell was writing “Trifles” her one- act play, in the 1900s this was a thriving time in society when the male- dominance was very prominent. Women were very limited in what they could and could not do. At this time woman could not vote and had very limited power in the professional area. They were expected to obey and follow the rules their husband placed on them. They were responsible for bearing children and raising them. Many husbands viewed their wives as an object rather than a human being. They thought that women had no personal interests, goals, and cerebral freedom. This piece of literature, like other at this time, was derided for the focus on feminism. What made this play so bold is the fact it showed how women were overlooked by the male population at this time. The males dominated at this time in history. This play puts into perspective how women can fulfill a purpose past their own home.

Susan Glaspell’s Trifles is a dramatic play with satirical content that points out gender differences and how stereotyping affects perceptions of duty, justice, and law. Glaspell wrote Trifles in 1916, a time in America where women were consistently expected to be housewives and nothing more. Women’s limitations were clearly a spark of inspiration and reason for Glaspell to write Trifles, criticizing society with feministic intelligence. Therefore her critic in itself proves the problematic world that women are entangled within and how inaccurate the stereotype of a women can be. But there is an undeniable weight to Glaspell’s Trifles, being set in a 1916 a time where women could neither vote nor sit on a jury, the story gives way to feministic empowerment. The male dominated culture left women with only the task of the household and prey to hands of men’s tyranny. Glaspell’s Trifles expresses women are just as great as their counterpart if not superior.