Comparing 'Trifles And A Jury Of Her Peers'

In 1916, Susan Glaspell, American female author, wrote the play Trifles for the Provincetown players Production. Glaspell’s work explores the dynamic of the bond and relationship among women, specifically during this time of the women’s suffrage movement. Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles, written in 1916, was rewritten to become what is known as the 1917 short story, “A Jury of Her Peers. “Through comparison and contrast, Glaspell’s play verses the short story shows changes in the extent of detail, the pace of the story, and the theme. The first evident change between the two pieces is the pace of each story. First of all, considering one version of the entire story is written in a play format, it is made evident that the way in which each work is written differs from the other- more specifically, accelerates at a quicker …show more content…
In the short story version, “A Jury of Her Peers” we are presented with a lot more detail than we are in the play version of the story. Because of the extent of detail in which “A Jury of Her Peers” is told, we are able to gain insight as to how the characters are feeling, getting a better idea of the atmosphere and vibes given off in the story. For instance, in part, of the short story when the four characters are discussing Mr. Hale’s conversation with Mrs. Wright in her rocking chair, there is an excessive amount of detail added, simply just about the chair, that is absent from the play version of the story. In the “The Jury of Her Peers,” Glapsell writes “everyone in the kitchen looked at the rocker. It came into Mrs. Hale’s mind that rocker didn’t look in the least like Minnie Foster- the Minnie Foster of twenty years before. It was a dingy red, with the wooden rungs up on the back, and the middle run was gone, and the chair sagged to one side.” (570). This is evidently a reflection of the amount of detail told in one version compared to the