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Essay on the history of the us criminal justice system
Essay on the history of the us criminal justice system
Criminal justice system in the usa
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Isaac Newton is known by many today as the man who theorized, “To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction.” While this theory holds true to almost every aspect of physical science, there is at least one sociological example of Newtons third law generating controversy. For instance, in the United States murder is crime. However, it’s consequences vary in severity because states vote on this specific kind of law and policiy. Therefore, sentencing’s for this crime ranges from the court-determined proportional number of years in jail, to capital punishment. As a result, the state’s consensus of an “opposed equal reaction” is inflicted as a punishment on those convicted of murder. Nevertheless, the “opposed equal reaction” to …show more content…
Although it was difficult to convey at first, I recognized my tendency to divide critical thinking into hypothetical rationale and realistic rationale. For example, I was displeased with the story’s lack of action. So, perhaps if I were a female who was a huge fan of plot, setting, and character driven murder mysteries, then I would have enjoyed the story more. As a seasoned reader of the genre, my instincts would have told me to approach the text with apprehensive patience. Throughout my reading I would be taking note of any suspicions. I would have questioned the significance of minor oddities; like Mrs. Hales recollection of Sheriff Peter’s wife. Furthermore, I may have realized how Mrs. Peters being described as, “someone who didn't seem like a sheriffs wife, for she was small, thin, and didn’t have a strong voice” (Glaspell, 1), meant that she had a character defect which would be exploited at some point. Before eventually finding out the meaning of this foreshadowing, there are several occasions where Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are patronized for their efforts. Mr. Hale even mocks the two women saying, “women are used to worrying over trifles” (Glaspell, 6). Given the era this story takes place in, both women take the high ground and respectfully respond
The power of women is different than that of men. Women display a subtle and indirect kind of power, but can be resilient enough to impact the outside world. In Trifles, Susan Glaspell delivers the idea that gender and authority are chauvinistic issues that confirm male characters as the power holders, while the female characters are less significant and often weak. This insignificance and weakness indicated in the play by the fact that the women had the evidence to solve a murder, but the men just ignored the women as if they had no value to the case at all. This weakness and inability of the female to contest the man’s view are apparent. According to Ben-Zvi, “Women who kill evoke fear because they challenge societal constructs of femininity-passivity, restraint, and nurture; thus the rush to isolate and label the female offender, to cauterize the act” (141). This play presents women against men, Ms. Wright against her husband, the two women against their spouses and the other men. The male characters are logical, arrogant, and stupid while the women are sympathetic, loyal, and drawn to empathize with Mrs. Wright and forgive her crime. The play questions the extent to which one should maintain loyalty to others. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale try to withhold incriminating evidence against Mrs. Wright, and by challenging the reader to question whether
Symbolism is a literary device in which words, phrases or actions allude to something more than their literal meanings. In the short story “A Jury of Her Peers”, a major example of symbolism is the quilt. The quilt is perhaps the biggest example because it can be tied to many other examples of symbolism within the story, and can also be interpreted in different ways.
The film A Jury of her Peers, is similar to the play, Trifles because it highlights similar points that are referenced in the text and is clear it was used as a basis for the foundation of the film. The names of Mr. and Mrs. Wright are changed to Mr. and Mrs. Burke. The use of facts to outline the climax, are the same as used in the play. Such as the building of suspense of the discovering of the bird and its strangulation and whether Mrs. Burke or Mr. Burke is to place blame. However, as an adaptation, opinions are added into the original framework of the play to add a touch of personalization. The film interprets the drama as a murder mystery, as the attorney and the sheriff search the household to find evidence to place blame on Mrs. Burke. A jury of her Peers, works to portray the emotions of Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, as they discover items that would, (if found by the men) possibly prove her guilty (Bourne, 2013).
In "A Jury of Her Peer," by Susan Glaspell, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters realize from the
On one side, she is married to the law, and on the other side, she understands what Minnie has been through. Her husband used to mentally abuse her to the point where she is now basically secluded from everyone and everything in the world. Mr. Hale even makes the comment, “Though I said at the same time that I didn’t know what his wife wanted made much difference to John” (260). The reader feels sympathy for Minnie throughout the story and gets a feeling of justification for her killing her husband and getting revenge. Mrs. Peters seems to have a hard time deciding whether to side with her inner feelings and cover for Minnie or to side with the law.
We then come to the part where the ladies are talking about Mrs. Peter’s interactions with the other women in town. Mrs. Hale said she was not part of the Ladies’ Aid (which seemed like the thing for the women to do in that town), she dressed shabbily which she never did before becoming Mr. Wright’s wife. Mrs. Hale also clearly states that she does not believe that Mrs. Wright killed her husband whereas Mrs. Peters is struggling with this, saying that the Attorney thinks it looks bad because she did not wake up when her husband was being killed in bed right beside her. Mrs. Hale takes the view I would by saying don’t blame her because obviously he didn’t wake up either or maybe he would be alive or at least maybe he could have awakened her in his struggle.
Mrs. Hales feels that her husband has a habit of getting mixed up on the story and she’s worried about that. In comparison, this detail is emphasized through his ramblings in Trifles, which sound like a two year old. It shows in both versions that their interaction with each other is taxing on their relationship. The Peters have a similar relationship to the Hales, but it is more deftly revealed. The sheriff is a a heavy man with a big voice, who was particularly genial with the law-abiding, as if to make it plain that he knew the difference between criminals and non-criminals.
I like this play quite a lot. It's got murder, mystery and deceit. It's interesting that the play bases a lot on stereotypes. The men are the sheriff, deputy and the attorney sent out to discover the details of the murder of a man found hanged in his bed. They look carefully in the bedroom and outside in the barn for clues and the women are sent in, I think initially, to gather some things for Mrs. Wright. The women are mocked at by the men. Worrying about things like jelly freezing and sewing. Mrs. Hale "Oh, her fruit; it did freeze. She worried about that when it turned so cold. She said the fire'd go out and her jars would break"; Hale "Well, women are used to worrying over trifles." They are not taken seriously. They are women and are not intelligent enough to understand the concept of solving a murder. The men forgot, it's the little things that bother people the most and for Mrs. Wright, it must have been death of her canary.
In fact, when Mrs. Hale comments that Mrs. Wright was not one for housekeeping, Mrs. Peters replies by saying “Well, I don’t know as Wright had either.” (748). The disheveled state that the house is in, as well as the fact that Mr. Wright is characterized as a hard man who is unwilling to share his part expresses the idea that their marriage was unhappy, and in turn, Mrs. Wright could have motive to harm him. Likewise, when the men leave the women to find clothes for Mrs. Wright, the two discover more possible evidence that the men will shrug off. For example, Mrs. Hale examines some quilt work that Mrs. Wright was working on, and notices that the most recent square is very sloppy compared to the rest of the work on the quilt. Moreover, the fact that they believe she crafted it by knotting is very significant (750). This correlation times closely with Mr. Wright’s time of death, and could indicate as a stressor, which the women can pick up on. Since the men laugh at their seemingly trivial observation, they are close to solving the crime on their
In “ A Jury of Her Peers”, when the county sheriff and attorney go to the Wright house to investigate a murder. They search for clues to incriminate Mrs. Wright but find nothing. They discover Mr. Wright strangled in his bedroom and saw Mrs. Wright completely unaffected. Although Mrs. Wright claims to have been asleep while the murder occurred, the women conclude she choked her husband, Mr. Wright, as evidenced by the broken bird cage, the strangled canary, and the errant quilt patch.
and, as she says, “If they hadn’t held me back I would have . . .
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.
The main idea showed in Trifles, the male character, and the empathy described by the females is why the author shows everyone that in every section of this play. Throughout the play, the women were being ignore and belittled by men. With their role, it is showing how back in the early 1900’s men were figured as gods. Women had to give all attention to the children, housekeeping and especially taking care of their spouse. Even though the women think very different as to what men use to think, they still maintain a close relationship in respecting the man 's job. According to Elke Brown, “ As a sheriff 's wife, she is married not only to Mr. Peters, the person but also to his profession”. The women are giving their world just so the men can be satisfied with the job they have and not cause any other problem other than their job. During the play, the men are only looking for hard concrete clues. They seem not to see the reality behind minor things. Mrs. Peters is directed by this belief until she remembers the stillness in her house after a child had died. This memory produces a dominant bond between her and Minnie 's experience of isolation and loneliness. The scene where exactly Mrs. Peters herself attempts to hide the box with the dead canary in it. She is well aware that this action that happens, which can apply to on the society and the way her husband wants the things done. Just because her husband stands
In today’s society, many women are powerful, independent, and for the most part treated equal to men, but before the 1920's women were restrained by the men. Imagine what being a woman in this era would be like. In Susan Glaspell’s play “Trifles,” she addresses the life of women in the 1900’s by examining the marital relationships among the characters, specifically between Mrs. Wright and Mr. Wright, the Sheriff and Mrs. Peters, and last Mr. Hale and Mrs. Hale. Glaspell accomplishes this by separating the husbands and wives into different rooms in the home of the Wrights, leaving the women all together in the living room and kitchen, which is where they find the crime scene evidence. The point being is that the men did not consider what the
...t allow her freedom and friendships and may have payed for it with his life. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, knowing and understanding the desperation and alienation that this housewife felt, found the proof of a motive for the murder, despite the taunting and teasing from the men who were suppose to be the ones looking for the evidence. The false ideas that these men had towards all of the females ended up hurting them and keeping them from the truth. Instead of the wives offering up the evidence that was discovered, they decided to hide it from the men to protect Mrs. Wright. The disparaging attitudes presented by the men may have seemed harmless at the time, but it kept them from the truth and it made the women feel like their idea would be disregarded. Ultimately, if you look deeper, this male dominant society was harmful to not only women, but to the men as well.