Theme Of Trifles And A Jury Of Her Peers

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Susan Glaspell wrote both Trifles and a “Jury of her Peers” two stories that are nearly indistinguishable from one another. The subtlety of Trifles is purposefully ironic, the devil is in the details of both the play and the short story. The short story takes us into a little more detail than the play, revealing things unspoken and thoughts that could not be conveyed on the stage. There are many themes of this story, the societal place of the women, justice and that details are important in solving a mystery.
To begin Trifles does not sound like the name of a play about murder, it sounds like the name of a silly play, a trifle in and of itself. It is not however, the name is a subterfuge to hide its themes of justice, patriarchal dominance and women’s place within society. The women are not given their own identity, they are instead Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters identified by their husbands. The only exception to this is Minnie Wright who is not present throughout either story. …show more content…

Hale’s own kitchen. She is called away and must leave things in her kitchen unfinished. She states that she hates leaving things unfinished, which makes her notice the things half finished in Minnie’s home too, she wonders what interrupted her. In the play we are not given insight into the characters thoughts but when Glaspell wrote “A Jury of Her Peers” she let us take a look into the mind of Mrs. Hale. Mrs. Hale’s thoughts give us a better idea of the characters and guide us in realizing more of the clues. For instance in the play we are unaware of how well these ladies are acquainted unlike in the story where mrs hale reveals that they only met once at a county fair. This explains the unsureness in the way they interact at first, Mrs. Hale is protective of Minnies reputation and is defensive when speaking to Mrs. Peters because her husband is the one looking for reasons to put Mrs. Wright away for the murder of her

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