“I find you, Alice Dubson,Guilty of the murders of Sarah, Jonathan and Tyson Dubson” the judge's words reverberated through the courtroom causing searing tears to well within her now glassy eyes and her to shake her head while incoherently screaming “no” as if she was a broken record player. Her body was trembling as continued to scream at the judge who merely smirked at us while fondling a disgustingly thick roll of money under his podium. Her screams echoed through the halls as we were dragged away by four disgruntled officers. “Stop screaming you stupid little girl” I roar causing her to go silent in fear while tears continued to stream down her pathetic little face. As we passed the jury their disgusted glares…
In “A Jury of her Peers” by Susan Glaspell, the story uses symbols to show the life of a young woman in 1917, whose life was sweet and pretty and ends lonely, messy, and broken. The location of the Wright homestead symbolizes the loneliness and emptiness Minnie Foster Wright endures. Glaspell tells us the Wright farm “looked very lonesome this cold March morning. It has always been a lonesome looking place.”…
Although the theme of Susan Glaspell's "Jury of Her peers" is about the ultimate fate of Minnie Wright, the central story line is about a key character that determines Mrs. Wright's fate. Mrs. Hale's influence to the story is almost accidental because she unintentionally stumbles upon evidence that links Minnie to the murder. She never had the intent to find evidence against Minnie, she was just there to pack up a few things for her and be done with it. Her curiosity and wonder arose when she found certain things in the Wright's home that seems peculiar and out of place for the Minnie Foster she had known twenty years prior to her marriage to Mr. Wright. Her character traits which include but are diffidently not limited too sympathy, assertiveness, and her attention to detail are brought out by the comments and actions of others; yet the author picks certain ways to bring out these qualities.…
Earlier in the day, the county sheriff and his wife, Mrs. Peters stopped by the Hale’s house to pick up Mr. and Mrs. Hale. At the time, Martha was busy sifting flour, but she went along for the ride because she didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. They were visiting Minnie Foster’s house, where Mr.…
Mrs. Hopkins was the wife of the governor of Hardford. She was depicted as a religiously focused young women with some unusual qualities. She had a physical, mental weakness that left her incapable of understanding or reason. However this disease had been growing for several years. To overcome or distract herself she would fully devote her time to reading and writing and even wrote many books. Mr. Hopkins was a loving man and would tend to his wife’s needs; however, he would never make his grief seen, especially in front of his wife. But because she went looking for trouble in men’s business she got hurt and for that he blames…
Since the 1900’s, women have struggled with gender roles in society that leaned more in favor of men. Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles, reflects on this struggle by blatantly separating the ideas, opinions and actions of the men and women in the play. As the title Trifles suggests, the men in the play view the two women’s concerns as unimportant and frivolous in comparison to the “real” work the men have to do. Glaspell’s characterization of the sheriff, Henry Peters, the attorney, George Henderson, and the neighboring farmer, Mr. Hale, portrays them as typical men of the time who decide to take charge because, as men, that is their duty and only they know what can be done and how to go about discovering the truth. They only take along Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters to collect some things for Mrs. Wright, never taking a moment to think that from a woman’s perspective, the answer to the murder could be found.…
Throughout the story, they find several motives for why Mrs. Wright would kill her husband and sympathize the pain she goes through. As they look through Mrs. Wright’s closet to find clothes to give to her in jail, the two women observe how rugged and old her clothes appear, showing that Mr. Wright must not have been financially stable enough to provide her with the items that she desires. This extremely upsets Mrs. Hale, for she had known the unmarried Mrs. Wright, who was widely known to be beautiful, lively, and one of fashion. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters also examine the kitchen of the house and find everything in a mess and every chore half-finished. While the men degrade her for not fulfilling her duties as a wife, the women support her and exclaim that “farmers’ wives have their hands full” (207). The stove in the poor conditioned kitchen is also used as a metaphor to Mrs. Wright’s relationship with her husband when the two women find it to be broken. The story states that Mrs. Hale thinks “of what it would mean, year after year, to have that stove to wrestle with, and Mrs. Peters replies, “A person gets discouraged—and loses heart” (210). This clearly exemplifies the…
This was a time period when women didn’t vote and really didn’t have an opinion to men. When the men left the kitchen they commented that, “But would the women know a clue if they did come upon it!” (Glaspell, 541) The women payed attention to the details of the kitchen and could tell that she had stopped in the middle of something. Mrs. Hale talked about how Minnie Foster used to be so cheerful and sang in the choir. Mrs. Hale thought to herself, “What had interrupted Minnie Foster?” (Glaspell, 542) She remembered worrying about how she had to un-expectantly leaving her kitchen a mess. The ladies found the bird cage and noticed that it had been damaged and wondered where the bird was. Later they found the bird in the box underneath the quilt blocks. They are the ones that put two and two together about how the bird was killed and the way Minnie’s husband was…
This story is about the investigation into the murder of John Wright. He has been strangled in his bedroom, while in bed with his wife beside him. It is being investigated by the local sheriff and the county attorney, who have been joined by two women (Mrs. Peters, the sheriff’s wife, and Mrs. Hale, a neighbor) at the Wright farmhouse. The men are looking for clues in the killing. The women are there to get supplies for Mrs. Wright, who has been taken to jail for the murder of her husband. The women find more clues than the men, and really seem to find the answer to why Mr. Wright is no longer alive.…
It can be said that Minnie Wright is a tragic hero because when she was Minnie Foster she had a noble stature by being well known by everyone and being part of the choir, but when she got married to John Wright, that changed. She lost her noble stature and her marriage became a punishment, therefore the punishment exceeds the crime. Mrs. Hale mentions that Minnie Foster was a noble stature when she says “I heard she used to wear pretty clothes and be lively, when she was Minnie Foster, one of those girls singing in the choir” (Glaspell 1394). It can be said that she was well-known by the town and people, and recognized because of the choir. It is confirmed when she says “I wish you’d seen Minnie Foster when she wore a dress with blue ribbons and stood up there in the choir and sang”. Once again it is mention that Minnie Foster was a noble stature. She loses her noble stature when she…
Women are generally guided by emotion, and Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are no different. When discussing certain situations with a woman, it is likely that emotion will come into play at one point or another. In “A Jury of Her Peers” the women are no different; they stick together and struggle with the knowledge they have to decide whether or not to reveal evidence of motive. When two women discuss the motive for murder, they take seriously into account the emotions involved when it is a fellow woman that is to be convicted. They come to the conclusion that silence after a “noisy” happiness is definitely a bad thing.…
Being a farms wife, she is bound to these difficult and repetitive tasks in which little to no reward or recognition is given. This gives her and Mrs.Peters reason to help Mrs. Wright and keep details away from their husbands and the sheriff. They feel bad for Mrs.Wright on the personal level understanding how agonizingly…
Since the very beginning of the play, you can easily tell that the women do not hold the same authority as the men. The men immediately walk into Mr. Wright’s residence and make their way towards the stove to warm themselves up, while the women stand close together by the door. Even though the weather dropped below zero, the women insist they are not cold. It is through the body language of the women that we…
Mr. Peters describes her disposition as “unconcerned”, reverting the reader to seeing Mrs. Wright as the antagonist and her late husband as the protagonist. This idea that Mrs. Wright is a villain, establishes boundaries between who is the hero and villain. This places the reader on the side of the woman. This shifts considerably as the plot thickens. While in the home, the men begin to comment on the display of the kitchen- complaining of its filth, and labeling Mrs. Wright as a bad housewife. The women quickly come to her defensive, but are shut down as worrying about trivial things. Mr. Peters even exclaims, “well, can you beat the women! Held for murder and worrying about her preserves!” (4). At this point in the plot, I got the sense that the men hold a great deal of power over the affairs of the women, and that they have little respect for their duties. Although it bothered me that the men made a mockery of the women, I still saw Mrs. Wright as the villain of the story. Flashing forward a couple scenes: the men now have exited the kitchen, leaving Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale alone to gather some supplies for an incarcerated Minnie. They discuss her as a child as well as who she is currently, both having positive remarks for who she is.…
All of the action in the play takes place in the home of the former Mr. John Wright and his wife Minnie Wright, who is being held as the suspect for her husband’s murder. The way the men and women think in this play is displayed when they enter the house after the crime occurred. They both see totally different things in the same setting. For most of this play both the men and women were separated physically, and also had separate thought processes and intentions. The women who were underrated become very quiet detectives and figure out the murder of Mr. Wright and the motive behind his death. Meanwhile the men arrogantly ignore all the clues that the women find. They clearly show a different way of thinking as the men were viewing things from an outside perspective and the women were looking inside, at the small things. The women were looking in small private areas and find a sewing box and an empty birdcage. The men completely overlooked these items because of their arrogance. They thought these private areas and small clues were worthless in offering clues about the crime. County Attorney- “ I guess we’ll go upstairs first and then out to the barn and around there. (To the sheriff) You’re convinced that there was nothing important here- nothing that would point to any motive.” Sheriff- “ Nothing here but kitchen things” (Trifles PG 9). This gives us insight that the men really weren’t careful with gathering information. The men and women’s thinking was…