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A Jury Of Her Peers Critical Analysis

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“A Jury of Her Peers” is a short story written in 1917 by Susan Glaspell based on the true story of the 1900 murder of John Hossack. The story is centered around Martha Hale’s hasty departure from her farmhouse in Dickinson County, Iowa. Martha Hale hates to leave her work undone and her kitchen in disarray, but she has been called upon to accompany a group of her neighbors who wait outside. The group stopped to pick up her husband, Lewis Hale, but the sheriff, Henry Peters, asked that Martha Hale come along as well to accompany his wife, Mrs. Peters, who, he joked, was getting scared and wanted another woman for company. During this era women were the slaves of the house meaning they were always working in the home and providing for the family. The setting has a strong influence on the theme of the story, being oppression and neglect of women, the authors use of these stylistic The setting of Glaspell's story helps to highlight Minnie's lonely situation. While there's physical distance between all the neighbors on …show more content…

Equally important is the fact that the action of the story takes place in the kitchen, a space traditionally associated with women and women's work throughout history. Since gender roles and the oppression of females are the central theme of this story, setting the action in the kitchen helps pull us into the female characters' world. This helps us understand why it was easier for the women to find the clues of the murder than the men. If we weren't sympathetic to the women after witnessing the men belittle them and their roles, then being placed in this feminine area pulls us more strongly to the women's side. We can see this subtly in modern times, women are prone to be the “boss” of the house when they do not have a job. From personal experience it's been that the women of my family primarily stick to staying in the house. They cook, clean, and run the

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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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This shows the attorney assumed that Mrs. Peters was bound to the law because she is the wife of the sheriff; however, he did not account that women were extremely underrepresented in the government because women could not vote or serve has juries. On the other hand, Mrs. Peters did believe in the laws when she states, “The law has got to punish crime, Mrs. Hale” (Glaspell, 191). This shows that Mrs. Peters strongly believe that the law will punish the crime that the murderer committed. However, Mrs. Hale did hold a different opinion about the law when she saw what Mrs. Wright went through when she married Mr. Wright. Mrs. Hale said, “I wish you’d seen Minnie Foster...

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