A Jury of Her Peers vs Trifles
Christine Pena
Prof. Compton
ENG 102
28 April 2014
Comparative Analysis: Trifles vs. A Jury of Her Peers During the 1900s, women are basically downgraded by men who does not understand the hard work that the women does in their everyday chores. Susan Glaspell, author of Trifles and Jury of Her Peers, highlighted the portrayal of men’s superiority over women in both of her works. She was the journalist who covered the John Hossack murder case which are the bases of both the short story and the play. In the Hossack murder case, Mrs. Hossack was basically accused of murdering his husband and she was found guilty but got acquitted later on. While both of the play and the short story have similar plots and characters, there were still some significant differences between the both. The most obvious difference is the title. This signals the readers of two different focuses between the two works. The play is called Trifles whereas the short story is called Jury of Her Peers. Trifle essentially means something unimportant and men in this period of time sees women as trifles. The play is wonderfully ironic; men just passively glossed over the things that they see as trifles, and what could have been used against Mrs. Wright. The women in the play outsmarted the men by just hiding these evidences. And the play basically revolved around these unimportant things that also judge Minnie Foster. Jury of Her Peers on the other hand reveals two major themes from the whole demotion of women; the feminist community (“her Peers”) who practically determined Mrs. Wright’s future and legalism (“Jury”). The short story revolved around the whole process of the feminist community helping Mrs. Wright to be acquitted of the crime. It also focused on the characters of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters.
Marginalization of women and dominance of the men are both major aspects of the play and the short story because Glaspell really want to emphasize that women are being demoted in the 1900s.
Prof. Compton
ENG 102
28 April 2014
Comparative Analysis: Trifles vs. A Jury of Her Peers During the 1900s, women are basically downgraded by men who does not understand the hard work that the women does in their everyday chores. Susan Glaspell, author of Trifles and Jury of Her Peers, highlighted the portrayal of men’s superiority over women in both of her works. She was the journalist who covered the John Hossack murder case which are the bases of both the short story and the play. In the Hossack murder case, Mrs. Hossack was basically accused of murdering his husband and she was found guilty but got acquitted later on. While both of the play and the short story have similar plots and characters, there were still some significant differences between the both. The most obvious difference is the title. This signals the readers of two different focuses between the two works. The play is called Trifles whereas the short story is called Jury of Her Peers. Trifle essentially means something unimportant and men in this period of time sees women as trifles. The play is wonderfully ironic; men just passively glossed over the things that they see as trifles, and what could have been used against Mrs. Wright. The women in the play outsmarted the men by just hiding these evidences. And the play basically revolved around these unimportant things that also judge Minnie Foster. Jury of Her Peers on the other hand reveals two major themes from the whole demotion of women; the feminist community (“her Peers”) who practically determined Mrs. Wright’s future and legalism (“Jury”). The short story revolved around the whole process of the feminist community helping Mrs. Wright to be acquitted of the crime. It also focused on the characters of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters.
Marginalization of women and dominance of the men are both major aspects of the play and the short story because Glaspell really want to emphasize that women are being demoted in the 1900s.
Cited: Angel, Marina. "Teaching the Short Story A Jury of Her Peers and the Play Trifles." Teaching the Short Story A Jury of Her Peers and the Play Trifles. Temple University School of Law, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. Glaspell, Susan. "A Jury of Her Peers." Annenberg Learner. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. "Trifles." American Literature. University of South Florida, n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.