Comparison Of Trifles 'And A Jury Of Her Peers'

The play, Trifles, is about Mrs. Wright’s murder, while Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters figure out the reasoning and who committed the crime. The short story, “A Jury of Her Peers” is the same story but retold in a different fashion with a few details changed. This change in storytelling creates changes to the story by using thoughts and narration more often than only using conversation and action. The changes between Susan Glaspell’s Trifles and “A Jury of Her Peers” are shown by the changes in the opening, the characterization, and the descriptions of the stories.

To begin, the opening of the short story differs a lot from the play, comparably. The location in the opening of the short story contrasts with the play. In Trifles, the scene is set in “the now

abandoned farmhouse of John Wright” (1. 1. 558). The play begins with everybody entering the house and warming up, while beginning a conversation on what Mr. Hale found when he entered the house before. However, the opening in “A Jury of Her Peers” contains a drastically different opening from Trifles. The introduction begins with Mrs. Hale in her own kitchen and was in a rush to leave the house. The story explains that “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 scarey and wanted another woman along” (568). There was no mention in the play of this backstory before the plot began. So, this piece of information is important, because it shows the reader the reason Mrs. Hale joined them. The story goes on to them talking while travelling in the buggy to Mrs. Wright’s house and begins the discussion of what happened at the house. Similarly, the introduction of characters within the short story is different than the play, because of the change in the opening.

In the play, the scene serves as an introduction to the characters and the setting. This is done in a way that is more like a list than the fluidity of a story. Throughout the opening, people are referred only by their last names, except Mr. and Mrs. Wright’s first names are mentioned in the play. The lack of setting the scene in the way that a play does changes the way the short story introduces the characters. In “A Jury of Her Peers”, the characters are introduced throughout the opening, rather than listing them off at the beginning. Also, the characters are more commonly referred to by their first names. The first sentence begins with “when Martha Hale opened the storm-door and got a cut of the north wind” (567), while the play never mentioned Mrs. Hale’s first name. Other characters’ first names are also used more often throughout the story. The conversations between the characters in the play and the short story are similar but also have small changes. Because, Trifles is a play, thoughts can only be portrayed through actions or speaking, so there is a lot of speaking to get the plot going. After the scene is set, it begins with the characters discussing what Mr. Hale saw and what

happened. The details about what the characters thought could only be shown through conversation and actions, unlike the short story. “A Jury of Her Peers” is not limited to telling the story using only actions and conversation, so using thoughts or narration is commonly used to show more detail about what is going on. The opening in the short story does not have near as much conversation as the play has in the opening, until the characters start discussing what happened at the crime scene. More detail is also given in these conversations between the characters.
Secondly, the characterization has improved in “A Jury of Her Peers” from the characterization in Trifles. Mrs. Hale, like other characters in the story, did not have her first name mentioned and was only referred by her last name. The play mentions that Mrs. Wright leaving her things out was familiar to Mrs. Hale when she “picks up loaf, then abruptly drops it” (1. 1. 562), but no detail was given about that. The closest the reader get to understanding that is when Mrs. Hale mentions that she does not like leaving things unfinished when she redoes Mrs. Wright’s sewing. Because thoughts are harder to show in plays, it does not appear that Mrs. Hale has any worry about what Mr. Hale will say while he recounts what he saw. The short story improves the characterization of Mrs. Hale by showing more backstory and thoughts. Mrs. Hale is called Martha Hale multiple times during the story, which is more descriptive of her character. The opening of the story begins with Mrs. Hale rushing out of the house to avoid having people wait on her. While this happens, she leaves her sugar half-sifted, which would further explain the familiar feeling that Mrs. Hale has when she saw the sugar sitting out and the men talked bad about the kitchen being left uncleaned. This bit of detail gives the reader a better understanding of why Mrs. Hale feels for Mrs. Wright and wants to help her. Additionally, Mrs. Peters has a few smaller detail changes compared to the changes Mrs. Hale had. Trifles was shorter and did not focus on characterization as much as the short story. There was no mention that Mrs. Peters wanted Mrs. Hale to join them, so it is assumed why Mrs. Hale came, which could have been her being invited by anyone. This also contributes to less of a connection being shown between Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, until the plot gives more details when the canary is found. In “A Jury of her Peers”, Mrs. Peters is given more details about her character. The opening is different in the short story and gives the detail that Mrs. Peters wished that Mrs. Hale would join them on the ride in the buggy and at Mr. Wright’s house. This helps show a better connection between Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale throughout the story. The conversations and the details given between the conversations contribute to the characters more in the short story versus the play. In the play, there is less detail given during the conversations. There is also no conversation or details given about what happened before the group entered Mr. Wright’s house. The short story is longer and gives more details during the story. The conversations are longer and contain greater detail than the play does. The short story can use longer lines of dialogue because the short story can include thoughts and other details to break up the constant conversation. The opening also includes a conversation between the different characters that are in the buggy, which also acts as an introduction to the characters while giving some thoughts that Mrs. Hale has about how she wishes that she visited Mrs. Wright more, “time and time again it had been in her mind, ‘ I ought to go over and see Minnie Foster’” (568), which is mentioned later in the story.
Lastly, there are many more descriptions used throughout the short story compared to the play. The house had a few minor details that were changed between the play and the short story. The play describes the house as being a lonely place. There are descriptions of the items in the kitchen and the display of things that are left out. The short story gives some more details to describe the house. The house has more descriptions of how it is lonely. There is more emphasis on it being at the end of a lonely road with lonesome trees in the yard. More supplies are described in the kitchen, too. Furthermore, the actions and thoughts are portrayed differently between the short story and the play. In Trifles, actions are used commonly, because speech and actions are the only ways to portray something. Thoughts are only able to be shown through a character’s dialogue or actions. Which goes into the descriptions given while trying to hide the canary. The actions are quick and are used to show how Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are thinking. The actions and thoughts are represented differently throughout “A Jury of Her Peers”. There are many details throughout the story that would be difficult to portray in actions, like “her eyes felt like fire. She had a feeling that if he took up the basket she would snatch it from him” (580), therefore these thoughts are unique to the short story. Using thoughts in the story allows Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters emotions to be shown more while they are discussing what they find and while attempting to hide the canary. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Wright have many details throughout the story because they are a major focus of the story. In Trifles, Mrs. Wright left out her bread, which gave Mrs. Hale a familiar feeling. This familiar feeling does not have any context or information given about it. Mrs. Hale mentioned that she should have visited Mrs. Wright more while talking to Mrs. Peters. In “A Jury of Her Peers”, these details are given more information by being included in the opening. At the beginning of the story, Mrs. Hale left her sugar half-sifted and discusses how she does not want to leave things unfinished. This gives better context on why Mrs. Hale has the familiar feeling when she finds the sugar that is not put away. Also, at the beginning of the story, Mrs. Hale mentions in her thoughts that she wished she would have visited Mrs. Wright more often. She still talks about this later in the story with Mrs. Peters like she did in the play.
In conclusion, the changes throughout Susan Glaspell’s Trifles and “A Jury of Her Peers” affect what the reader perceives and understands in the story. The changes in the opening give extra backstory about what happened prior to the group of people arrived at Mr. Wright’s house. The characterization in the short story allows the reader to understand how Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters feel about what Mrs. Wright did. The short story allows their thoughts to be shown while being longer and giving more details on the subject. The changes in the descriptions are different between the play and the short story, which gives better information on what is going on and the emotions of the characters. The short story gives more descriptions through the opening by giving more details about what Mrs. Hale thinks prior to what she finds out at Mrs. Wright’s house.