Daquisha Samuels
ENG 101
Professor Boyd
10 November 2014
“A Jury of Her Peer”
Author Susan Glaspell was co-founded between 1876 and 1948. She had the first modern American theater, Provincetown Players, and Pulitzer prize-winning playwright, actress, novelist, and journalist. Glaspell has nine novels, fourteen plays and over fifty short stories.
In the mid-1900s, “A Jury of Her Peers” a short story that was written by Susan Glaspell, that combines murder, dishonesty, and sexism while revealing to readers the truth about women and their abilities. Glaspell’s writing perspectives was rich and dramatic. Glaspell executes gender differences to predict the women’s agitation. Glaspell paints a picture of what women had to go through, such as seclusion,
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lack of beauty, bodily labor, and living in a masculine ruled society. “A Jury of Her Peers” all started on a cold wintery night in a small town in the Midwest, where abuse and a murder scene took place. In this story consist of five characters, John Wright, Mrs. Wright, and Mrs. Peter, Mr. Peters, Mrs. Hale, Mr. Hale, that partake in the study of this affliction. Mrs. Wright murders her spouse for herself for imbalanced freedom. Susan Glaspell benefits women because she sees the deficiency of freedom for women in society. The male characters in “A Jury of Her Peers” for the most part are redundant and attempts to find evidence to the purpose, which connects Mrs. Wright to the killing. The ladies whose duties didn’t embrace solving the mystery, remained the ones who created the suspicion to the motive. BODY The story focuses on the mystery of John Wright, the victim who was found strangled in his bed. Mr. John Wright lives with his wife in a farmhouse. He was said to be a truthful but "hard" man. Apparently, he twisted the neck of a canary his wife kept in a cage to sing and brighten up her dull life. Mrs. Wright, felt that killing a person was a sense of self-defense as much of an offense. Mrs. Wright was arrested for the murder of her husband John Wright. The men in Glaspell’s short story looked for something to connect Mrs. Wright to the actual murder; which is a motive. Mrs.
Wright wife of John Wright and his accused murderer. She is being held in the county jail. The discussion in the play suggests that her husband, though honest and clean-living, was a taskmaster and a miser who made life miserable for his wife. It appears that, he wrung the neck of a bird that his wife kept in a cage to sing and brighten her dull life. In revenge, the negotiation proposes, Mrs. Wright killed her husband in similar fashion, wringing his neck with a rope.
Mrs. Hale had known Mrs. Wright for 20 years prior to her marriage with Mr. Wright. According to Glaspell’s story, Mrs. Hale is almost the impact to the story. It’s almost mistaken due to her lack of intentions that staggers across evidence that connects Mrs. Wright to the Murder. She didn’t want to look for evidence against Mrs. Wright. She came to the Wrights home to pack up a few personal things and be done with it. Mrs. Hale’s nosiness and wonder ascended when she found items in the Wright’s home that seems strange.
Mr. Hale is the man who tells the sheriff and the county attorney, he stopped at the Wright place on his way to town with a wagon load of potatoes. With him was his helper. Hale planned to ask John Wright to share with him the cost of a telephone line. Once entered into the Wright farmhouse, Hale and Hale’s helper discovered the body of John Wright. The county attorney calls upon Hale to recount what he
saw. Mrs. Peters is a faithful companion, upper position as a sheriff's wife. Mrs. Peters is a loyal wife, of higher social status as a sheriff's wife. Mrs. Peters isn’t able to see the impact and control of a husband‘s responsibility and possibly bitterly – as Mrs. Hale. It is Mrs. Peters who is more like Minnie that she complies with her husband. However, the end of the story unites her with Mrs. Hale in defending Minnie Wright from penalty as Mrs. Peters hurries to demolish evidence from the men. Reading this story, I felt “A Jury of Her Peers” shows perfectly the way women were treated in the early 1900s. This story shows how respectful the women were, even they realized their neglect. No hesitation that masculine was a dominant character in every American household through that time. Nowadays women have morals and opportunity, even though there’s no total equivalence, women aren't afraid to participate with men and express how they feel. I know Glaspell would be thrilled to know the nature of men and women in this day and age. “A Jury of Her Peers,” exciting enough that could be linked to the story because, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters never criticize the life or existing standards Mrs. Wright tolerated, the women would never figure out what made Mrs. Wright livid to kill her spouse. The women working as a team, was like a jury to prove Mrs. Wright not guilty by their morals. Women never gave the respect they deserved especially in the 1900’s. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters were at the murder scene so they could bring clothes for Mrs. Wright. In conclusion, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are women who resolved the killing of John Wright. This goes to show you, when someone pushes you to the edge everyone has breaking points. Mrs. Wright was labeled as a sweet woman who didn't hurt no one. Until her spouse destroyed one thing that brought joy in her life span.
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
Mrs. Wright, however, justified killing her husband due to Mr. Wright trapping her inside the house and how Mrs. Wright job is only to be domestic wife. When Mrs. Hale (farmer’s wife) and Mrs. Peters (sheriff’s wife) discovered a dead bird with her neck bruised all over, they start to put the pieces to the puzzle together and ...
A story of murder, fear, and the temptation of betrayal is one that easily snatches up the attention of audiences. In “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell, the author uses her southern female characters to emphasize the direct relationship between friendship and connection. Her plot circles around the disastrous discovery of their fellow housewife’s marital murder, and the events that unfolded causing their ultimate decision in prosecuting or shielding her from the men in the story. The author implements revealing dialogue with subtle detailing and glaring symbolism to display the coveted friendships among women above other relationships and that the paths they take to secure them stem from inveterate personal connections.
In A Jury of Peers by Susan Glaspell, the story revolves around the sudden death of John Wright. There are five characters that participate in the investigation of this tragedy. Their job is to find a clue to the motive that will link Mrs. Wright, the primary suspect, to the murder. Ironically, the ladies, whose duties did not include solving the mystery, were the ones who found the clue to the motive. Even more ironic, Mrs. Hale, whose presence is solely in favor of keeping the sheriff s wife company, could be contributed the most to her secret discovery. In this short story, Mrs. Hale s character plays a significant role to Mrs. Wright s nemesis in that she has slight feelings of accountability and also her discovery of the clue to the motive.
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.
The Sheriff, Attorney, and neighbour Mr. Hale look for evidence while the women Mrs. Peters and Hale are left to their own devices in the kitchen. Condescendingly, the men mock the women’s concerns over Mrs. Wright’s stored preserves, its stated: “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles.” (Hale, act 1) It’s inferred that women- who care only of trifles, something of little or no importance, must be trifles themselves. Ironically, these said trifles: the quilt, preserves, a little bird- which will be discussed later, are what solves this mystery. A major concern expressed by all the characters is motive; why would Mrs. Wright kill her husband? While discussing the marriage and disposition of the victim, its stated: “Yes--good; he didn't drink, and kept his word as well as most, I guess, and paid his debts. But he was a hard man, Mrs. Peters. Just to pass the time of day with him. (Shivers.) Like a raw wind that gets to the bone.” (Mrs. Hale, act 1) Abuses, which have been hinted at all throughout the play are finally spoken of in these lines. Audiences find, that Mrs. Wright- “real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid” - would murder her
...stine. "On the Edge: The Plays of Susan Glaspell." Modern Drama 31.1 (Mar. 1988): 91-105. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Marie Lazzari. Vol. 55. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 27 Nov. 2011.
Glaspell spent more than forty years working as a journalist, fiction writer, playwright and promoter of various artistic. She is a woman who lived in a male dominated society. She is the author of a short story titled A Jury of Her Peers. She was inspired to write this story when she investigated in the homicide of John Hossack, a prosperous county warren who had been killed in his sleep(1).Such experience in Glaspell’s life stimulated inspiration. The fact that she was the first reporter on scene, explains that she must have found everything still in place, that makes an incredible impression. She feels what Margaret (who is Minnie Wright in the story) had gone through, that is, she has sympathy for her. What will she say about Margaret? Will she portray Margaret as the criminal or the woman who’s life has been taken away? In the short story Minnie Wright was the victim. Based on evidence at the crime scene, it is clear that Minnie has killed her husband; however, the women have several reasons for finding her “not guilty” of the murder of John Wright.
Mrs. Hales feels that her husband has a habit of getting mixed up on the story and she’s worried about that. In comparison, this detail is emphasized through his ramblings in Trifles, which sound like a two year old. It shows in both versions that their interaction with each other is taxing on their relationship. The Peters have a similar relationship to the Hales, but it is more deftly revealed. The sheriff is a a heavy man with a big voice, who was particularly genial with the law-abiding, as if to make it plain that he knew the difference between criminals and non-criminals.
Hedges, Elaine. "Small Things Reconsidered: Susan Glaspell's' 'A Jury of Her Peers'." Women's Studies 12.1 (1986): 89. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
In Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers”, female characters face inequality in a society dominated by the opinions of their husbands. The women struggle to decide where their loyalty rests and the fate of a fellow woman. Aided by memories and their own lifestyles the women realize their ties to a woman held for murder, Minnie Foster Wright. Through a sympathetic connection these women, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters have greater loyalty to a fellow woman than to their husbands and even the law; this greater loyalty ultimately shows the inequality between genders.
Glaspell, Susan. "Trifles." Plays by Susan Glaspell. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, Inc., 1920. Reprinted in Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia Eds. New York: Harper Collins Publisher, 1995.
It is no surprise the police have arrested Mrs. Wright, especially since Mr. Wright was killed right next to her. Her nonchalant attitude towards his death and how she cares more about her personal items, like her apron and canned fruits. The sheriff sees through her lies and that's why he arrested her as the primary suspect. Mr hale
Lewis Hale the neighbor to Mr. and Mrs. Wright. He was the person to find Mr. Wright dead in his bed and Mrs. Wright sitting in the house quietly. He tries to speak of the character or Mr. Wright when he began to tell his story of the events leading to his visit with Mrs. Wright, but the sheriff woul...
One woman’s Trifles is another man’s clues. The play Trifles, was written by Susan Glaspell based on the murder of John Hossack, which Susan reported on while working as a news journalist for Des Moines Daily News. Susan Glaspell was an American Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, actress, novelist, journalist, and founder of the Provincetown Players. She has written nine novels, fifteen plays, over fifty short stories, and one biography. At 21 she enrolled at Drake University even after the prevailing belief that college make women unfit for marriage. But many don’t know that her work was only published after the death of her husband George Cram Cook. Trifles is an example of a feminist drama. The play shows how male dominance was