If you had just murdered your spouse, would your first concern be of your canned cherries? A comparison of the short story “ A Jury of Her Peers” and the dramatic adaptation of Trifles can start with the many similarities. The setting is well defined in both, as the story takes place in Dickson County, Nebraska. This is in the farm belt of the United States, with all of the characters lives revolving around the rural atmosphere in the early part of the 1900’s. The season is cold and wintry, symbolic of the ill-fated marriage. In both works, Glaspell uses both dialogue and symbolism to reject sexist notions of women’s powerlessness.
In both works, Glaspell artfully uses characterization and conflict to emphasize the fact that gender bias …show more content…
Years of being stifled had led Mrs. Wright to act, and the death of her year old canary was enough to carry out the act of murder. Her husband, John Wright, was not a well-liked man. He was a hard worker, but also had hard feelings. He refused to share phone service, as he believed that people talked too much already. The fact that he made the same choice for his wife, against her will, illustrates his control over her and desire to stifle her. In “Peers,” the bareness of their relationship is mirrored in the surrounding landscape (679). In this work, even the trees are described as lonesome. Such imagery is absent from Trifles. Mr. Wright is also described as no company when he was in, and “a raw wind that gets to the bone” (688). Mrs. Wright wanted her husband to feel the same strangulation that the bird and she had felt. Our female investigators quickly conclude that the evidence of the bird is damning, and without talking, agree to get rid of it. We readers can’t help but agree. Mrs. Wright has suffered enough, and we all understand why she killed him. That is where the title” Peers” comes from. The readers join the two female investigators in the jury box. When the men return, from investigating outside of the kitchen, they mock the women to be so involved with such trivial things as quilting or trifling things. This is where the title Trifles comes from. One may wonder: would the men have let her off the
In both works, Glaspell artfully uses characterization and conflict to emphasize the fact that gender bias …show more content…
Years of being stifled had led Mrs. Wright to act, and the death of her year old canary was enough to carry out the act of murder. Her husband, John Wright, was not a well-liked man. He was a hard worker, but also had hard feelings. He refused to share phone service, as he believed that people talked too much already. The fact that he made the same choice for his wife, against her will, illustrates his control over her and desire to stifle her. In “Peers,” the bareness of their relationship is mirrored in the surrounding landscape (679). In this work, even the trees are described as lonesome. Such imagery is absent from Trifles. Mr. Wright is also described as no company when he was in, and “a raw wind that gets to the bone” (688). Mrs. Wright wanted her husband to feel the same strangulation that the bird and she had felt. Our female investigators quickly conclude that the evidence of the bird is damning, and without talking, agree to get rid of it. We readers can’t help but agree. Mrs. Wright has suffered enough, and we all understand why she killed him. That is where the title” Peers” comes from. The readers join the two female investigators in the jury box. When the men return, from investigating outside of the kitchen, they mock the women to be so involved with such trivial things as quilting or trifling things. This is where the title Trifles comes from. One may wonder: would the men have let her off the