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Though it is hard to imagine a society which is completely misogynistic and prejudiced against women, so unlike the one most live in today, that was the reality for women before the 20th century. It is in this reality and time period that Susan Glaspell sets her short story, “A Jury of her Peers”. Susan Glaspell, besides being an author, worked as a crime and politics journalist. This short story is loosely based on a murder case she covered in 1900. Using characterization, symbolism, and anecdotes, Susan Glaspell sets a empathetic mood to portray the theme that women must band together against the misogynistic views of society. Using the characterization of Mr. John Wright and Mrs. Minnie Wright, Glaspell sets an empathetic mood. Mrs. Minnie Wright, formerly Minnie Foster, was married to Mr. Wright for 20 years. However, Mr. Wright was not a nice man. “‘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-.’ She …show more content…
“Without plotting any collaboration, the women instinctively conceal the dead bird in the sewing basket and make excuses to divert the men’s attention” (Zaidman). Both women react, and hide the canary from the men. This action was a small rebellion from their husbands, which at the time, was extremely rare. “‘No, Peters,’ said the county attorney incisively; ‘it’s all perfectly clear, except the reason for doing it… If there was some definite thing- something to show./In a covert way Mrs. Hale looked at Mrs. Peters. Mrs. Peters was looking at her. Quickly they looked away from each other” (Glaspell) The women realize here that they were holding evidence that would give Mrs. Wright motive, and make the case against her. Instead of handing over the canary to the men, they hide it, and that small action represents women fighting back from the oppressive and misogyny of that
In the story, “A Jury of Her Peers,” by Susan Glaspell, we see how women are subjugated to stereotypical gender roles, where men are superior over women. The two main characters, Mrs. Peters and Martha Hale arrive at the Wright residence, with the men to investigate the crime scene. Minnie Foster-Wright has been arrested for allegedly strangling her husband with a rope. Mr. Hale (Martha’s husband), is a witness, who found Minnie sitting in a rocker and her husband dead upstairs. The attorney general, Mr. Henderson asks Mr. Hale and the sheriff, Mr. Peters to help him investigate the crime and explain what he had seen that day. As the men go upstairs and into the barn to investigate, Martha and Mrs. Peters are left in the kitchen to gather
Glaspell is showing how both men and women view households in a different perspective. All the men who were asked to go to Minnie to find evidence to convict her as they took their wives. The two ladies kept coming across clues of a disordered household that the men mocked as to be nothing. The women found an unfinished quilt with a weird pattern, and a strangled canary. They women insinuated that these small details were the motivations of Minnie murdering her husband. The women were sympathetic towards Minnie and talked about her husband being controlling. Glaspell had created a courtroom and women had become the jurors and decided that Minnie was not guilty for her actions. They judged on humanity and not legal aspects. The whole time they withheld the evidence they found from the men investigators because they are supposed representatives of the law in this story. Relating to the story since the men are the law or authorities, they presumably ignore or reject many elements of life or explanation; like unequal rights.
... society. The murder of Mr. Wright is used to portray the anger she has with men and how they degrade the intelligence of women (Mael 2). Glaspell believes that women are just as smart if not smarter than men, but do not actively voice their opinions due to male’s dominance throughout society. The feminist theme is drawn by the characters, the title, the role women had throughout the play, and the conflict. They all worked together to show how women were oppressed by men and thought to be less important to society. The women discuss seemingly insignificant items such as the sloppy corner of the quilt, the broken bird cage door, and the dead bird. These things gave the women enough information and knowledge about the situation to come up with a motive for Mrs. Wright to kill her husband, while the men consider these things to be trivial and unimportant to the case.
Through Glaspell’s characters one can sense a sort of peculiar array of characters for the short drama. The main characters of the drama are; Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hales. The men are too quite important to the story, but ironically they are the ones trying to find evidence of Mr. Wright’s killer and the women are the ones figuring out the clues and everything else. But Mrs. Wright is the husband of the late Mr. Wright who was found dead with a rope around his cold neck while his wife was sitting strangely, yet calmly downstairs. Glaspell writes:
They saw the broken birdcage and dead bird as a sign of anger, but Minnie would’ve loved the bird, so who killed it? They also noticed that some of the stitching on the quilt was sloppy, which made them believe that Minnie was stressed about something, why was she stressed? While looking through the kitchen they realized how unorganized it was, and some of the food was going bad, what women would leave her kitchen like this? When the men saw these things they just made comments like “have you decided whether she was going to quilt it or knot it?” “There was a laugh for the ways of women”, and “Dirty towels! Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?". While the men look for “real evidence”, the ladies try to figure out what had happened. They come to the conclusion that the reason all these things were the way that they are because of the husband mistreating Minnie. She use to sing, be happy, and then she married Mr. Wright and it all changed. Mrs. Hale blames herself for not checking up on Minnie, but she thinks Minnie is justified in whatever
Although most society today view women to be more than just housewife, however, the lack of opportunity and the existing of sexism shows that not much of the past has changed. The short story of " A Jury of Her Peers" by Susan Glaspell greatly highlights the inequality between male and female in a male dominated era, isolate the women from any involvement in society other than domestic house works. Not only so, the story also indicate the consequences of abusive relationships, physical and/or psychological damage causes individuals to withdrawn and isolate themselves from the rest of the world. The variety of these indications can be found through the detail descriptions of contexts and settings.
Social gender separations are displayed in the manner that men the view Wright house, where Mr. Wright has been found strangled, as a crime scene, while the women who accompany them clearly view the house as Mrs. Wright’s home. From the beginning the men and the women have are there for two separate reasons —the men, to fulfill their duties as law officials, the women, to prepare some personal items to take to the imprisoned Mrs. Wright. Glaspell exposes the men’s superior attitudes, in that they cannot fathom women to making a contribution to the investigation. They leave them unattended in a crime scene. One must question if this would be the same action if they were men. The county attorney dismisses Mrs. Hale’s defenses of Minnie as “l...
Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles, seems to describe the ultimate women’s suffrage story. No longer will men have an upper hand against women after reading this story. Cleverness will be the key to retaining power from the men in this story. The one thing that woman are criticized for, the idea that women tend to look at the ‘little picture’ instead of the ‘whole picture’, will be there path to victory. Two stories of revenge are told in this story, the revenge of suppression and revenge of being portrayed as ‘unsophisticated, unintelligent’ women. First we have the story of Mrs. Wright and the struggles with her husband, John. Married women throughout history have been portrayed and played the role as being inferior to the husband in marriage. This seems to be the case with Mrs. Wright. Even though John’s public image was somewhat respectable, it was obvious that behind close doors the story was different. There is evidence of abuse in this marriage. First, the discovery of the broken door leads me to conclude that John was very physical and anguished. Second, it is assumed that Mrs. Wrights husband had broke her canary’s neck. The canary, which of course had to be caged, was represented as the old Minnie Foster herself. The canary is a beautiful, free spirited bird that had a sweet voice, as Minnie had at one time. This was the end of the line and ‘Minnie Foster’ was about to be reborn. She would stand up for all those abused and suppressed house wives across the world and makes the first ‘final’ decision she had ever been allowed to make. The bird’s cage was her jail. The bird’s death was her freedom for the fate of the bird was the fate of her husband. John was discovered with a rope tied around his neck, the freedom of a women who could no longer be held down. This was the first implementation of women’s power in the story. The women at Mrs. Wright’s home played an important role in the story as well. The ‘professional’ detectives were busy about the house finding clues to indict Mrs. Wright in the murder case. They ridiculed the women in the house by ‘putting them in their place’ as typical ladies, so worried about small things and useless ordeals. Mrs. Hale noted the stitches in the quilt to be erratically stitched as if something were wrong.
...hizing with Minnie, the ladies choose not to educate their spouses regarding the outcomes of their own examination. Rather, they repair the unpredictable sewing on Minnie's knit and prepare an anecdote about the canaries vanishing, accusing a runaway feline. In quiet plot, Mrs. Robust and Mrs. Subsides conceal the intimations that uncover Minnie's thought process, quietly absolving Minnie from wrongdoing without their spouses' knowing.
The story is set in a rural community in turn-of-the century Iowa. This time-frame is one where women did not have the freedom they have today, but were instead seen as wives, cooks and housekeepers. This is the basis for Minnie’s isolation, her place in the society of the day. This is also compounded by Minnie’s husband, John Wright, who makes her more isolated than many other women of the time. We see that Minnie is isolated from love. Her husband is not an affectionate man and she has no children. In the story, we are told that after her marriage her only friend was “solitude.”
Due to the circumstances of the time period in the early 20th century and limitation of women's rights, Susan Glaspell’s short story, “ A Jury of Her Peers,” is more a story that critiques patriarchal society rather than the portrayal of how women deal with
Throughout history, a plethora of different classes of people, cultures, and races have undergone some form of prejudice. Partiality against women has occurred, and continues to occur, in America. Susan Glaspell, author of "A Jury of her Peers," depicts a story of a close-knit community in the process of solving the mystery of a man's death, thought to be caused by his wife. In the investigation of Mr. Wright’s death, the women helping to search through the Wright farm for clues pointing to evidence of Minnie Wright’s murder of her husband were thought of as useless, when in reality, the women were solely responsible for finding and understanding Mrs. Wright's motives for murdering her husband. Glaspell uses imagery and a woman's point of view to depict how a woman may feel bound by limits set by society--- a feeling most easily understood by women who share the same perception of life.
Mrs. Hale remembered the lively, happy girl Minnie was twenty years ago before she married the cold hearted Mr. Wright. She, like Minnie, was also a farmer’s wife and spent her days working hard. However, she had children so she did not suffer the loneliness that Minnie had to endure. Also, she avoided visiting her because Mr. Wright did not welcome visitors. He was the typical abuser who wanted to keep his victim isolated. Because she did not visit Minnie, she felt partially responsible for Minnie murdering her husband. Unlike Mrs. Peterson, she knew Minnie and understood what drove her to the breaking point of murder.
Peters and Mrs. Hale got permission from their husbands, they proceeded to search for and collect items that Minnie would need or want while she was in custody. Any person would think, this lady just murdered her husband so why does she deserve to have her belongings while in jail. These ladies had a different opinion of the situation and what really happened. While looking for items, Mrs. Hale, who is the neighbor to the Wright’s, proceeded to talk about how different and happy Minnie used to be before she married John Wright. Mrs. Wright used to love to do many things, as in sing, before she got married and after that Mr. Wright would never allow her to do so anymore. He would not allow Minnie to do anything she enjoyed and she had to obey every order that he barked at her and she just became unhappy. None else could see it but Mrs. Hale. Females used to live to please their husbands, no matter what it was. As the two women are still searching for items to collect, they notice a quilt. They proceed to move the quilt where they discover a bird cage, but there is no bird to be found. After looking around, they eventually come across a sewing basket, where the dead bird is discovered. Ironically the same way John Wright was murdered. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale could not decide if they should turn in the evidence to their husbands or hide it. Both women knew and understood why Mrs. Wright killed her husband because they felt just like she did. They too
Wright was described as a beautiful women filled with such joy and life until she married John Wright. Mrs. Peter’s and Mrs. Hale feels sorry for her because her husband treated her so bad. Due to female bonding and sympathy, the two women, becoming detectives, finds the truth and hides it from the men. The play shows you that emotions can play a part in your judgement. Mrs. Peter’s and Mrs. Hale felt sorry that Mrs. Wright had one to keep her company no kids and she was always left alone at home. “yes good; he didn’t drink, and kept his word as well as most, I guess, and paid his debt. But he was a hard man, Mrs. Peters just to pass the time of day with him. Like a raw wind that goes to the bone. I should of think she would have wanted a bird. But what you suppose went with it?” Later on in the play the women find out what happens to the bird. The bird was killed the same way Mrs. Wright husband which leads to the motive of why he was killed. Mrs. Wright was just like the bird beautiful but caged no freedom not being able to live a life of her own. Always stuck in the shadows of her husband being told what to do and