Susan Glaspells A Jury of Her Peers - Essay Example

A JURY OF HER PEERS Order No. 246853 No. of pages: 4 Premium 6530 Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers” is a short story adaptation of one of her one act plays “Trifles”, based on a real murder case, which Susan Glaspell covered during her years as a court reporter in Iowa. The story revolves around the murder of John Wright, found strangled in his sleep and the strange fact that his wife failed to take note of this horrible act which took place right next to her as she slept. In the real incident, covered by Glaspell, the 60 years old farmer John Hossack’s skull was crushed by an axe while he and his wife were asleep in bed. Margaret Hossack was suspected of the murder but was released due to lack of evidence, and although in the story, Glaspell does not show this conclusive end, the hiding of evidence which could prove Mrs. Wright’s guilt is hidden by the two women, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peter. This gives the reader a feeling that Mrs. Wright’s guilt is not going to be proven. “A Jury of Her Peers is a thematically rich story, where the author explores the differences is gender during the turn of the century, as well as the bleak isolation of farm life, which gnaws at the lives of the unlucky women who enter into a covenant with their husbands and thereon to their pastoral life. The story looks at how socio-economic status is an important building block in relationships within these rural communes and the way in which it impinges on each individual’s life. Children, or the lack of them, often push women into loneliness, for their lives are lived in a vaccum, with nothing to fill their existence with happiness. Theme of Gender Inequality The story is taut with tension that comes about because of the different perceptions of the genders to events that unfold in front of them. From the beginning, the men have a condescending attitude towards the women, portrayed brilliantly by the court attorney Mr. Henderson. His disdain for Mrs. Wright’s dirty kitchen, the roller towel and the quilt she was making, show his inborn male superiority, which was characteristic of the age, when women were treated as diffident, simpering people, fit only to look after home and hearth. While looking for the clues, the men decide to go upstairs to the bedroom- the scene of the crime, in the hope of finding some evidence which would lead them to the murderer. Mr. Hale points out that the women in the meantime might come across some clue downstairs, which Mr. Henderson dismisses by saying “But would the women know a clue if they did come upon it?”. The women, on the other hand, try to keep out of the men’s way, staying in the kitchen and allowing the men to rummage through the house. Glaspell invests her women with intuition, sympathy and a deeper understanding of apparently mundane things. Mrs. Hale, while glancing around the kitchen, wonders as to why most of the chores are left unfinished and from these “trifles” guesses that the incident which took place in the house was sudden and dramatic. Her instincts are proven right when they come cross the dead canary, hidden in the sewing box. Another difference between men and women, as described by Glaspell is the loquaciousness of the men and the silent communication of the women. The men verbalize their thoughts and intentions, but the women talk to each other across the kitchen, through knowing glances and sideway looks. Glaspell’s keen understanding of the feminine nature, comes across through this device of limited dialogues and “a look of seeing into things, of seeing through a thing to something else.” The women appropriate the evidence for themselves and shield their kin from the accusation of murder, but Glaspell, by not revealing the abused woman’s motive, fails to keep the issue of abuse central to the story. Fetterly feels that by remaining silent, the women unknowingly acknowledge male superiority. The theme of loyalty to one’s sex dominates the story, but it also leads to disastrous choices. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peter’s empathy with Minnie Foster is understandable, since in certain ways their lives too echo the accused woman’s dreary life. All of them suffer abuse in the form of isolated lives and an emotional emptiness and when they come across a woman bold enough to break these shackles, they salute her silently by hiding the crucial evidence and ensuring her freedom. The women seem docile and meek, but according to Linda Ben-Zvi, “their consciousness of themselves and their world” creates the feminist aspect of her fiction. Theme of Isolation The pervasive isolation of life on a farm is another theme central to this tragic tale. Mrs. Wright and Mrs. Hale can connect with the loneliness of Minnie Foster’s life, bereft of even children, while the men fail to see why she should have been unhappy. The women can understand Mrs. Wright’s agony over the death of her canary, who was her only companion, whereas for the men, looking in the kitchen for clues, it was a waste of time because this was unfamiliar territory for them. Marina Angel uses the symbol of a spiral to illustrate how Mrs. Wright’s life was caught in the vortex of her circumstances, from which there was no way out. In her youth, Mrs. Wright, was a cheerful young girl, part of the choir and a beauty, but twenty years of marriage had snatched the life from her. The farm itself was on a side road with no line of vision and people had to spend most of the winter months indoors, starved for company. The kitchen was the centre of her universe and even that had look of wastefulness, with a broken oven and fruit preserves that had been damaged. It was sparsely furnished with a broken rocking chair, another chair in the corner, a storage cupboard from her marriage days, a table and a stove. The dirty dishes below the sink and the sewing basket with the unfinished quilt pieces, pointed to a Spartan life devoid of any cheer and humour. Mrs. Wright’s plight could be compared to the canary, caged in her home, fluttering around but unable to break free. The breaking of the canary’s neck is symbolic of the final breaking of her spirit, which leaves Mrs. Wright fighting for her breath. But unlike the canary, who is a prisoner of humans, Mrs. Wright makes a last attempt to break the shackles of her domesticated imprisonment and is successful in it. The success of Mrs. Wright’s flight to freedom, is aided by the two women, sympathetic to her cause and also because they can identify with her latent wish to escape from the slow death of her existence. Looking at the events from a philosophical angle, the murder was more in self defense – a desire to defend her basic rights as a human being who can lead her life unfettered by the chains of a male dominated society. Theme of Hope The jar of cherries and the quilt with its log cabin design opens another facet into the troubled life of Mrs. Wright. The red, succulent fruits convey warmth and passion, that is missing from her life, and when Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters send the jar of cherries to her, they convey happier times, that may yet come to her. The quilt with its log cabin motif unveils the desire of Minnie Foster to have a warm, secure home, where she could lead a contented life, but like the haphazardly piece, her life too was suddenly disrupted. In judging “A Jury of Her Peers as a story of the feminist movement, it necessitates that we understand the times in which the story was written. For modern readers, it may seem like a clear case of male chauvinism. Mrs. Wright being a victim is true, though not of physical abuse; rather, she was a victim of the isolation of her environment which eventually suffocates her. It is the bleak surroundings which brought her baser, lower instincts to the fore and led her to the brutal killing of her husband. This is a tragedy in the classical mould, because, the individuals are at the mercy of their surroundings, which overpower their human instincts and lead them to acts over which they have no control. REFERENCES  Introduction http://www.lawsite.ca/WLSC/Angel_w.html Linda Ben-Zvi, "Murder, She Wrote": The Genesis of Susan Glaspells Trifles, 44 Theatre J. 141 (1992) Linda Ben-Zvi, Susan Glaspells Contributions to Contemporary Women Playwrights, in Feminine Focus--The New Woman Playwrights 147, 157 (Enoch Brater ed., 1989 A Jury of Her Peers http://www.greenphyre.com/textDocs/A%20Jury%20of%20Her%20Peers.htm Marina Angel, “Susan Glaspell’s Trifles and A Jury of Her Peers: Women Abuse in a Literary and Legal Context”(1997) 45 Buffalo Law Review 779 at 779-808 (edited) A Review of Susan Glaspells Short Story, A Jury of Her Peers http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/791065/a_review_of_susan_glaspells_short_story.html?cat=38 A Jury of Her Peers (Critical Overview): Information from Answers.com http://www.answers.com/topic/a-jury-of-her-peers-story-5   Read More