Compare And Contrast Trifles And A Jury Of Her Peers

The short story “A Jury of Her Peers” and the play Trifles by Susan Glaspell are very similar in nature. They both share the same plot, setting, characters, and most of the dialogue. However, one piece is a play and one is a short story. Plays are easier to understand if they are acted out, rather than reading them alone. Both titles are effective after reading the pieces. The short story is entitled “A Jury of Her Peers” because the two major characters, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peter, basically decided the fate of Minnie Wright. They both decided not to turn in the evidence and, therefore, held a major role in the story.
The name of the play is also very interesting. In the play Hale states that women are constantly worrying over trifles “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles” (Hale 12620). Yet, these are …show more content…
The play Trifles focuses more on the context of objects and symbols, while the story includes more detailed character interactions and focuses more on character depth. The play also controls distance but not pace as the story does. The men’s mocking attitude and the women’s sensitivity to trifles underscore the basic differences in the play. For example, the title of the play Trifles means something that is small or not very important.
The play is about a murder which is most certainly not a trifle but throughout the play the men refer to the women as having trifles “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles” (Hale 1262). The entire time the men are looking for some type of evidence to support their theory that Mrs. Wright had murdered her husband while the women and their “trifles” essentially lead them to the evidence that could convict Mrs. Wright. The women discover a quilt, an empty birdcage and eventually find the dead bird in a box in Mrs. Wright's sewing basket. The bird has been strangled in the same manner as John