Questions & Response Paper - Essay Example

Full Understanding “A Jury of Her Peers” Susan Glaspell is a wonderful storyteller who has a style of her own that makesher readers drawn to her narrations. She often cleverly uses symbolisms that make her stories even more interesting. In “A Jury of Her Peers”, Glaspell causes her readers to think about the following questions: a) Why did the author choose the title? b) Did the knotting and quilting have anything to say about the story? However, what could be more interesting questions brought about by the story are: a) Was Glaspell trying to communicate to her readers the possible destructive effects the abuses from husbands have on women, in whatever form they are inflicted? b) And, if the men saw the canary, would they have made the connections as the women did and would it be an acceptable motive in court?

With the aforementioned questions, it becomes more fascinating to go back to the story and discover the answers. It is known that the story was first published in 1916 as a short play with the title “Trifles”. Obviously, the title aimed to show the value of things which are oftentimes considered as unimportant by other people. The men who were investigating the case of the murder of Mr. Wright were looking for hard evidences that would surely convict the victim’s wife. As they go along with their business, they often stop by where Mrs.

Peters and Mrs. Hale, the women who were asked to go and get some things for the accused, were. As they do, they make fun and laugh at the trivial things the two were discussing about. However, the women accidentally discovered a dead canary which they assumed to be the reason for the murder. That, of course is an extremely frivolous cause but to the women, it mattered a lot just as the other things the men considered trifles were as meaningful and important to them. However, when the story was retold in a narrative form, the title was changed and this makes readers wonder the reason behind it and why the title was chosen.

The story was set in the house of the victim and the accused and the characters never went to court. However, the story was told in a manner that the characters portrayed what would it have been in court. The men represented a group with one conviction while the women, another. Since the accused is a woman, it clearly shows that Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are the ones referred to in the title as her peers. Although Mrs. Peters never met the woman and Mrs. Hale was not really close to her, their femininity becomes the tie that binds them together and their understating of women’s sufferings with men. As Mrs. Hale said, “We all go through the same things--it's all just a different kind of the same thing!

If it weren't--why do you and I understand? Why do we know--what we know this minute?" This understanding of Mrs. Wrights struggles makes the two women a “jury of her peers”. Knotting and quilting are languages women effectively use because they are known to be experts on the task. Although the men made fun about it, the women seemed to speak about the matter with deeper meanings. The first time I read the story, I did not seem satisfied with how it ended. However, thinking about it again, I think it was actually the cleverest way to end the narration.

The characters were wondering if Mrs. Wright was going to knot or quilt her work and when the men asked about it, the women decided she was going to knot it. Quilting requires stitching fabrics together which is a more difficult task than knotting where one simply ties the quilt. Similarly, in the case of her struggles, Mrs. Wright was not able to be patient enough to “quilt” the abuses of her husband but had to finish it with a “knot”, killing him instead. Moreover, the last words of Mrs.

Hale saying, “We call it-knot it, Mr. Henderson” (Glaspell), symbolizes their act of ending in part the difficulties of Mrs. Wright by keeping the only evidence away from the investigators. The story is known to have been based from the true story of Margaret Hossack who axed her husband to death. She was known to have been abused by her husband and had asked her neighbors for help a number of times (Bryan). With this information, it is clear that the author tried to get into the minds of abused women.

Although using a canary to express the abuse in the story, it is believed that such had its purpose as well. Perhaps, in the eyes of many, especially men, things may be very petty but to women, such trivial matters often mean a lot. Lastly, if the men saw the canary, they might have laughed at how trivial the reason was for Mrs. Wright to kill her husband. Looking at how the men reacted in the presence of the women, they could have condemned the accused with all that they have. They definitely would have used the canary as evidence against Mrs.

Wright and might even have mocked her in front of the jury. Perhaps these are the scenes that could have occurred in the minds of the two women that made them decide to hide the evidence from the men. References Bryan, Patricia L. “Patricia Bryan Article”. Midnight Assassin. 1997. Web. April 10, 2013. . Glaspell, Susan. “A Jury of Her Peers”. 1917. Print.