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Essay about A Jury of Her Peers, by Susan Glaspell
Essay about A Jury of Her Peers, by Susan Glaspell
Essay about A Jury of Her Peers, by Susan Glaspell
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Susan Glaspell's A Jury of Her Peers
The North wind is blowing in Dickson County on this cold, March morning, and in Susan Glaspell’s, “A Jury of Her Peers,” murder bring together a group of men and two women, with two separate agendas. The men’s group who includes: Mr. Hale; a witness, Mr. Peters; the sheriff, and Mr. Henderson; the county attorney are persistent in finding evidence to ensure a conviction of Minnie (Foster) Wright; wife of the victim, John Wright. However, the two women: Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, wives of two of the men, create a bond with each other and with the absent Mrs. Wright, and take it upon themselves to hide what they have uncovered to protect Minnie from being convicted of 1st degree murder, even though the evidence points towards her guilt.
The actual order of events began yesterday, when Mr. Hale and his oldest son, Harry stopped by the Wright’s place to talk to Mr. Wright about interest in getting a telephone, but instead of speaking with him, they speak to his wife; Minnie and learn that John Wright is dead! After getting no cooperation from Mrs. Wright, as she sat in her rocker, wringing her apron, Mr. Hale had Harry go and retrieve the authorities, which brings us today. “Martha! Don’t keep folks waiting out here in the cold,” said her husband with an impatient voice (Susan Glaspell 586). Martha Hale had to drop everything she was doing, leaving her kitchen in disarray, just so that she could accompany her husband to the scene of John Wrights’ death to keep the sheriff’s wife company; and to help collect some belongings for the accused Mrs. Wright. And so the investigation begins.
As everyone approached the Wright’s home, which sat back in a hollow surrounded by trees, the looks from the...
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...s in Short Fiction 36.3 (1999): 291+. Humanities Module. ProQuest. Carl Sandburg College, Galesburg, IL. CSC Lib 28 Feb. 2008
Glaspell, Susan. “A Jury of Her Peers.” Fiction 100: An Anthology of Short Fiction. Ed. James H. Pickering. 11th ed. New Jersey: Pearson, 2007. 713-18.
Mustazza, Leonard. "Genetic Translation and Thematic Shift in Susan Glaspell’s 'Trifles' And 'A Jury of Her Peers'." Studies in Short Fiction 26.4 (Fall 1989): 489. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Carl Sandburg College, Galesburg, IL. CSC Lib 28 February 2008.
Ortiz, Lisa. "A Jury of Her Peers (Criticism)." Answers.Com. 28 Feb. 2008 .
Cano VII
Stormer, Nathan. "To Remember, To Act, To Forget: Tracing Collective Remembrance Through "A Jury Of Her Peers".” Communication Studies 54.4 (2003): 510-529. Humanities Module. ProQuest. Carl Sandburg College, Galesburg, IL. CSC Lib 28 Feb. 2008
Glaspell, Susan. "A Jury of Her Peers." Literature and the Writing Process. Eds. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X. Day, and Robert Funk. 4th Ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice, 1996. 293-307.
Susan Glaspell wrote many literary pieces in the early 1900s. Two, in particular, are very similar in theme, which is the play Trifles and the short story “A Jury of Her Peers”. The Trifles was written in 1920 and “A Jury of Her Peers” was written in 1921, a short story, adapted from the play. Susan Glaspell was born in Davenport, IA July 1, 1876 as a middle child and the only daughter. In college, she wrote for her school paper, The Drake, and after Glaspell graduated, she started working for the Des Moines News. She got the idea for the play and short story, after she covered a murder about a woman on a farm.
Hedges, Elaine. A. "Small Things Reconsidered: Susan Glaspell's 'A Jury of Her Peers'. " Women's Studies 12.1 (1986): 89. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web.
The coldness felt in the house as the sheriff and court attorney entered the house symbolized the same coldness brought about by Mr. Wright. For the house to be cold and gloomy and everything else outside the total opposite, was much more than just coincidence. It was as if when you entered the house a cadaver, cold and clammy, had embraced you in its arms. “ I don’t think a place’d be any cheerfuller for John Wright’s being in it”, Mrs. Hale told the court attorney (11). Mrs. Hale knew perfectly well what kind of personality Mr. Wright had, which is why she specified that she wished that she had gone to visit Mrs. Wright when only she was there. “There’s a great deal of work to be done on a farm”, says Mrs. Hale, yet they are seen as mere trifles because it is the women who take on these tasks.
Glaspell, Susan. ?A Jury of Her Peers.? Literature: Structures, Sound, and Sense. Eds Laurence Perrine and Thomas R. Arp. San Diego: HBJ, 1991. 324-41
Hallgren, Sherri. “ A Jury of Her Peers.” Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jenny, Cromie. Vol. 41. Detroit:
The protagonist of this drama is Martha Hale. She is a typical rural housewife that has lived in a little town in Dickson County all of her life. She grew up with the alleged murderer and had been to the house several times, but not find evidence to convict here friend of murder. This hometown girl is now felling a new sense of loyalty to her friend, as she remembers the way she was twenty years and as little as one year ago. This new loyalty shows her deep ties to the community and her sex. This loyalty to women follows her throughout the story and shows her ability to look past a situation and tell what is really happening in the lives of others. The men in this story obviously think the women inferior and that allows Mrs. Hale to show not contempt for men, but rather their naiveté toward the true nature and feelings of women. She does this to protect them from things that really do not want to find out about because if they did they would be forced into things that are really not wanted by any, sending a woman whose husband she killed in self defense to her death. This dynamic character goes from an uncomfortable situation in which she really just wants to go home...
Minnie Wright, John’s wife, is the main suspect. This time, Sheriff Peters asked to bring his wife Mrs. Peters, the county attorney George Henderson, and his neighbors Martha and Lewis Hale to the crime scene. He intended for Lewis Hale, Mr. Henderson and him to solve the case. While Lewis Hale tells the group the details of how John Wright was found, Mrs. Peters and Martha Hale begin looking around the house to judge the state of the crime scene. Before even looking for evidence, Lewis Hale says “Oh, well, women are used to worrying over trifles” (160) to the dismay of Martha Hale and Mrs. Peters. Martha Hale notices that the Wrights’ house was unkempt and sad-looking, which was strange because Minnie Wright used to be a cheerful and meticulous homemaker. Again, Lewis Hale dismisses this as an inconsequential detail, stating that Minnie was just not a good homemaker, even though his wife Martha already told Mr. Henderson that “farmers’ wives have their hands full” (160). A few moments later, the men explore the house, but not before Mr. Hale ironically questions “But would the women know a clue if they did come upon it?” (161). The women began to
Susan Glaspell was an American playwright, novelist, journalist, and actress. She married in 1903 to a novelist, poet, and playwright George Cram Cook. In 1915 with other actors, writers, and artists they founded Provincetown Players a group that had six seasons in New York City between 1916-1923. She is known to have composed nine novels, fifteen plays, over fifty short stories, and one biography. She was a pioneering feminist writer and America’s first import and modern female playwright. She wrote the one act play “Trifles” for the Provincetown Players was later adapted into the short shorty “A Jury of Her Peers” in 1917. A comparison in Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles” and “A Jury of Her Peers” changes the titles, unfinished worked, and
A Woman’s voice is far from being heard. Since the early nineteenth century, women have been treated unfairly and their thoughts, opinions, and work were never believed to be serious or educated enough to consider. In Susan Glaspell’s, “A Jury of Her Peers”, she writes that Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters were women who happened to accompany their husbands to a crime scene. While their husbands were busy mocking women and finding humor in the situation, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale were the ones to find enough evidence to support the motive of the murder. Even though they were intelligent enough to find the necessary clues to solve the murder mystery, their husbands would have
Studies In Short Fiction 18.1 (1981): 65. Literary Reference Center. Web. The Web. The Web.
Mrs. Hale describes Minnie as formerly singing “real pretty herself” (Glaspell p666). The connection between Minnie and the canary is established here, and in the bird’s physical death parallels Minnie’s emotional death (Russell). Mrs. Hale’s keen wit and patience contributes to her embodiment of The Fate sister named Clotho the Spinner, which even more evident in her correcting of Minnie Wright’s improper stitching (Russell). Mrs. Peters begins the process of investigation deeply devoted to keeping the law. She doesn 't want any disruption in the house saying, “I don 't think we ought to touch things” (Glaspell p 666) when Mrs. Hale began searching for clues. Upon finding the dead canary, Mrs. Peters view on the situation changes drastically, and she decides with Mrs. Hale to hide the tiny dead bird from the men. They both figure that if the dead canary was discovered, Mrs. Wright would be thought to be a mad woman, though it was likely Mr. Wright who killed it. Mrs. Peters sympathizes with Minnie remembering back to an old memory of her childhood, where a menacing boy killed her small kitten with a hatchet (Russell). Mrs. Peters then realizes that the justice to be served is to conceal evidence and find the answers for themselves. These
The central theme in “A Jury of Her Peers” is the place of women in society and especially the isolation this results in. We see this through the character, Minnie Foster and her isolation from love, happiness, companionship and from society as a whole. Not only does the story describe this isolation but it allows the reader to feel the impact of this isolation and recognize the tragedy of the situation.
Evans, Robert C., Anne C. Little, and Barbara Wiedemann. Short Fiction: A Critical Companion. West Cornwall, CT: Locust Hill, 1997. 265-270.
Although the story¡¯s purpose is to penetrate the motive for Mrs. Wright¡¯s murder of her husband, the sheriff¡¯s wife, Mrs. Peters, and the neighbor Mrs. Hale occupy center stage -- and it is really their story. Sheriff Peters and Mr. Hale wander in and out, mostly passing through as they move from one part of the house to the other, commenting about the slovenly housekeeping and the general air of cheerlessness. At first it is clear that the women do not want to be here, either; the house is too cold and too still, and what happened here the day before was too awful. The women feel defensive in this house, partially because of the disparaging way the men refer to the little details of Mrs. Wright¡¯s life. The men laugh at their wives¡¯ admiration of Mrs. Wright¡¯s fine stitching on her quilt, and when the women express sadness over Mrs. Wright¡¯s broken jars of jam, Sheriff Peters finds this tremendously humorous: "Well, can you beat the women! Held for murder, and worrying about her preserves. . . . I guess before we¡¯re through with her she may have something more serious than preserves to worry about."