"A Jury of Her Peers" Critical Essay- Eng102
English 102
May 1, 2013
Critical Analysis Essay
“A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell is a short story that examines how women who have similar backgrounds and common experiences enable them to identify with each other and piece together a murder without the help of men. The author wrote this story in the early 1900s when roles were still very divided between men and women. New inventions were emerging like the telephone and automobile however in rural areas of the United States these modern inventions along with the modern ideas of equality between men and women were still very much dismissed. Men were in charge of working the land and being the breadwinners and women remained in the home cooking, cleaning, and sewing. Women who were farmer wives were isolated as their work took up most of their day. There was no time for socializing and meeting for tea. This shared oppression of women helped women to sympathize with each other and clearly understand each other’s challenges, even if the women had never met. This short story illustrates just that as the two main characters Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, who by working together find and destroy the clues in order to protect one of their own, Minnie Foster Wright and allow the men to never learn of the reasons behind the murder of John Wright.
Susan Glaspell writes this story in third person omniscient. Through the use of this point of view, the narrator is able to illustrate a central point of view by showing each character’s thoughts, feelings and actions. In the first part of the story we learn about Mrs. Hale. She is an older women who has know Minnie for several years, however hasn’t seen her or kept in touch with her for years. Martha Hale has some guilt about not visiting Minnie ever, especially now that Minnie is accused of murdering her husband. We learn through the narrator that Martha “had a moment of feeling that she couldn’t cross it” in regards to the threshold to the Wright home
May 1, 2013
Critical Analysis Essay
“A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell is a short story that examines how women who have similar backgrounds and common experiences enable them to identify with each other and piece together a murder without the help of men. The author wrote this story in the early 1900s when roles were still very divided between men and women. New inventions were emerging like the telephone and automobile however in rural areas of the United States these modern inventions along with the modern ideas of equality between men and women were still very much dismissed. Men were in charge of working the land and being the breadwinners and women remained in the home cooking, cleaning, and sewing. Women who were farmer wives were isolated as their work took up most of their day. There was no time for socializing and meeting for tea. This shared oppression of women helped women to sympathize with each other and clearly understand each other’s challenges, even if the women had never met. This short story illustrates just that as the two main characters Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, who by working together find and destroy the clues in order to protect one of their own, Minnie Foster Wright and allow the men to never learn of the reasons behind the murder of John Wright.
Susan Glaspell writes this story in third person omniscient. Through the use of this point of view, the narrator is able to illustrate a central point of view by showing each character’s thoughts, feelings and actions. In the first part of the story we learn about Mrs. Hale. She is an older women who has know Minnie for several years, however hasn’t seen her or kept in touch with her for years. Martha Hale has some guilt about not visiting Minnie ever, especially now that Minnie is accused of murdering her husband. We learn through the narrator that Martha “had a moment of feeling that she couldn’t cross it” in regards to the threshold to the Wright home