Analysis Of A Jury Of Her Peers, By Kate Chopin

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“There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature.”(Chopin 2). This line comes from the short story “The Story of an Hour” written by Kate Chopin in 1894 tells the story of a woman reacting to the death of her husband while at the same time the story makes broader statement about women’s rights at the time. Similarly, the story “A Jury of Her Peers”,written by Susan Glaspell, is written like a detective story. It is about solving a murder case but just like “The Story of an Hour”, there are underlying themes of feminism and commonly …show more content…

The story revolves around a man who discovers a dead body in a house next door and an investigation ensues with the county attorney and the sheriff while their wives wait in the living room. Even though the husbands are doing the official investigating, the wives are doing some investigating of their own. The attitudes of the men while they investigate the house reveal the expectations of married women during that time. “He went to the sink and began washing his hands. He turned to wipe them on the roller towel--whirled it for a cleaner place. "Dirty towels!Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?"”(Glaspell 4). While “The Story of an Hour” does not directly reveal how Mrs. Mallard lived it can be assumed that due to her extreme reaction to her husband’s death that it was similar to the way that Minne lived. Women at that time were expected to do all the household duties and please their husbands, nothing more. The portrait these stories paint of married life are very similar with the men being in control of the women’s lives for the most part. In both of these stories the portrait of marriage is an ugly one with Mrs. Mallard dying because of the shock and disappointment when she must continue to serve under her husband. Also with Minnie being pushed over the edge to commit murder because of her mistreatment and her husband’s killing of her bird that she had adored. These portrayals of married life during this time could be shocking to many people who believed that married women are inherently happy. “a young woman’s early entrance to motherhood and domestic labor could arrest the development of both her mind and body, thus ensuring

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