Comparison Between 'Sweat And A Jury Of Her Peers'

Since the beginning of time, women have been thought of as inferior to their male counterparts. Societal attitudes and ideas have forced many women into submissive personalities. In the short stories “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston and “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell, the main characters Delia Jones and Minnie Wright, respectively, are oppressed and lonely women, being silenced in some way by their society. Society’s judgemental, passive, and unforgiving attitudes towards women create victims of Delia and Minnie, forcing them into a life of fear and loneliness. The passive attitudes of the people around Delia and Minnie are what force them into the situations that ultimately open their eyes to the women’s true emotions. In “Sweat”, Delia goes into town to deliver laundry. She passes by a shop where …show more content…
Sykes has been abusing Delia since a few months into their marriage, and the first time she stands up to him is fifteen years later, after he threatens to punch her in the head and throw her out of her own house. Delia picks up an iron skillet and assumes a position of power to which Sykes backs down. Later in the story, Delia regains her freedom when she watches Sykes die at the hands of a snake he has been tormenting her with. Minnie’s debilitating loneliness pushes her to kill John as a cry for help. She strangles him and is seemingly unable to feel any sort of remorse or sadness. It is her breaking point. To be married to someone for twenty years and not have a friend in that person is a stressful thing. Both Minnie and Delia are products of their environment and can only react to situations in a way that they have been conditioned. Judgement and lack of action can change a the way a person responds to a situation. Delia Jones and Minnie Wright are both victims of their environment and its negative perception of women, leading them to act out of emotion rather than