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A Critical Analysis Of Susan Glaspell's A Jury Of Her Peers

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Taking a Stand:
A Critical Analysis of Susan Glaspell’s
“A Jury of Her Peers”
In the early 1900s, women’s rights were still a work in progress, as men during that time possessed much of the power that women were denied. During this time period, women did not have much a voice, but found ways to cope with their disadvantaged status. In Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers,” the author presents the theme of oppression towards women, which leads to the two wives of different backgrounds coming together and forming a feminist sisterhood against their oppressors: the men. Through the use of setting, symbolism, and tone, a clearer picture of what Minnie Wright struggled with is painted for the wives who express empathy towards her situation, which …show more content…

Peters did not want to be the only woman among men in the gloomy home where a tragedy occurred. As they drive up to the farm, which had “always been a lonesome-looking place” that was “down in a hollow,” Mrs. Hale is not in the mood to share small talk with Mrs. Peters (Glaspell 202). Many times in the past, she had had thoughts of guilt about how she “ought to go over and see Minnie Foster,” but was too busy (Glaspell 202). They enter the home and the wives spend most of their time in Mrs. Wright’s kitchen, which is where the story is centered since the majority of Minnie’s life is spent there. According to the excerpt from the essay "Small Things Reconsidered: Susan Glaspell's 'A Jury of Her Peers' " by Elaine Hedges, the Wright’s farm was isolated, Minnie was confined to her work as a farmer’s wife, and they did not have a telephone because Mr. Wright refused one (Hedges par. 5). This led to Minnie living a solitary life, lonely and cut off from others. Mrs. Hale frequently refers to Minnie by her maiden name because she was a different person before this isolation in her home and marriage. The Minnie she knew many years ago

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The short story A Jury of Her Peers, written by Susan Glaspell, clearly demonstrates fear and its control within characters throughout the story. The main character, Minnie Foster, a lovely young woman who sang in the choir and known as a very open person. However, once she got married, she became much quieter. The two other women in the story, one of whom know Minnie, uncover some evidence that would incriminate Minnie for the murder of her husband. The women find out that Minnie’s husband treats Minnie poorly and may have physically hurt Minnie as well.

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Introduction. A Jury by Her Peers authored by Susan Glaspell narrates the investigative events that occur after the death of John Wright in his house. As neighbors and the Dickson County administration, themes of sisterhood and gender roles appear through the actions and hidden motives of the characters. The book, A Jury by Her Peers, expounds on the silent suffering of women and being perceived as unintelligent while providing justifications for covering up of John Wrights death.

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Hester says, regarding Ruth, “I’ve seen her at the window, looking at the town. Day after day she stands there” (Ringwood, 12). Ruth craves human interaction, and begs her husband to sell the house for that very reason. Likewise, Mrs. Wright’s house is described as being “down in the hollow and…lonesome” (Glaspell, 7). Mrs. Wright herself seems to be in stark contrast with her pre-marriage self; Minnie Foster.

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Awesome Title in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” by Adrienne Rich The feminist movement has grown and spread in the past decade. Women all over the world are standing up for basic rights, such as education, that all people, regardless of gender can enjoy. This movement is not a new one, though. Women from times past had already started paving the way towards some of the rights women have today.

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Authors, especially female authors, have long used their writing to emphasize and analyze the feminist issues that characterize society, both in the past and the present. Kate Chopin, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Susan Glaspell wrote narratives that best examined feminist movements through the unreliable minds of their characters. In all three stories, “The Story of an Hour”, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, and “A Jury of Her Peers”, the authors use characterization, symbolism, and foreshadowing to describe the characters’ apparent psychosis or unreasonable behavior to shed light on the social issues that characterized the late 19th century and early 20th century. Penning many stories that demonstrate her opinions on the social issues of the era,

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Abuse is a way of controlling someone. Minnie Wright was not always a quiet women. She used to be beautiful; she used to sing. She used to be happy. Minnie Wright, in Susan Glaspell’s

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Kate Chopin, the author of “The Story of an Hour,” was inspired to write her stories based from what had happened to her in her life. All the man in her life died, which affected her deeply and writing was the thing that helped her keep going. Susan Glaspell on the other hand, was the author of “A Jury of Her Peers,” who at the time rebelled against society’s expectations. Both women a the time were trying to address the issue that women were being thought as inferiors by man and were also mistreated. In the two stories there was irony, women were being viewed as inferior by the man, and the role of a women was the same in both stories.

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It is known that loneliness sometimes makes us senseless. In Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of her Peers” loneliness made Minnie Foster irrational. Mrs. Hale assumes that Mrs. Wright is guilty of killing her husband because of her nonchalant answers she gives when being interrogated about her husband’s location. During the story the reader will learn more about Mrs. Wright, or Minnie Foster, and how her personality changed drastically through her twenty years of marriage with John while Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are covering up the tracks that they presume led to murder. They conclude that loneliness made her lose herself which is evident throughout the short story.

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Hale is a great depiction of the difference in the story and the play. The story reads: Everyone in the kitchen looked at the rocker. It came into Mrs. Hale's mind that that rocker didn't look in the least like Minnie Foster--the Minnie Foster of twenty years before. It was a dingy red, with wooden rungs up the back, and the middle rung was gone, and the chair sagged to one side (Glaspell).

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“A Jury of Her Peers” is a valuable resource for anyone curious to what life was like for women in the twentieth century for which it demonstrates women struggling to publish and define

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There is no question that women have struggled over many years to be seen as equals by their male counterparts. Years of struggle and oppression continued throughout time, but the oppression took different forms over the course of history. Susan Glaspell wrote, “Trifles” which explores a woman’s status in society during the 1920s and the political leanings that perverted society at the time. The play demonstrates how women were subjected to mental abuse and viewed as intellectually inferior as dictated by American society and politics. “Trifles” exposes how political leanings in the government favored and enabled a patriarchal society as well as displaying how the Women’s Rights movement was beginning to combat these prejudices.

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Wright’s belongings are incomplete and out of place, particularly in the kitchen. The women find this to be abnormal and begin speculating the significance of these items. During one point in the play, Mrs. Hale notices an uneven stitch in Mrs. Wright’s unfinished quilt. She asks Mrs. Peters, “’what do you suppose she was so nervous about?’” Because of the death of Mr. Wright, Mrs. Hale views the stitching in a suspicious manner.

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Wright is an example of a battered wife that experienced many levels of abuse” (Schanfield 1655). Schanfield outlines “physical and sexual abuse, but also emotional, economic, verbal and isolation as methods of control and domination” (Schanfield 1655). Mr. Wright completely dominated Mrs. Wright and uses isolation to make Minnie Foster inferior in their relationship and in society. In “A Jury of Her Peers” the women were caucusing over who Minnie Foster used to be and Mrs. Hale said she “remembers her as a lively girl with pretty clothes, wearing a ‘white dress with blue ribbons’” (qtd.

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Hale and Mrs. Peters relate more to the woman as they too feel the isolation. “I’ve not seen much of her of late years. I’ve not been in this house—more than a year” (Glaspell 763). Mrs. Hale says, as she’s talking to the Sheriff. “Trifles” makes the isolation of women into something that the man caused her.

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In her society, it is the woman that is left to be alone in her own thoughts, shown through her husband’s freedom to leave the house and not come back until he wants to versus her confinement to the house. This is reflected through the various “hedges and walls and gates that lock”, making her stay isolated in the house. Ultimately, the character is overtaken by the imagination and through the

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