Law and justice are facets of the democratic society that is America’s reality, and are an integral part of American life. The concepts of law and justice are nebulous to say the least, but their prevalence to life makes the discussion and clarification of these terms a popular subject for many authors. How an author may approach this type of topic is unique to each author, and Susan Glaspell approaches it with a feminist perspective in the short story A Jury of Her Peers. Glaspell based the story on a real-life event that she reported on, where a Midwestern rural farm woman killed her family with an axe for no apparent reason. The reasoning behind this killing was unclear, and thus justice and law were hard to administer in this case. Glaspell …show more content…
She uses the setting of a lonely rural Midwestern farm to “reflect… a larger truth about the lives of rural women. Their isolation induced madness in many” (Hedges 304). This is the premise of how Glaspell examines law and justice. In the short story A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell, enacting justice versus following the law is explored through the author's emphasis on gender roles, which reveals the subjectivity of justice.
There are two female characters and twelve male characters in A Jury of Her Peers, and throughout the story, the gender roles of these characters are juxtaposed to express the divergent perspectives on justice by the men and women. To many, justice and law are synonymous with each other, but Glaspell uniquely separates them. Law and justice are separated by gender in this short story, as the men are focused on traditional law, whereas the women focus more on the motive and the context of Minnie Wright’s crime. Minnie, the woman who is thought to have murdered her husband, is judged by the women through their lens of understanding the strain of lonely rural life, while the men judge Mrs. Wright
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Hale and Mrs. Peters in this short story, as they turn to an anomalous form of community justice. As mentioned previously, Mrs. Peters is the wife of the sheriff, and she behaves as such—abiding to the law always and nervously reacting when Mrs. Hale tries to verbally justify Minnie’s behavior as they uncover evidence in the kitchen. Mrs. Peters’s demeanor changes after Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale lock eyes and “h[o]ld each other in a steady, burning look in which there [i]s not evasion or flinching. Then Martha Hale’s eyes point… the way to the basket in which [i]s hidden the thing that would make certain the conviction of the other woman” (Glaspell 299). In this instant of community and shared awareness Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters simultaneously choose to flout men and traditional law and do justice their way. By hiding the dead canary, the most damning piece of evidence that Minnie is the killer in a court of law by establishing a motive, they rewrite the definition of justice and disassociate it from law. Their new definition is one that specifies what a peer is further to include gender and situation and considers trifles when making a decision. Mrs. Hale has an effective and amusing way of communicating this idea when she says “the law is the law—and a bad stove is a bad stove” (Glaspell 293). “without saying so explicitly, she proposes and equality of values and perspectives: the patriarchal, abstract
Kathryn Allamong Jacob’s “She Couldn’t Have Done It, Even if She Did,” reflects America’s history of inequality and gender stereotypes that greatly affected society’s mindsets, even when it involved murder. Lizzie Borden was an upper-class, gentile, unmarried woman who still lived with her father and stepmother at the age of thirty-two. Being an active member of her community and part of the Women’s Christian Temperance movement, she fell perfectly into her stereotypical role as a beloved daughter who, unable to devote her love to a husband, devoted her time and energy to the betterment of her community. Lizzie, being a wealthy and moral woman, could never brutally murder her father and stepmother, she was incapable of even thinking of it, or was she? Jacob’s story of the murders of Mr. and Mrs. Borden in 1893 describes how gender stereotypes can influence the minds of a nation and how the public and media influence, male dominated court hearing, and refute of evidence all lead to Lizzie’s full pardon.
In this paper I will explain and discuss the historical events that took place in a small rural town in early Massachusetts. The setting for which is Irene Quenzler Brown's and Richard D. Brown's, The Hanging of Ephraim Wheeler. I will explain the actions and motives of Hannah and Betsy Wheeler in seeking legal retribution of husband and father Ephraim Wheeler. I will also discuss the large scope of patriarchal power allowed by the law and that given to husbands and masters of households. Of course, this will also lead to discussions of what was considered abuse of these powers by society and the motivation for upholding the Supreme Court's decision to hang Ephraim Wheeler.
The death of John Wright, to some, might seem tragic and unacceptable, but for one person in particular, Minnie Wright, it was beautiful and freeing. When you are oppressed and treated poorly your entire life, and your husband takes away everything that you hold dear, then something has to give. Can justice has been served in an unusual way? With the help of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, Minnie just might get away with serving up her slice of justice.
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.
In Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers,” Minnie Foster is accused of killing her husband. This accusation forces Mrs. Peters to choose between the law and her inner feelings. Her husband is the sheriff of Dickenson County, Iowa. It has always been a small, quiet town where nothing really happens. Mrs. Peters is faced with an internal struggle.
In both of Glaspell’s pieces, the main character, Mrs. Wright, is accused of killing her husband. Minnie Wright was a farmer’s wife who didn’t have much contact with the outside world. The murder investigation took place inside her home. Three men are used to investigate the case and two women come with them. The women were no help to the men, but solved the case but also protected Mrs. Wright from any wrongdoing. The three men tried to find a motive, but the case remained unsolved. Susan Glaspell show’s in the two pieces how women are disregarded in investigative matters.
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
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. A. "Small Things Reconsidered: Susan Glaspell's 'A Jury of Her Peers'. " Women's Studies 12.1 (1986): 89. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web.
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
This should tip us off to the differences that the judicial system discriminates even in matters as important as murder or other capital offences. But within the subgroup of women prisoners there can be a distinction made between the representations of women more likely to be sentenced to death row, or in this case shown compassion while on death row. Hawkins describes this compassion as “typically extended only to female inmates who fit a certain predetermined societal profile of women”. This definition of “women” or “womanhood” is very interesting and deserves to be explored. In my past, I have a conception of women as being sweet and frail; basically incapable of doing wrong because they are too nice or too weak to do so.
The females begin responding “stiffly” rather than “quietly”(7) as before. This adjective usage serves to support the speech even more by allowing readers to see the progression from silence to a bold rebellion in the women regarding their husbands, for “by hiding the canary Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are also going against their husbands” (Bee2). Indeed, this act was the major act of defiance that secured the women’s strengthened devotions to each other rather than their husbands. Peters especially undergoes a drastic transformation when she eventually joins in as “support of her fellow oppressed women” (Block B 1). When, at the climax of the story, the bird is hidden from the men in the sentimental tin box, Glaspell exhibits the tension with the selection of detail. She chooses to focus on the clammy hands of Mrs. Peters as she stuffs the tin away and the quivering voice of Mrs. Hale as she denies knowing any information about the crime. The descriptions of the seemingly miniscule and weakening objects around her house match the “quiet desperation” (Schotland 3) Foster repressed until it overflowed the night before. Considering that the adjectives show how burdensome it is for the women to conceal the evidence, it truly demonstrates how strong the relationships between them has grown based
For centuries, women were often looked at as housekeepers of the household. It was rare to see women managing businesses or working for the government. Usually, men were the "power holders" of the society and tend to ignore many brilliant ideas from women. Overlooked and overworked, women are yet fighting for their rights to achieve the liberty they have today. Susan Glaspell wrote "A Jury of Her Peers" to secretly embed the unnecessary practiced culture of social structure and subjugation against women, females' forced labor, and the oppression on women in order to explain that society should stop overlooking powerful women and their extraordinary minds. Furthermore, Glaspell was a member of a group of intellectuals who questioned marriage
In the story “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell, Mr. Lewis Hale arrived at the Wright house to find that his neighbor, John Wright, had been strangled in his sleep. Hale asked John’s wife, Millie Wright, a few questions about what had happened. Suspiciously, Mrs. Wright’s dry answers didn’t add up. Now the sheriff, the county attorney, Mr. and Mrs. Hale, and Mrs. Peters the sheriff’s wife, are investigating the house. Although Mrs. Wright claims to be asleep during her husband’s murder, the women conclude that she strangled her husband as evidenced by the broken bird cage, the slaughtered canary, and the errant quilt patch.
In Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers”, female characters face inequality in a society dominated by the opinions of their husbands. The women struggle to decide where their loyalty rests and the fate of a fellow woman. Aided by memories and their own lifestyles the women realize their ties to a woman held for murder, Minnie Foster Wright. Through a sympathetic connection these women, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters have greater loyalty to a fellow woman than to their husbands and even the law; this greater loyalty ultimately shows the inequality between genders.