A Jury Of Her Peers Analysis

Reading your reply helped amplify the comparison and contrast of both stories more clearly, and I could not agree more with what you have shared.
As you said, in both narratives of “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “A Jury of Her Peers”, the women do not try to communicate their concerns or ideas because o fear generated by the patronizing male figures in their lives.
First, the narrator in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” allows her husband John to treat her in a condescending manner although she disagrees with the life he forces her to live. She explains “John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage” (Gilman 226). Later, the narrator says “He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction…John has

In contrast to Gilman’s narrator, these women possess the mental capacity to speak up for themselves. However, they decide to remain quiet just like Gilman’s narrator did. As the men search the house for the evidence against Minnie Foster, they openly laugh at Mrs. Hurst and Mrs. Peter for lacking qualifications to complete the task because their womanly instincts allow them to only notice little “frivolous” details. Mr. Henderson mockingly states “No telling; you women might come upon a clue to the motive….but would the women know a clue if they did come upon it? (Glaspell 249). Although the women eventually prove the men wrong when their observation of the seemingly unimportant details leads them to discover the motive behind Mrs. Foster’s actions first, they decide to keep their discovery to themselves by hiding it from the men because they knew the men would laugh if they heard that the convicting evidence makes them feel sympathy for Minnie Foster. Although the women wanted to speak up in Minnie Foster’s defense, they decide to remain silent and allow the men to keep treating them in the same condescending manner without openly voicing their ideas and opinions as Gilman’s narrator