The short story “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell was first published in 1917. Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers” is a short story version of her one-act play Trifles. Glaspell claimed that “A Jury of Her Peers” and Trifles are based on her experience as a court reporter. When she was in Iowa, she covered a story on the murder of a sixty-year-old farmer, John Hossack. John Hossack’s wife, Margaret, had claimed that she had been asleep when her husband was killed. She was then tried for his murder. Critics agree that “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell is her greatest story, which demonstrated the roles of women of her time.
At first, Susan Glaspell began her career as a court reporter before then becoming a playwright
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and short story writer. “Following her graduation, she began work as a reporter for the Des Moines Daily, writing on local crime and politics, an unusual occupation for a woman of her time” (“A Jury”). It was as an experimental playwright that Glaspell discovered her own style of writing, which won her fame and a place in American dramatic literature. From her marriage to George Cram Cook, Glaspell opened her eyes to other forms of literary expression, a lot of which were in the theater. “Glaspell remained consistent, always dealing with Midwestern themes and attitudes and employing unusual women as her leading characters” (Theodore 917). Glaspell’s themes also dealt with the roles of women in her time. Glaspell used the same themes in her short stories that she did in her plays. During her time, Glaspell wrote thirteen plays, fourteen novels, and over fifty essays, articles, and short stories. Glaspell received the most playwriting credit in her play Alison's House. “Glaspell was awarded the 1931 Pulitzer Prize in drama for her play Alison’s House” (Theodore 919). "A Jury of Her Peers" uses the roles of women of the time period to tell a story about how women were fully capable of doing whatever the men could do. This is shown by how the two main characters, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, were able to conclude the evidence when the men could not.They story's setting is at the Iowa farm belonging to Minnie Wright and her recently murdered husband, John Wright.The conflict that Mrs. Hale and Mrs.Peters faced were finding the reasons for why Minnie Wright would have murdered her husband, the feelings that Minnie Wright had felt that would lead to the event, and justice for Minnie Wright rather than the evidence. The climax of the story occurred when Mrs. Hale discovered the canary in a box. The story's resolution occurred when Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters hide the evidence to protect Minnie Wright. The character that can be understood the most about would be Mrs. Hale. The story began with her worrying about the flour in her kitchen being half sifted and how she hated to have things half done. She also worried about her husband not being dressed in warm enough clothes and about how she thought that she should have visited Minnie Wright more often. This reveals how much of a worrier Mrs. Hale was. During the story, Mrs. Hale also thought about how she knew Minnie Wright twenty years ago. This reveals that Mrs. Hale was probably in her thirties or forties. Mrs. Hale's appearance was never revealed other than the fact that she wore a large woolen scarf at the beginning of the story. Mrs. Hale does not appear to change throughout the story. She starts off as someone who worried more about what was right for the people she cared about than she worried about the law. This is evident by how she said she should have visited Minnie Wright more than she did. Then at the end of the story Mrs. Hale stays the same by hiding the evidence to protect her friend. Mrs. Hale is important to the story because she found and hid the evidence that proved Minnie Wright murdered her husband. "A Jury of Her Peers" demonstrated different themes throughout it. The two main themes that are seen the most during the story would be gender roles, and public vs. private life. The theme of gender roles in the story is shown by how the women are treated by the men as being unequal. The women are not taken seriously by the men when they bring up the quilt and Minnie Wright's fruit. The men chose to laugh at them as if the women were ridiculous. "Glaspell is writing about how we read in gendered ways, understanding all too well, as her story shows, how reading through a masculinist set of values silences women's stories, as it silenced her own" ("Historical"). The theme of public vs. private life in the story is shown by how Mrs. Hale worried about her friend, Minnie Wright, and how she chose to protect her friend by hiding the evidence. Mrs. Hale chose her private life with her friend instead of doing what the public wants by going by what was right by the law. During the story the two most obvious literary devices are symbolism and the use of the point of view of a third person omniscient narrator. "The two main symbols in 'A Jury of Her Peers' are the canary and the quilt pieces" ("A Jury"). The canary is used as a symbol to represent Minnie Wright, who used to be in the church choir. The canary was found murdered which represents how Mr. Wright killed the happy person that Minnie Wright used to be, just as he had killed the canary. "When they tell the men that they believe she intended to knot the quilt, that knot becomes symbolic for the other knot that Minnie made- in the noose around her husband's neck" ("A Jury"). The use of the third person omniscient narrator is seen by how the story is not told by only one main character's point of view. The story is instead told from a central view point. "A Jury of Her Peers" was written in a time when people faced a lot of different problems. "'A Jury of Her Peers' is about violence, a subject much on the minds of Glaspell's peers in 1916, with a war raging in Europe, with unrest among increasing impoverished urban workers and increasing victimized African Americans, with a bust of new social problems accompanying urbanization and the change of the economy from rural to industrial" ("Historical"). Women during Glaspell's time started to question their roles while the men were off fighting in World War I. "Susan Glaspell came of age at the beginning of the twentieth century and was actually ahead of her time in embracing many of the liberal political causes and experimental literary movements that came to be a part of what is known as the modernist period" ("Historical"). All of Glaspell's works show the roles of women of her time and how they began to try to be more than what men viewed them as. "A Jury of Her Peers" describes the way men treated women during the time. The men had viewed women as being unequal's to them and did not take them seriously. The men in "A Jury of Her Peers" did not take Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters seriously when they brought up possible evidence. Critics agree that "A Jury of Her Peers" by Susan Glaspell is her greatest story, which demonstrated the roles of women of her time.
"A pioneering and prolific American feminist novelist, journalist, short-story writer, and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Glaspell advocated freedom of expression and was cofounder and codirector of the influential Provincetown Players" (Theodore 916). "A Jury of Her Peers" is a story about two women who hide the evidence that proves that their friend had killed her husband. The story shows how women were treated by men in the time. One of the two women, Mrs. Hale, wanted to help her friend and protect her. The way that the women in the story were treated demonstrates the theme of gender roles. The way Mrs. Hale chose to protect someone she cared about instead of choosing what was right by the law and by the public demonstrates the theme of public vs. private life. The use of symbolism is quite evident during "A Jury of Her Peers" through the use of the dead canary and the knotted quilt. The story uses a third person omniscient point of view. Women of the time began to question their roles while the men were off fighting in World War I. The reader learns from "A Jury of Her Peers" how women were really treated during that time. The story relates to today's time period is how people want to protect the people they care about. "A Jury of Her Peers" is a strong story that influenced feminist movements by the way the women in the story went against the men to protect their friend and did not choose to just go by what was expected of the women back in that
time.
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
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.
Born in 1867, Susan Glaspell was raised in rural Davenport, Iowa during a time where young ladies were expected to marry and raise a family. Glaspell never conformed to this expectation; instead graduating from Duke University, becoming a reporter for Des Moines Daily News, and becoming a successful author and playwright. During her years as a reporter, she covered the story of Margaret Hossock, a farm wife in Iowa accused of murdering her husband. This would later serve as her inspiration for Trifles. Glaspell was a woman who bucked societal expectations but was not blind to the plight other women faced. (Ozieblo) Trifles shows how silencing a person’s soul can be just as dangerous as taking the song out of a caged canary; stealing
In a play, the audience should be intrigued and ready for what is to come next. It is a play that works by understanding. It has the audience on their seat to make them be part of the play. Susan Glaspell wrote a play based on an actual murder. “In the process of completing research for a biography of Susan Glaspell, [she] discovered the historical source upon which Trifles ...Glaspell covered the case and the subsequent trial when she was a reporter for the Des Moines Daily News”(Ben-Zvi 143). In the early nineteen-hundreds women were seen as weak. They were females knew the understanding of every clue that was leading to the case and the reasoning behind it.
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.
Notably, one of the principal ideas presented in Glaspell’s work is the concept of gender roles, moreover, the notion of institutional misogyny present in 20th century America. These said ideas are fleshed out through the characters of the play. The play opens with the introduction of five characters: Sheriff Peters, Hale, County Attorney
In the 19th Century, women had different roles and treated differently compared to today’s women in American society. In the past, men expected women to carry out the duties of a homemaker, which consisted of cleaning and cooking. In earlier years, men did not allow women to have opinions or carry on a job outside of the household. As today’s societies, women leave the house to carry on jobs that allow them to speak their minds and carry on roles that men carried out in earlier years. In the 19th Century, men stereotyped women to be insignificant, not think with their minds about issues outside of the kitchen or home. In the play Trifles, written by Susan Glaspell, the writer portrays how women in earlier years have no rights and men treat women like dirt. Trifles is based on real life events of a murder that Susan Glaspell covered during her work as a newspaper reporter in Des Moines and the play is based off of Susan Glaspell’s earlier writing, “A Jury of Her Peers”. The play is about a wife of a farmer that appears to be cold and filled with silence. After many years of the husband treating the wife terrible, the farmer’s wife snaps and murders her husband. In addition, the play portrays how men and women may stick together in same sex roles in certain situations. The men in the play are busy looking for evidence of proof to show Mrs. Wright murdered her husband. As for the women in the play, they stick together by hiding evidence to prove Mrs. Wright murdered her husband. Although men felt they were smarter than women in the earlier days, the play describes how women are expected of too much in their roles, which could cause a woman to emotionally snap, but leads to women banding together to prove that women can be...
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.
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.
Ortiz, Lisa. Critical Essay on “A Jury of Her Peers.” Short Stories for Students. Detroit: Gale. 163-166.
Grose, Janet L. “Susan Glaspell’s Trifles and ‘A Jury of Her Peers’: Feminine Reading and
Glaspell’s decision to present "Trifles" as a play instead of its short story original form (titled :"A Jury of Her Peers) gives the reader an opportunity to "see" the action better than usual, and therefore get a clearer understanding of the author’s meaning.
In Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles Mr. Wright’s murder is never solved because the two women in the story unite against of the arrogance of men to hide evidence that would prove Mrs. Wright as the murderer. The play Trifles is about the death of farmer Mr. Wright and how the town sheriff and attorney try to find evidence that his wife Mrs. Wright killed him. As the play progresses the men’s wives who had come along were discovering important pieces of evidence that prove the men’s theory but chose to hide from them to illustrate the point that their ideas should have been valued and not something to be trifled. The very irony of the play comes from its title trifles and is defined as something that isn’t very important or has no relevance to the situation that it is presented to. In this play the irony of the title comes from the fact that the men find the women’s opinions on the case trifling even though the women solve the crime which ends up being the downfall of the men as they would have been able to prosecute Mrs. Wright if they had listened which made the women’s opinions not trifling. Glaspell was born in an age where women were still considered the property of men and they had no real value in society in the eyes of men except for procreation and motherhood. This attitude towards women was what inspired Glaspell to write the play Trifles and to illustrate the point that women’s attitudes should be just as valued as men’s and to let women have a sense of fulfillment in life and break the shackles that were holding them only as obedient housewives. Trifles was also inspired by a real murder trial that Glaspell had been covering when she was a reporter in the year 1900. Glaspell is a major symbol of the feminist movement of l...
Susan Glaspell’s most memorable one-act play, Trifles (1916) was based on murder trial case that happened in the 1900’s. Glaspell worked as a reporter, where she appointed a report of a murder case. It was about a farmer, John Hossack who was killed while he was asleep in bed one night. His wife claimed that she was asleep next to him when the attack occurred. No one believed in her statement, she was arrested and was charged on first degree murder.
Susan Glaspell uses literary elements that show the readers the feminist theme in the play. The use of characters in this play really shows the feminist theme the most. Men in this play clearly demonstrates how men wer...