Manipulation through Gender Roles

1148 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Factors promoting gender bias

Manipulation through Gender Roles
Many works of literature, including even the world’s most primitive texts, portray women as decision makers and critical thinkers. These characteristics allow them to be empathetic, detail oriented, and one step ahead: the perfect recipe for potential manipulation. Typically, these stories juxtapose men and women’s dealings of the same event. The short stories “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl and “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell both incorporate this portrayal of women by telling the story of a wife murdering her husband, and how the women utilize their gender roles to manipulate the justice system, which is predominately controlled by men.
The protagonist in the “Lamb to the Slaughter,” Mary Maloney, is a pregnant housewife who seemingly embraces and appreciates her subordinate role to her husband, who is ironically a senior policeman. Dahl elaborates her feelings by writing, “She loved to luxuriate in the presence of this man, and to feel – almost as a sunbather feels the sum – that warm male glow that came out of him to her when they were alone together” (Dahl 58). When Mr. Maloney arrives home, Mary wants nothing more but to please him by offering to make him supper. He refuses, announces his desire to leave her, and she ironically kills him with the frozen leg of lamb, the very dinner she so recently offered him. Dahl strategically develops Mary’s role with men throughout the story, which is a key to the theme. Mary decides to take a trip to the market immediately following the murder, and does so for the sole purpose of creating an alibi. She manipulates the male store clerk, Sam, by acting as if she is buying the groceries to please her husband. He falls for it and gives the ...

... middle of paper ...

...ul characterization of female character to build this argument. Both Mary and Minnie cultivate their potential downfalls as women, and use them to their advantage to outsmart the male dominated justice system. These stories prove that, despite biases about women being too emotional to handle themselves under pressure, women are just as capable to manipulating men through the very characteristics that make them women.

Work Cited
Dahl, Roald. “Lamb to the Slaughter.” The World’s Best Short Stories: Anthology & Criticism.
Vol. 5: Mystery and Detection. Great Neck, NY: Roth Publishing, Inc., 1991. 58. The
World’s Best Series. LitFinder. Web. 6 Dec. 2013
Glaspell, Susan. “A Jury of Her Peers.” The Best Short Stories of 1917 and the Yearbook of the
American Short Story. Ed. Edward J. O’Brien Boston: Small, Maynard & Company,
1918. 256. LitFinder. Web. 6 Dec. 2013.

Show More
Related

  • Feminism in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    In total, the female characters are always victimized because of their qualities and gender. In conclusion, by destroying the female characters, Mary Shelly alludes to the idea that women are always in victimized positions in society. In conclusion, most of the female characters are often isolated, victimized and ultimately killed by the male characters. Furthermore, it is rather ironic how Mary Shelly, the daughter Mary Wollestonecraft who wrote the Vindication of the Right of Women chooses to portray women. In this novel, the female characters are the exact opposite of the male characters; they are passive, weak and extremely limited.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles in Susan Glaspell's A Jury Of Her Peers and Trifles

    1190 Words  | 3 Pages

    Glaspell, Susan.  "A Jury of Her Peers." Literature and the Writing Process.  Eds.  Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X. Day, and Robert Funk. 4th Ed.  Upper Saddle River:  Prentice, 1996. 293-307.

    Read More

  • William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily and Susan Glaspell's Trifles

    1240 Words  | 3 Pages

    Glaspell, Susan. "A Jury of Her Peers." Literature and Its Writers. 6th ed. Boston, New York:

    Read More

  • Mary Maloney In 'Lamb To The Slaughter'

    1296 Words  | 3 Pages

    Would you kill the husband you love, to save your unborn child? Would you deceive yourself and those around you; to save your unborn child? In Roald Dahl’s short story, “Lamb to the Slaughter”, the protagonist, Mary Maloney is a very dynamic character. She has a dual nature since she is very cunning yet very caring, making her the perfect murderer along with the perfect mother. Firstly, she is very deceitful and has the ability to easily cover up her lies. Not only that, Mary is a very clever character who always makes the most intelligent choices. Lastly, the woman is very dutiful, caring and is very aware of her responsibilities as both a wife and a mother. Therefore all of these characteristics make Mary Maloney a very dynamic character

    Read More

  • Lamb To The Slaughter Mary Maloney Character Traits

    630 Words  | 2 Pages

    To illustrate, in the author’s words, “Why don’t you eat up that lamb that’s in the oven?” (Dahl, p. 324) In this quote the author proposes that Mary deceived the detectives into eating the murder weapon. This quote models the author’s use of character development as Mary went from the beginning of being good-natured and honest to deceitful. This brings the immoral evolution of Mary out. Moreover, the author plainly asserts, “And in the other room, Mary Maloney began to giggle.” (Dahl, p. 324) In this quote, the author describes how Mary laughed as the detectives ate the murder weapon. This quote reminds the reader that Mary is now “innocent” in a different sense than she was in the beginning of the story. “Perfect”, unaware, self-sacrificing, wife Mary is gone. Revealed to the readers is wicked, manipulative murderer

    Read More

  • Susan Glaspell's A Jury of Her Peers

    1665 Words  | 4 Pages

    The North wind is blowing in Dickson County on this cold, March morning, and in Susan Glaspell’s, “A Jury of Her Peers,” murder bring together a group of men and two women, with two separate agendas. The men’s group who includes: Mr. Hale; a witness, Mr. Peters; the sheriff, and Mr. Henderson; the county attorney are persistent in finding evidence to ensure a conviction of Minnie (Foster) Wright; wife of the victim, John Wright. However, the two women: Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, wives of two of the men, create a bond with each other and with the absent Mrs. Wright, and take it upon themselves to hide what they have uncovered to protect Minnie from being convicted of 1st degree murder, even though the evidence points towards her guilt.

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of The Feminine Victory In A Jury Of Her Peers

    1969 Words  | 4 Pages

    After reading such works as “The Yellow Wallpaper” or “A Jury of Her Peers,” one might believe that female characters around the turn to the 20th century were helpless to the men surrounding them. Yet upon close examination of these stories, that is evidently untrue. Although they may be somewhat skewed in the eyes of modern readers, the women in those stories have clearly achieved small victories over their male counterparts. While the oppression of women is a prevalent theme in works around the turn of the century, the triumph of women over men is not: any established feminine success is a “backwards victory.” A comparison of female characters in “The

    Read More

  • Trope In Frankenstein

    730 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout most of literature and history, the notion of ‘the woman’ has been little more than a caricature of the actual female identity. Most works of literature rely on only a handful of tropes for their female characters and often use women to prop up the male characters: female characters are sacrificed for plot development. It may be that the author actually sacrifices a female character by killing her off, like Mary Shelly did in Frankenstein in order to get Victor Frankenstein to confront the monster he had created, or by reducing a character to just a childish girl who only fulfills a trope, as Oscar Wilde did with Cecily and Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest. Using female characters in order to further the male characters’

    Read More

  • Emotional Penetration

    1597 Words  | 4 Pages

    Susan Glaspell wrote two different forms of literature that have basically the same plot, setting and characters. This was during a period in which the legal system was unsympathetic to the social and domestic situation of the married woman. She first wrote the drama version “Trifles” in 1916 and then the prose fiction “A Jury of Her Peers” in 1917. The main difference was the way the prose fiction version was presented. Glaspell effects emotional change in the story with descriptive passages, settings and the title. The prose fiction version has a greater degree of emotional penetration than the drama version.

    Read More

  • Relationships in Trifles

    1275 Words  | 3 Pages

    In conclusion, the men's prejudices about women causes them to have a weak case against Minnie. The women know this; they are smart, depicted as much smarter than the men. The men got punishment for their mistreatment of the women by not being able to find the evidence that would convict Minnie. They underestimated the women and in the end it was the women who came out on top.

    Read More

  • A Jury of Her Peers, by Susan Glaspell

    890 Words  | 2 Pages

    Women have often dealt with the double standard when it came down to the difference between men and women. In fact, women only gained their right to vote in Canada in 1929; excluding the province of Quebec. Men are usually seen to be the superior sex, and also the leaders of significant matters. However, women on the other hand tend to be followers, or the lesser version of a man. “A Jury of Her Peers” written by Susan Glaspell is a short story that deals with this moral issue. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are called into an investigation with their spouses for the murder of their neighbor, Mr. Wright. The men go upstairs to find a motive to convict Mrs. Wright, and ask the two women to stay in the kitchen. The women are seen to be inadequate and are unable to find clues, therefor they stay where they belong; ironically, the women find the only clue that could convict Mrs. Wright for the murder. This paper will examine the significance of women’s role, and the relationship between women and men in a patriarchal society.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Small Things Rendered: Susan Glaspell's A Jury Of Her Peers

    746 Words  | 2 Pages

    In her article “Small Things Rendered: Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers” Elaine Hedges make several arguments regarding the roles of women in a masculine society, particularly in Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers”. The article takes the feministic approach and brings to light the superior frame of mind versus the inferior frame of mind. The author’s argument is validated and strongly supported by how a superior mind frame of a man can adversely affect an even change the motives and actions of an inferior mind frame of women when oppression, isolation, insensitivity, and living without the presence of say and a range of possibilities are introduced.

    Read More

  • A Comparison of Feminism in Trifles and A Jury of Her Peers

    1103 Words  | 3 Pages

    As a strong feminist, Susan Glaspell wrote “Trifles” and then translated it to a story called “A Jury of Her Peers.”  These works express Glaspell’s view of the way women were treated at the turn of the century.  Even though Glaspell is an acclaimed feminist, her story does not contain the traditional feminist views of equal rights for both sexes.

    Read More

  • Character Paragraph of Mary Maloney in Lam to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl

    640 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the story “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, Mary Maloney is shown to have a very sinister and manipulative character. In the beginning of the story, Mary Maloney was a normal, loving and caring pregnant housewife that loved and cared for her husband, Patrick Maloney, very much. Earlier at the start of the story we see Mary was waiting for her husband to come home from work. She had set up the house with two table lights lit and plates on the dining table so they can have a very romantic dinner when Patrick comes home. When Patrick came home, Mary was very excited to see him. She would try to offer him some drinks and insisted she would get things in the house he needed so he didn’t have to get up himself. The countless times that Patrick said no to her offers and helpful doings, she still tried to serve and tried to make him feel comfortable and relax after work.

    Read More

  • Susan Glaspell’s Jury of Her Peers

    1046 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Jury of Her Peers” is a short story that combines murder, lies and sexism while exposing the reader to the truth about women’s abilities and skills. Aside from being a murder mystery about the investigation of the sudden death of John Wright, the story’s theme is more about respect for women and making decisions based on one’s own beliefs and morals rather than allowing others to control them. Glaspell is a firm believer in women’s rights, and she dedicates most of her writing, including this piece, to displaying to society that women are indeed as smart and capable as men are to perform the duties and jobs of everyday life (internet*). The setting is in rural Dickson County, USA, just prior to 1920. This was a period in America’s history when women were seen as household workers only, that men were the only ones capable of making important judgment calls and decisions. Although one of the main characters, Mrs. Peters, lives her life by what the men make her to be, in the end she undergoes a movement that changes her into an independent person of society.

    Read More

More about Manipulation through Gender Roles

Open Document