Comparison Between 'Hands And A Jury Of Her Peers'

What is fear? Everyone has their definition of the word fear. It could define as something or someone that give us the creeps. Besides that, how could we fear our body or our house? All around us, someone has some rare phobia, from spiders to waters.one of the dominant theme of both stories is that having fears could cause someone to become antisocial and loss themselves. “Hands” is about Wing Biddlebaum who lost everything because of a lie. The other stories “A Jury of Her Peer” is about Mrs. Wright who murder her husband because he takes the life of the only thing that gives her joy. Besides that, Mrs. Wright’s friend hides pieces of evidence that could convict her of the crime of killing her husband. Both characters use their hands to express their feelings, their house represents their lack of love and security, and they both face abuse from others.

Both stories share simile symbolization of the hands.

Sherwood states,” Wing Biddlebaum talked much with his hands. The slender expressive fingers…became the piston rods of his machinery expression.” (Anderson 1,4). Both characters use their hands to express their feelings. Wing fear his hand because he got in trouble in his past because of it. In “A Jury of Her Peer” Mrs. Wright is nervous when Harry question her about her husband dead, “[P]leatin’ at her apron.” (Glaspell 4). She is using her hand to show that she is nervous. Besides the main characters, Mr. Wright uses his hand to show how angry he could get it. ‘“Somebody wrung its neck,”’ Mr. Wright kill the only company that his wife

had.
Also, both stories share a similar setting and what it represents. Both Wing and Mrs. Wright’s house is very nasty and gross. Wing’s home was “half decayed veranda of a small frame house that stood near the edge.” (Anderson 1,1). Wing’s house is falling apart because he does not take care of it. I feel like Wing does not want to care for the house because he has no friend or family to share his home. He is very lone, and his home is a safe place for him. In “A Jury of Her Peer” Mrs. Wright also kept her house in bad shape too. Their house stands for how they feel about themselves, and it shows how they do not care about their appearances since they do not get any visit from anybody. Mrs. Wright’s house was a very “lonesome place” (Glaspell 15). Your home should be your safe place, where you could be yourself without any judgments. However, Wing and Mrs. Wright fear their house, but they can’t be left because they fear the outside more than their home.
Finally, both stories share similar conflicts. Both characters face being abuse or bully by someone they love or trust. Wing is abuse by his student’s parent because they accuse him of touch the boys with his hand. “Calling Adolph Myers into the schoolyard he began to beat him with his fists…tired of beating the master, had begun to kick him about the yard.” (Anderson 4,22). Wing is haunted by his past that “He was but forty but looked sixty-five.” (Anderson 4,24). Wing aged faster because he is scared of what his hands could do and what people could do to him if they discover who he is. Mrs. Wright is abused emotional and mistreated by her husband. Mrs. Wright has “a shabby black skirt that bore the marks of much making over.” (Glaspell 10). Her husband is unbelievably cheap and didn’t take care of his wife personal needs like buying her clothes or better kitchen stuff. Both characters use to be happy, but one thing destroys their whole life. Abusing someone is horrible, and we should not favor this kind of behavior.
In conclusion, both stories teach us value lesson in life. We cannot judge a person by how they act or dress. In another word, we criticized for anything we do. Both stories share the similar symbol of the hand; the setting represents themselves and the conflict they face. They both use their hand to express how they are feeling. Their home stands for how they, and they fear. One of the major conflict both face is abused by someone they love and someone they trust.