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Societal problems in the 1920s
Societal problems in the 1920s
American society in 1920
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Pulitzer Prize winner Susan Glaspell is a pioneer for women of her generation. Ms. Glaspell was born in 1876, a time where women were not considered equal to men. When Glaspell became “of age”, instead of marrying, she went to college and graduated from Drake University in 1899. Glaspell’s career as a writer began when she got a job as a reporter for the newspaper. During that time she wrote several short stories that were published. Glaspell later married George Cook and he is the person that encouraged her to write plays. Due to this encouragement, she wrote one of her most well-known plays, Trifles (International Susan Glaspell Society.) This play is later turned into the short story “A Jury of Her Peers,” Glaspell uses imagery, chauvinism, …show more content…
Mary M. Bendel-Simso also appears to agree with this theme when she states, “The men, all representatives of the Law (the sheriff, the prosecutor, and a witness” (292). This coincides with the imagery of judge, jury, and execution, during the time period when women were not allowed to sit on a jury. Another form of imagery in the story is when Karen Alkalay-Gut suggests that the mental image of the strangled bird is representation of Minnie having the life strangled out of her by her domineering husband (6). Glaspell uses Mrs. Hale to visualize the young Minnie Foster Wright as a lively girl, and more recently a much subdued woman, and the unsaid cause is that of the formidable Mr. …show more content…
Hale begin to stand up for Minnie. Mrs. Hale tells Mrs. Peters “How’d you like to cook on this?” as she refers to the bad stove. (270) Readers can imply that Mrs. Hale has some attitude behind her statement. Bendel-Simso expresses how the men want to punish the killer but not look into the “why” of the murder, and how the woman begin to see Minnie’s side.(292) Mrs. Hale sympathizes by the memory of a kitten that was murdered, and Mrs. Peters empathizes by remembrance of the loss of her child. Glaspell shows the women begin to band together using their losses as an emotional stepping stone, when they silently agree to hide the dead
Born in 1867, Susan Glaspell was raised in rural Davenport, Iowa during a time where young ladies were expected to marry and raise a family. Glaspell never conformed to this expectation; instead graduating from Duke University, becoming a reporter for Des Moines Daily News, and becoming a successful author and playwright. During her years as a reporter, she covered the story of Margaret Hossock, a farm wife in Iowa accused of murdering her husband. This would later serve as her inspiration for Trifles. Glaspell was a woman who bucked societal expectations but was not blind to the plight other women faced. (Ozieblo) Trifles shows how silencing a person’s soul can be just as dangerous as taking the song out of a caged canary; stealing
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 the story, “A Jury of Her Peers,” by Susan Glaspell, we see how women are subjugated to stereotypical gender roles, where men are superior over women. The two main characters, Mrs. Peters and Martha Hale arrive at the Wright residence, with the men to investigate the crime scene. Minnie Foster-Wright has been arrested for allegedly strangling her husband with a rope. Mr. Hale (Martha’s husband), is a witness, who found Minnie sitting in a rocker and her husband dead upstairs. The attorney general, Mr. Henderson asks Mr. Hale and the sheriff, Mr. Peters to help him investigate the crime and explain what he had seen that day. As the men go upstairs and into the barn to investigate, Martha and Mrs. Peters are left in the kitchen to gather
When the group arrives at the house, the difference between the men and the women is immediately apparent. The men approach the scene with confidence and seem to feel indifferent toward the situation, even though John Wright was a close acquaintance and neighbor. However, the women approach the scene with caution and hesitation. The sheriff gets right to business and asks Mr. Hale to “tell Mr. Henderson just what it was you saw when you came here yesterday morning” (189). Mrs. Hale gets nervous as her husband “often wandered along and got things mixed up in a story” (190). Mrs. Hale does not want Mr. Hale to say anything that might “make things harder for Minnie Foster” (190). This lets the reader know that Mrs. Hale already feels compassion for Mr...
Wright, they seem to stray away from the conversation and say things about their male counterparts such as, “Men’s hands aren’t always as clean as they might be” (Glaspell 54). This in some sense triggers a chain reaction and causes Mrs. Hale’s husband to say, “Ah, loyal to your sex, I see” (Glaspell 54). This solidifies the idea that the women banded together and looked out for one another because they felt that they could genuinely understand each other and even empathize. Towards the end of the story when the women begin to discuss all of the evidence they encountered Mrs. Hale
I have always felt that a good piece of writing causes the reader to think about and analyze a given set of circumstances so that he expands his worldly understandings. Such writing is stimulating and often includes an element of controversy. The short story “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell is one example of this provocation in which the writer conveys her views on sexual injustice. In a way that is conceptually intriguing, Glaspell expresses her ideas about the misunderstandings between men and women during the early twentieth century. While personally disagreeing with the interpretive outcome of the story as well as the message that it is intended to present, I must admit that it did provide me with insight into the mind of a real feminist who lived during a time when women were treated as secondary citizens.
Hale states “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles” (561). The same trifles he states women are worried over, are the trifles that if men paid attention to they would have plenty of evidence against Minnie Wright. In “A Jury of Her Peers” Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peter basically decided the fate of Minnie. In “A Jury of Her Peers” Glaspell shows how there is criticism of a legal system that denied women the change of a fair trial by an all-man jury. They found evidence that the men could not find and decided “not to turn it in. All of this held a significant role in the story, but they are the ones that solved the case. In the play the sheriff mocks Mrs. Hale “They Wonder if she was going to quilt it or just knot it” (563). He also said something in “A Jury of Her Peers” on page 575 line 159. There are not many changes between the play and the short story. Most of the changes happen in the opening of the story when it is more detailed, as to where the play is all about action. If you are watching the play it is much better than the story because you can see all the action and
Peters, the wife of the sheriff, is describes as a woman who does not look the part because she is small and thin. Mrs. Peters’ physical characteristics is a reflection of her obedience to her husband, and to the law, that she struggles to overcome. She even reminds Mrs. Hale of the men’s duties and their own responsibilities to the law, by saying, “I’d hate to have men comin’ into my kitchen…snoopin’ round and criticizin’.” “Of course it’s no more than their duty”, but she ultimately is an active participant in the attempt to conceal the evidence of Minnie Wright’s guilt (105-106). Martha Hale is the wife of Mr. Hale and resident of the nearest farm to the Wrights’ home. Due to the proximity, as well as her acquaintance with Minnie Wright, she feels extremely responsible for not having visited the married Minnie Wright years ago. Martha Hale comes off ass the protagonist of the story from the first few paragraphs and is more strong-willed than Mrs. Peters. By defying her husband and the law by concealing the evidence against Minnie Wright and ultimately chooses to ally herself with a fellow woman against the patriarchal society in which they live in.
This leads to suspicion because there is no bird to be seen in the house. While Mrs. Hale is looking for string to bring to Minnie she finds a box. When she opened the box a foul smell came from it, inside lay the dead bird with its neck broken. They realize that the bird was special to Minnie, and brought her happiness in such a dreadful place that was her farmhouse. Mrs. Peters remarks that if anyone would have hurt her childhood kitten she would have wanted to harm them back. Mrs. Hale speculates that John was the one who killed the bird, just like he killed Minnies singing. The men return to the room and Mrs. Peters quickly conceals the bird. The county general reveals that without evidence and a motive, it is likely that the jury will go easy on her. The two women make eye contact and make a silent agreement to not hand over the dead bird in the box, for it could be used to convict Minnie. The central theme of Jury of Her Peers is that there is no telling what a person could do when the have been pushed too
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
Susan Glaspell, author of the play “Trifles”, and author of short story, “A Jury of Her Peers,” was born in 1876, and is a well-known feminist whose stories did not become popular till later in life. Men believe they are superior to women, and Susan Glaspell shows through her short stories how this belief has affected women throughout history. In this case, the women was driven to kill her husband because she was in desperate need of freedom. Susan Glaspell’s play “Trifles”, and short story, “A Jury of Her Peers,” compare and contrast changes between the two writing such as, plot change, character change, and theme change.
In the early twentieth century, the issue of gender inequality and lack of feminism was prevalent throughout society. Susan Gladspell’s play, Trifles, contains various instances of gender discrimination within the characters’ actions in the plot. Females in that society were subjected to great discrimination due to their sexuality and were viewed as insubordinate and only capable of obtaining menial jobs. This resulted in men constantly demeaning women in the form of mental and emotional abuse. Occasionally, this abuse gradually worsened and finally accumulated into some major disaster. In order to better the lives of women, the feminism movement was on the brink of starting a major revolution to restore equality in society. Throughout Susan Gladspell’s play, Trifles, the author incorporated elements of gender inequality and discrimination in hopes of bringing about the feminist movement.
Mr. Hale describes Mrs. Foster as being “queer” or strange. It is know that people in highly stressful situations can behave in a manner that is considered inappropriate such as laughing at a funeral and perhaps Minnie Foster is in such a situation that mental she is struggling to believe what has happened. She may also be in a state of shock causing peculiar behavior and a lack of judgement. Furthermore, the possible motive that Minnie Foster killed her husband over him killing her bird is weak. Mrs. Hale remembers Mrs. Foster as being a normal girl who people adored and yet how could such a normal person commit murder over the death of a bird. Perhaps the bird had died and she simply had not had time to bury the bird. Minnie Foster’s behavior suggest she was in shock over the death of her husband causing her to act strange not because she killed her husband and further the weakness of the suggested motive that she killed Mr. Foster because he killed her bird jumps to a conclusion without clear
In Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles Mr. Wright’s murder is never solved because the two women in the story unite against of the arrogance of men to hide evidence that would prove Mrs. Wright as the murderer. The play Trifles is about the death of farmer Mr. Wright and how the town sheriff and attorney try to find evidence that his wife Mrs. Wright killed him. As the play progresses the men’s wives who had come along were discovering important pieces of evidence that prove the men’s theory but chose to hide from them to illustrate the point that their ideas should have been valued and not something to be trifled. The very irony of the play comes from its title trifles and is defined as something that isn’t very important or has no relevance to the situation that it is presented to. In this play the irony of the title comes from the fact that the men find the women’s opinions on the case trifling even though the women solve the crime which ends up being the downfall of the men as they would have been able to prosecute Mrs. Wright if they had listened which made the women’s opinions not trifling. Glaspell was born in an age where women were still considered the property of men and they had no real value in society in the eyes of men except for procreation and motherhood. This attitude towards women was what inspired Glaspell to write the play Trifles and to illustrate the point that women’s attitudes should be just as valued as men’s and to let women have a sense of fulfillment in life and break the shackles that were holding them only as obedient housewives. Trifles was also inspired by a real murder trial that Glaspell had been covering when she was a reporter in the year 1900. Glaspell is a major symbol of the feminist movement of l...
One woman’s Trifles is another man’s clues. The play Trifles, was written by Susan Glaspell based on the murder of John Hossack, which Susan reported on while working as a news journalist for Des Moines Daily News. Susan Glaspell was an American Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, actress, novelist, journalist, and founder of the Provincetown Players. She has written nine novels, fifteen plays, over fifty short stories, and one biography. At 21 she enrolled at Drake University even after the prevailing belief that college make women unfit for marriage. But many don’t know that her work was only published after the death of her husband George Cram Cook. Trifles is an example of a feminist drama. The play shows how male dominance was