...| |A Jury of Her Peers | | |by Susan Glaspell | | |When Martha Hale opened the storm-door and got a cut of the north wind, she ran back for her big woolen scarf. As she | | |hurriedly wound that round her head her eye made a scandalized sweep of her kitchen. It was no ordinary thing that | | |called her away--it was probably further from ordinary than anything that had ever happened in Dickson County. But what | | |her eye took in was that her kitchen was in no shape for leaving: her bread all ready for mixing, half the flour sifted | | |and half unsifted. | | |She hated to see things half done; but she had been at that when the team from town stopped to get Mr. Hale, and then | | |the sheriff came running in to say his wife wished Mrs. Hale would come too--adding, with a grin, that he guessed she | | |was getting scary and wanted another woman along. So she had dropped everything right where it was. | | |"Martha!" now came her husband's impatient voice. "Don't keep folks waiting out here in the cold." | | |She again opened the storm-door, and this time joined the three men and the one woman waiting for her in the big...
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...issues, it’s probably difficult for a young woman in today’s society to imagine a time when their rights were equal to men’s. Nevertheless, by reading the short story “A Jury of Her Peers”, written by Susan Glaspell, one can gain insight into a time of clearly delineated gender roles and inequality. Having been composed prior to the feminist movement, the disturbing picture painted by Glaspell shows the roles women played or unwilling played due to society’s gender expectations. Despite the trivializing treatment from the men in this story, the women and their knowledge are found to be more useful in solving the murder of Mr. Wright. “A Jury of Her Peers” is considered a feminist classic and demonstrates the difficult circumstances of women in a society dominated by males. In telling the story of Minnie Wright, Susan Glaspell uses Mrs. Peters and Martha Hale, the two main characters. Throughout the story, Minnie Wright is held in captivity as the prime suspect in her husband’s murder case. To display women’s inferiority to men at this time, symbolism is used, as well as the motive that led to the murder: the abuse and deterioration of Minnie Wright. Some critics believe “A Jury of Her Peers” is based on a real murder...
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...accepting by her family, she had no one and all she needed was family or a friend. “A Jury of Her Peers” writtenby Susan Glaspellreveals a short story, of the struggle of women in a male-dominated society. Minnie Foster Wright who is in jail, because the police think that she strangled her husband. Police looked around her house while Mrs. Hale stayed with Mrs. Wright. While police are looking around the house, the two women from the community look around the kitchen to see what clues they can find to figure out why Minnie would do this. They notice isolated existence and broken furniture and ragged clothes that she was forced to wear because of her husband. The story shows women in a male-dominated society, it shows how men accused her of just murdering her husband but not taking the time to understand why she might have did it. The police look around the home to see if they see the weapon but find nothing. It goes to show that, that’s all they cared about finding the weapon and just locking her up. Mrs. Hale described Minnie “ she was like a bird” (192) saying this before her husband died. Some of the symbols that were used in the story were, a jar of cherries a bird, a quilt, the kitchen and the type of knot that was used for the quilt. The three men are trying to find something that can keep Minnie looked up but can’t seem to find anything. Glaspell uses symbolism to...
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...“The Story of an Hour” and “A Jury of her Peers” In the “Story of an Hour”, Kate Chopin, a renowned feminist author of the 19th century and “A Jury of her peers” by Susan Glaspell outline views of marriage as an undeserving institution for women. Chopin goes ahead to depict an unusual idea that married women get to enjoy the free world and experience happiness with the passing on of their husbands. Louise’s husband, Mallard is a fairly caring man for as the author states; his wife had loved him- sometimes. She must have failed to love him sometimes since he had been a bully to her, a real chauvinist. Such judgments about Mallard can be drawn from the context of the story based on the fact that he, like Mr. Wright in Susan Glaspell’s “A jury of her peers”, was a controlling man to his wife. As Louise suffers from heart disease, her sister Josephine delivers to her the message of her husband’s death with great care, “in broken sentences”, with his husband’s friend Richard near her. This information is verified by the fact that Richard had been in the newspaper office at the time, which the names of the train accident’s victims were released, and Brently Mallard’s name was among them, in fact, it was on top of the list. This information was additionally verified by a second telegram to the office. Louise wept briefly in the presence of her sister and Richard then isolated herself in her room. There, details relating to nature like quivering trees, twittering sparrows and the...
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... They stick together. In the short story “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell, Mrs.Hayes and Mrs.Peter work together to save Minnie Foster. They realized that they as women needed to stick together. The men were out and about looking for clues about who killed Minnie Foster’s husband. While the clues were right in front of them. All the trifles were in plain sight, the men and women saw it.The trifles that the men found as “useless” clues, the women could find the truth. The trifles symbolized the strength and bond that only the women shared and understood. Miss Minnie Foster left a “nice mess” in her house when she left (6) . At least that's what the men see. Everything that was in the kitchen that they saw, that was a “mess” -- the exploded jars, the dirty towels, and the unfinished work --was a key part of the murder. While Mrs. Hales was sympathetic about Mrs. Foster's jars exploding the men laughed about how she's “held for murder, and worrying about her preserves” (6). The women understood the hard work and dedication that was...
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...common complaint: having an atrocious husband. The two of these women unwilling wiped out their spouses in uncommon ways. In Roald Dahl’s "Lamb to the Slaughter", Ms. Maloney realizes some dreadful news, which later follows with her obtaining the urge to kill her husband with a frozen lamb leg. On the other hand, in Susan Glaspell's "A Jury of Her Peers", an abundant amount of events led to Winnie Foster's Unexpected murdering of her husband. If a reader studies both characters in full, they would conclude one must have more sympathy for Ms. Maloney than poor old Ms. Foster due to her finding out her husband is leaving her and having to raise a child by herself now....
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...Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers” provokes a contemplation on the differences between men and women through the examination of a murder scene. The story begins with an interview of the people who first found the body of Mr. Wright, and the social rift between men and women becomes more evident as the men scrutinize the state of the kitchen. The men then leave to examine the rest of the property as the women busy themselves with gathering the requested items of Minnie Wright. While doing so the women discover the motive for the murder, and they decide to keep the evidence to themselves. Because of Glaspell’s choice of point of view the readers are able to see the importance of the difference between men and women. To begin, the women’s thoughts and actions allow the readers to gain insight on what happened in the house while the men are dismissive towards the details that could allow them to discover the cause of the murder. The women’s perspective allows the readers to see that the housework seemed to be interrupted instead of it being neglected. The county attorney states, “Dirty towels! Not much of housekeeper, would you say ladies?” by...
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...Recognizing symbols while reading literature is important. What is symbolism? A word, object, or person that means something in addition to itself. Susan Glaspell used a lot of symbolism in her story A Jury of Her Peers. A few of the symbols are the basket, the bird, and the birdcage. All of the symbols affect our reading of the story as well as the characters in the story. The basket represents the Wright’s house and clue of murder weapon. The basket was the place where the investigators found the dead bird as well as the house was the place where the investigators found the body of Mr. Wright. The basket represents the evidence of the murders. “They turning to the sewing basket’’(p.564) ’’There’s something wrapped up in this piece of silk.” (p.565) The basket was a clue to the murder weapon, because the women found out about the quilt pieces. The women found Mrs. Wright was good with knotting rope together which is the weapon that was used to kill Mr. Wright. “We think, that she was going to knot it.” (p.565)...
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...treatment in their literature works. In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, a woman is informed that her husband has passed away from an accident. At the arrival of this news, the wife is in grief, but shortly afterwards, she is beyond jubilant that her husband passed away. In the short story, “Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell, two women find multiple pieces of evidence against a woman who killed her husband, which are viewed as trifles by the men. The men in “Jury of Her Peers” guffaw at the women several times throughout this story. Both authors of these two short stories use these literature works to enlighten their audience...
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...held true. "A Jury of Her Peers" depicts how women were expected to keep the house in order and represent their husband Women who lived in rural areas during the progressive era were expected to equally share work with their husbands. They were in charge of all of the house work, keeping the house in order, as well as helping out in the barn. At the beginning of "A Jury of Her Peers" Martha Hale is called away from her house to help with the crime scene and the only thing "her eye took in was that her kitchen...
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...is different for many people. Some prefer action, others scenic narratives, and some even the gory details. Though, for the people such as myself, what makes a story compelling is the symbols. “Jury of Her Peers”, a short story written by Susan Glaspell which is based off of her editorial piece, “The Hossack Murder”, contains numerous symbols throughout the pages. Such symbols include the canary and, of course, the broken fruit jars. These symbols are what make this short story a compelling fictional recreation of a real event. The symbol of the canary is likely the most dominant symbol in the short story. It would sing and sing and then it stopped once it was murdered. The poor canary was the only thing...
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...power over her life from her husband. Susan Glaspell also exposes these values throughout “A Jury of Her Peers.” Glaspell’s short story illustrates husbands suppressing intelligent women women being suppressed by their husbands resulting in these women who develop an increased desire to regain control over their own lives....
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...The short story “A Jury of Her Peers” revolves around Minnie wright, she is the main focus of a murder investigation. The story shifts views to two women, Mrs. Peter and Mrs. Hale who are internally struggling to decide their verdict on Minnie as well as deciding her faith. Throughout the story, the reader gets a glimpse of the struggle women face living in a world controlled by men. Susan Glaspell uses the symbolism of the trifles, dead bird, and the quilt to develop the theme of gender role throughout the Short story. Before the twentieth century, there were many stereotypical roles assigned to men and women. The men were seen as the head of the household so they would go out into the world and work in order to support their family. On the other hand, women would stay at home cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children. In the short story “A Jury of Her Peers” the men viewed the women as facetious and incompetent from beginning to end. They would patronize the women by stating remarks like “women are used to worrying over trifles” (Glaspell...
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...between finishing a story or abandoning it. Susan Glaspell in her story “A Jury of Her Peers” succeeds in crafting memorable characters. But who is truly the main character in the story? Martha Hale is the main character in “A Jury of Her Peers” due to her verisimilitude, the narration in the story, and her dynamic nature. The verisimilitude of Martha Hale deepens her characterization and makes her believable enough to be presented as the main character. Verisimilitude is the idea that “characters in fiction should be true to life” in order to create a realistic and believable story (166). The main character of any story should be grounded firmly in verisimilitude to to ground them in readers imaginations. If a reader cannot imagine a character as believable, the purpose of the story becomes ineffectual. Martha Hale possess verisimilitude, which makes her interesting and authentic to readers. In...
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...reader or it can cause the reader to be more of an impartial, third party observer. Proof of this is evident in a comparison of Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles” and her “A Jury of Her Peers.” The first is written as a play and as such the reader’s perspective is that of a third party watching the events unfold. “A Jury of Her Peers” is written as a short story and gives the reader the perspective of Martha Hale, one of the main characters. This change gives the story a whole new dynamic for the reader and causes more emotional involvement of the reader even though the two versions deal with the same subject matter and the same moral and ethical problems. The differing perspectives affect the reader from the very start of each piece. The play opens with a paragraph that sets the scene of the farmhouse, introduces the characters by name, and then jumps into dialogue between them. “A Jury of Her Peers”, however, begins with only Martha Hale and immediately gives the reader some insight into her mind and personality, “What her eye took in was that her kitchen was in no shape for leaving” (Glaspell). This lets the reader relate to Mrs. Hale in a more personal way that simply being introduced by name doesn’t. Being able to see through Mrs. Hale’s eyes and get into her mind then allows the reader to get more of a sense of her self-inflicted guilt as she thinks about all the opportunites she had to visit Mrs. Wright, but didn’t. The reader also gets this sense in “Trifles”, but not...
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