Compare And Contrast Trifles And A Jury Of Her Peers

The stories Trifles and “A Jury of Her Peers” are both written by Susan Glaspell. The main event in both Trifles and “A Jury of Her Peers” is a murder in the kitchen. Both stories cover the murder of Mrs.Wright’s husband. But, while both Trifles and “A Jury of Her Peers” are about the same story, and the characters are the same, the points of view differ in the two texts.

Trifles and “A Jury of Her Peers” are two texts about the murder of the same man, John Wright. The culprit of this murder is suspected to be his wife. In Trifles and “A Jury of Her Peers”, he dies the same way. In “A Jury of Her Peers” the author writes, “He died of a rope around his neck” (Jury 3). It’s suspected in both works that Mrs. Wright put a rope around his neck while he was sleeping. The first person to discover that Mr. Wright is dead is Mr.

Hale. He walks into the Wright’s farmhouse, looking for John Wright but Mrs. Wright says that Mr. Hale won't be able to visit him. After a bit of conversing, Mr. Hale says, “‘Then why can’t I see him?’ I asked her, out of patience. ‘Cause he’s dead…’” (Trifles 710). That scene in Trifles is when Mr. Hale is the first one to discover the murder of John Wright, and goes to call the sheriff. In happens in both stories, and is one similarity between the two works.
A second similarity between “A Jury of Her Peers” and Trifles is the characters and the descriptions of them. In the two works, John Wright is an oppressive man, he was very limiting with his wife and made her life sad and lonely. The women in Trifles and “A Jury of Her Peers” are very understanding and viewed as minor by the men. When Mr. Wright’s wife once had gotten a bird, he found it so annoying that he wrung the bird’s neck. An example of his oppressiveness, he didn’t even ask his wife to get rid of the bird, he just killed it not caring what his wife thought. Two women in the Wrights farmhouse found the bird and one of them said, “Somebody wrung its neck…” (Jury 11) and figured out that if was the reason that Mrs. Wright had killed her husband. John Wright’s description was the same throughout both Trifles and “A Jury of Her Peers”. For example in Trifles, Mrs. Peters says, “No. I don’t mean anything. But I don’t think a place’d be any cheerfuller for John Wright’s being in it.” (Trifles 713). John Wright wasn’t a very happy and friendly man. He killed his wife’s bird and made his wife into a lonely lady. Mrs. Wright hated him for it and decided to get her revenge.
A difference between the two works “A Jury of Her Peers” and Trifles would be the point of view they’re written in.

Trifles is written in a third person objective point of view. The text is a play, with narration giving detailed descriptions of the actions done by the characters. For example a description of an action done by a character in Trifles would be “After taking a step forward” (Trifles 709). That narration is describing what the characters are doing and gives the reader a better image of what the characters are doing. “A Jury of Her Peers” has a different point of view, third person limited. The reader is only made aware of the feelings and thoughts of one character. In “A Jury of Her Peers” the only character that has viewable feelings and thoughts is Mrs. Hale, the sheriff’s wife. She is the only character that the reader can see the thoughts of, an example of this is on page one of “A Jury of Her Peers” , “She hated to see things half done…” (Glaspell). Mrs. Hale has had to leave her bread undone and the reader can see that she doesn’t feel comfortable with that. That’s example of third person limited in “A Jury of Her

Peers”.
To conclude, Trifles and “A Jury of Her Peers” do have similarities such as characters and storyline, with a major difference; the point of view in the two works. The different point of views in Trifles and “A Jury of Her Peers” effects how the story impacts the reader. It’ll determine how well the reader understands the story and views it. A point of view change in the same story will provide a new perspective for the work.