During Mr. Hale’s recollection of the crime scene, he describes Mrs. Minnie Wright as “dull,” “queer,” and “scared” (545-546). Later, in a conversation between Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, Mrs. Foster, Minnie Wright’s maiden name, is described oppositely as “lively,” wearing “pretty clothes,” and singing in the choir (550). Through this conversation examining the differences between Mrs. Wright before and after being married to Mr. Wright, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale begin to see why Minnie would have killed her husband. It
The Wrights In 1917 Arkansas secured primary suffrage and one of the most interesting and chilling short stories was written. The story “A Jury of Her Peers” was written by Susan Glaspell, a Prize-winning playwright, actress, author, and journalist. In the short story, Mrs. Wright claims to be asleep during her husband's murder. After the murder, two women named Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peter's find 3 key clues to solving who murdered Mr. Wright that Detectives cannot.
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.
Nicholas Titone Professor Flynn ENG 102-N01 02 March 2017 MWA 2 Susan Glaspell’s one act play “Trifles” as well as it’s counterpart in the form of a short story entitled “A Jury of Her Peers” were both loosely based on the Hossack murder case and its subsequent trial, both of which were covered by Glaspell during her time as a reporter for the Des Moines Daily News. While she pulled several thematic elements from her original work on the case and worked them into her adaptations, Glaspell made a myriad of changes in order to appeal to her audience, make each adaptation more appropriate for it’s genre, and convey her message effectively. In the original Hossack case a prominent farmer, John Hossack, was killed in his sleep after being struck
The story opens with Mrs. Wright imprisoned for strangling her husband. A group, the mostly composed of men, travel to the Wright house in the hopes that they find incriminating evidence against Mrs. Wright. Instead, the two women of the group discover evidence of Mr. Wright’s abuse of his wife. Through the women’s unique perspective, the reader glimpses the reality of the situation and realizes that, though it seemed unreasonable at the time, Mrs. Wright had carefully calculated her actions. When asked about the Wrights, one of the women, Mrs. Hale, replies “I don’t think a place would be a cheerful for John Wright’s being in it” (“A Jury of Her Peers” 7).
On another level, the play is about America and its makeup as a melting pot of different cultures, ideas, beliefs, and temperaments. This jury runs the gamut from a German immigrant watchmaker, 11th Juror, to a presumably wealthy broker, 4th Juror, to a male nurse at a Harlem hospital, who grew up in the slums, 5th Juror. These men represent the incredible richness of diversity in America and the various challenges that it presents. This clash
Hale, the wife of Lewis Hale, is a farm wife just like a woman named Minnie. In the story, there is no real direct description of Mrs. Hale, but what shows who she really is by her behaviors that throw some clues of what she experiences in her life. Through her outspoken opinions and how vocal she is with her opinions, you can sense how she feels about her husband, Lewis Hale, being the man who is a farmer who was the only one to witness the aftermath of the murder of John Wright. It is obvious that Mrs. Hale is he husbands “right hand”, and just like Emilia, is very obedient to her husband when he asks her to collect all of Minnie’s belongings. Compared to Mrs. Peters, Mrs. Hale is the women who the one to feel free to express her feelings, though she is looked to be less “sophisticated” than the others.
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).
Savagery in Oppression Writer, George R. R. Martin once said, “There is a savage beast in every man and when you hand that man a sword or spear and send him forth to war, the beast stirs.”. In every person there is a dark void in them where savageness resides and when oppression joins savagery in the void, the brutality in anyone comes out. Although oppression may cause different reactions from people, for most it can cause savagery to emerge from even the best people leading to their ultimate self- destruction by leading them to kill, lose control, and destruct. When a once happy young maiden suddenly kills her husband in his sleep, what is the source of this dramatic act of savagery? ? In Susan Glaspell's short story, “A Jury of Her Peers”,
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.
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).
Susan Glaspell was born in 1876 in Davenport, Iowa and studied at Drake University in Des Moines. In 1931, she won the Pulitzer Prize for her play Allison’s House, which resembles Emily Dickinson’s life. In college, she had published a few short stories in the Youth’s Companion and had worked as college correspondent for a local newspaper, and on graduating she became a reporter for the Des Moines Daily News. In 1901, she returned to her native Davenport to devote herself to writing; her stories, mainly local-colour pieces set in Freeport (Davenport), were soon appearing regularly in such magazines as the Ladies’ Home Journal, the American, and Harper’s. Glaspell wrote both the short story, “A Jury of Her Peers” and Trifles.
“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.
In the play Trifles, Susan Glaspell demonstrates the injustice towards women and their very basic fundamental rights, this brings the patience of a few women to a tipping point and initiates the birth of a buried movement after centuries of reticence, during the early twentieth century in North America. It is this common memory and experiences among women, which motivated few women to rise up against the male dominated Justice System, which eventually wakes up the rest of the women in the society through time. However, ironically, this movement is accomplished in a secret way and in silence against the male dominated justice system of America, because silence itself is a very powerful tool for women; in other words concealing of knowledge helps
(kicks his foot against the pans under the sink) Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?” (Meyer 1389). In an ironic turn, the audience knows that the women have solved the murder mystery while the men remain oblivious of the truth because of their assumptions. The two women end up identifying with Minnie Wright’s abuse at the hands of her husband and feel the murder was justified. They then conspire to conceal the truth from their ignorant husbands and the County Attorney.
