"A Jury of Her Peers", written in 1917, is a short story by Susan Glaspell, loosely based on the 1900 murder of John Hossack. It is seen as an example of early feminist literature because two female characters are able to solve a mystery that the male characters cannot. They are investigating the murder of farmer John Wright. The men tell the women to just busy themselves around the house while they go and do the “real work.” Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, the sheriff's wife, use their deductive skills and knowledge about housework to conclude what had happened to Mr. and Mrs. Wright, also known as Minnie Foster. A skill the men couldn’t use or take into account. The women find the one usable piece of evidence, a dead bird in a box. The story …show more content…
A comparative story is The Yellow Wallpaper by the American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The way that the narrator sees a female figure trapped behind the wallpaper, and she images that this figure shakes against the bars or lines of this wallpaper, trying to get out, directly corresponds to her own condition as a woman trapped and intellectually stifled by her husband. In "A Jury of Her Peers," there is a similarity in the way that women are obviously trapped and confined by marriage and having to work in their kitchens. Mrs Hale identifies the kind of lonely existence Mrs. Wright would have led and she and Mrs Peters piece together the clues that they in their position as females are able to identify as directly incriminating Mrs. Wright and showing that she killed her husband. She clearly admits that women suffer the same pressures of loneliness and the same struggles in life, and this is what she and Mrs Peters use to help understand how and why Mrs. Wright murdered her husband. However, there is no indication that Mrs. Wright suffered from mental illness. Rather, her act of violence was a completely natural response to having been kept in a joyless world by her husband for so long. The link between Mrs. Wright and the narrator in "The Yellow Wallpaper" is not a shared mental illness, but their confined states thanks to their husbands, and how they suffer as a
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.
A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell is a story that reveals how women were subjected to prejudice in the early part of the 1900s. The story revolves around Minnie Wright, who was at the center of a murder investigation, and two other women, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, who decide their own verdict and fate of Mrs. Wright. Even though the women were at the height of sexual discrimination, Susan Glaspell shows how a woman’s bond and intuition far surpass that of any man. The struggle the women faced throughout the story shows how hard it was for women to live in a male dominate world.
In "A Jury of Her Peer," by Susan Glaspell, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters realize from the
In 1917 when "A Jury Of Her Peers" was written, women were the homemakers. Although Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale fit the domest...
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.
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.
The broken bird cage was a vital clue for whoever killed Mr. Wright. In the text, the author says how, “Mrs. Peters was examining the bird-cage. “Look at this door,” she said slowly. “It’s broke. Someone pulled apart the cage hinge.” Bird cages are pretty easy
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
"The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, depicts a woman in isolation, struggling to cope with mental illness, which has been diagnosed by her husband, a physician. Going beyond this surface level, the reader sees the narrator as a developing feminist, struggling with the societal values of the time. As a woman writer in the late nineteenth century, Gilman herself felt the adverse effects of the male-centric society, and consequently, placed many allusions to her own personal struggles as a feminist in her writing. Throughout the story, the narrator undergoes a psychological journey that correlates with the advancement of her mental condition. The restrictions which society places on her as a woman have a worsening effect on her until illness progresses into hysteria. The narrator makes comments and observations that demonstrate her will to overcome the oppression of the male dominant society. The conflict between her views and those of the society can be seen in the way she interacts physically, mentally, and emotionally with the three most prominent aspects of her life: her husband, John, the yellow wallpaper in her room, and her illness, "temporary nervous depression." In the end, her illness becomes a method of coping with the injustices forced upon her as a woman. As the reader delves into the narrative, a progression can be seen from the normality the narrator displays early in the passage, to the insanity she demonstrates near the conclusion.
The central theme in “A Jury of Her Peers” is the place of women in society and especially the isolation this results in. We see this through the character, Minnie Foster and her isolation from love, happiness, companionship and from society as a whole. Not only does the story describe this isolation but it allows the reader to feel the impact of this isolation and recognize the tragedy of the situation.
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.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman has already expressed her strong feelings about women and the way they’re viewed. Gilman’s outlook on the fact that believes there is no real difference, related to, the mental state between men or women is strongly made clear through “The Yellow Wallpaper”. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a short story about a female who has a mental illness but is not capable of healing because of her spouse’s lack of belief. The story feels to have a setting during a time in life where women were treated harshly. Women were handled as inferior citizens in society during this period of time.
Throughout history, a plethora of different classes of people, cultures, and races have undergone some form of prejudice. Partiality against women has occurred, and continues to occur, in America. Susan Glaspell, author of "A Jury of her Peers," depicts a story of a close-knit community in the process of solving the mystery of a man's death, thought to be caused by his wife. In the investigation of Mr. Wright’s death, the women helping to search through the Wright farm for clues pointing to evidence of Minnie Wright’s murder of her husband were thought of as useless, when in reality, the women were solely responsible for finding and understanding Mrs. Wright's motives for murdering her husband. Glaspell uses imagery and a woman's point of view to depict how a woman may feel bound by limits set by society--- a feeling most easily understood by women who share the same perception of life.
Men and women have different characteristics that might give them the supposition of superiority. “A Jury of Her Peers,” Mrs. Peters is described as “small and thin and [without] a strong voice, which means she doesn’t look like a sheriff’s wife” (190). The narrator describes Mrs. Peters as a weak lady. Usually women look more feminists and they don’t have strong voice like men. On the other hand, Mr. Peters, better known as the sheriff, is described as “the kind of man who could get himself elected sheriff- a heavy man with a big voice, who was particularly genial with the law-abiding…” (190). Mr. Peters has power not only because he is a man but because he is a sheriff, so his community seems him with authority. People expect that her wife
Throughout the 19th century, feminism played a huge role in society and women’s everyday lifestyle. Women had been living in a very restrictive society, and soon became tired of being told how they could and couldn’t live their lives. Soon, they all realized that they didn’t have to take it anymore, and as a whole they had enough power to make a change. That is when feminism started to change women’s roles in society. Before, women had little to no rights, while men, on the other hand, had all the rights. The feminist movement helped earn women the right to vote, but even then it wasn’t enough to get accepted into the workforce. They were given the strength to fight by the journey for equality and social justice. There has been known to be