A Jury Of Her Peers Symbolism Analysis

Everyone around the world has a mindset that certain genders have certain rules in relationships and everyday life. The author, Susan Glaspell, showed many ways in the story “Trifles” how males can look at things in a different perspective than women sometimes do. For generations, women have fought for power and rights, one of the biggest events in history is The Women’s Rights’ Movement starting in 1848 and going on for years until 1920 when the 19th amendment that granted American women the right to vote. Throughout history the fight between women and men has been a long process from rights, to gender specific roles in career, pay, and equality.

It is known that loneliness sometimes makes us senseless. In Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of her Peers” loneliness made Minnie Foster irrational. Mrs. Hale assumes that Mrs. Wright is guilty of killing her husband because of her nonchalant answers she gives when being interrogated about her husband’s location. During the story the reader will learn more about Mrs. Wright, or Minnie Foster, and how her personality changed drastically through her twenty years of marriage with John while Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are covering up the tracks that they presume led to murder. They conclude that loneliness made her lose herself which is evident throughout the short story.

The theme change is explored through the attitude and personality of the persona. The novel “Catherine Called Birdy” by Karen Cushman and the song “Hazy Shade Of Winter” by the Banlges explore the concept of change.The personas in the texts experience change in perspective, world and self which throughout the text inevitably leads to growth and development.

Authors, especially female authors, have long used their writing to emphasize and analyze the feminist issues that characterize society, both in the past and the present. Kate Chopin, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Susan Glaspell wrote narratives that best examined feminist movements through the unreliable minds of their characters. In all three stories, “The Story of an Hour”, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, and “A Jury of Her Peers”, the authors use characterization, symbolism, and foreshadowing to describe the characters’ apparent psychosis or unreasonable behavior to shed light on the social issues that characterized the late 19th century and early 20th century.

A Jury by Her Peers authored by Susan Glaspell narrates the investigative events that occur after the death of John Wright in his house. As neighbors and the Dickson County administration, themes of sisterhood and gender roles appear through the actions and hidden motives of the characters. The book, A Jury by Her Peers, expounds on the silent suffering of women and being perceived as unintelligent while providing justifications for covering up of John Wrights death. Three women, Minnie Wright, Martha Hale, and Mrs. Peters express sisterhood by hiding of incriminating evidence such as the dead bird while the men fail to prove of her complicity. This essay focuses on themes of sisterhood and gender roles, and the passiveness that manifests in the process of gathering evidence.

In “Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell, Mrs. Wright is accused of murdering her husband. While the sheriff, Mr. Peters, is having difficulty finding the motive. On the other hand, Mrs. Hale and the sheriff’s wife, Mrs. Peters, discover three significant clues in their ability to relate to Mrs. Wright. Although Mrs. Wright claims to have been asleep during her husband’s murder, the women conclude she strangled her husband, Mr. Wright, as evidenced by the errant quilt patch, broken birdcage, and slaughtered canary.

In Susan Glaspell's play “Trifles,” there is a difference between the men and women’s way of perceiving evidence to Mr. Wright’s murder case. The men spend most of their time searching for solid evidence upstairs where Mr. Wright's murder takes place. However, the women spend most of their time in Mrs. Wright’s kitchen. Instead of seeking tangible evidence, they inspect the condition of the items and acknowledge how they have been muddled around. Different perspectives lead to a variety of discoveries such as the women’s way of perceiving evidence.

Hale and Mrs. Peters, but Lewis Hale, the sheriff George Peters, and the County Attorney George Henderson play an important role in serving as the male attitude during the time period. When paying attention to particular .mannerisms and attitudes of the County Attorney the reader can truly gauge how sexist the environment was in the 1920s. One of the first signs of sexism appears from the County Attorney’s remarks towards the two ladies about the housekeeping. He notes that Mrs. Wright was not much of a housekeeper and turns to the ladies for their opinion because in the setting this was one of their common roles. Hale even states that, “women are used to worrying over trifles” (965). This refers to Mrs. Wright worrying about her preserves while she is detained in jail for suspected murder of her

LaPlante’s American Jezebel is at times difficult to follow. It tells the story of Anne Hutchinson’s trial in Massachusetts, yet throughout the telling adds in additional facts. These facts are relevant to the book yet takes the reader off track for entire chapters at times. This makes it challenging for the reader to understand the story in its entirety. Because of this, American Jezebel was not as though-provoking as it was made out to be.

Mrs. Wright is the main character in Susan Glaspell’s one-act play Trifles. While Mrs. Wright is being held by the police for her husband’s murder, a few men go to investigate her home, and a few women go along to gather some of her things to bring to her in jail. As the ladies collect Mrs. Wright’s possessions, they begin to come across trifles. The trifles include: a messy kitchen, a poorly sewn quilt, and a broken bird cage with a missing bird. The women view these items as important clues, and withhold their findings from the men so that they could help Mrs. Wright out of her troubles.

Susan Glaspell first wrote the play "Trifles" and then a short time later followed up with the short story "A Jury of Her Peers". The story and the play contain many parallels such as: the setting, the plot, and the same characters. Even though they are very similar they have different titles which seem to be fitting for each. In the play, Hale states that women are constantly "worrying over trifles." Yet, these trifles are the evidence the men need to convict Minnie. "A Jury of Her Peers" is also fitting because the women had gathered the evidence against Minnie yet did not turn it in, and in fact, they became united as women to bring

“You’re only a man! You’ve not our gifts! I can tell you! Why, a woman can think of a hundred different things at once, all them contradictory! —Georgette Heyer.

Throughout “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell a noticeable power struggle between the women and the men occurs. “A Jury of Her Peers” exposes the social injustices that women faced during the turn of the century. In the story Mrs. Wright lashes out against her husband as result of built up anger and societies social pressure. In the essays “from Silent Justice in a Different Key: Glaspell’s ‘Trifles’” by Suzy Clarkson Holstein and “from The Case of the Battered Wife: Susan Glaspell’s Trifles and ‘A Jury of Her Peers’” by Lillian Schanfield embody the theme of social injustices among women. The social gaps between men and women in “A Jury of Her Peers” and “Trifles” helped drive the plot and allowed a unique outcome to be achieved.

Murder today is something that most people do not think about because we are so accustomed to it. Minnie Foster, a lively woman who loses her childhood and becomes a married unhappy lady, so unhappy she kills her own husband. Although at first we are introduced to the bird as the main symbol of the play, we discover that Mrs. Wright is the bird and Mr. Wright is the bird cage trapping her life. By looking at the symbolism of this play we begin to understand that when Mr. Wright killed the canary along with Mrs Wright’s childhood, the motive to kill Mr. Wright was set for Mrs. Wright with the rope.

Susan Gaspell’s “Trifles” exposes a lot of symbolism through the play. In the beginning of play, the kitchen is “left without having been put in order . . .” (1038). The messy kitchen symbolizes Mrs. Wrights incomplete, empty life. When most kitchen are the place you come home to and feel warmed. Instead, Minnie's is dirty and unkempt. The dead bird in the the play is one of the main symbols. The deceased bird explains the motivation behind Minnie's crime but also describes the way Mr. Wright abused his wife. Like a bird, Mrs. Wright is full of energy but Mr.Wright abused and strangled that energy right out of her. The bird overall symbolizes Minnie. Minnie “was kind of like a bird herself – real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and – fluttery”