Jury of Her Peers

How Gender Roles Affect “A Jury of Her Peers”

Since the time when Eve set herself apart from Adam by consuming the forbidden fruit, there always has been vast differences in the way men and women conduct themselves. These differences are very common among sexes, and are also easy to distinguish. For instance, more women tend to cry in sad movies than men do. This is because women are more emotional than men and can often express their feelings easier. But probably the most popular difference between men and women would be how women have the ability to go shopping for an entire day whereas men will leave after they get what they want. These differences between men and women are constantly being portrayed in the media, and moreover literature. The piece of literature I will discuss is Susan Glaspell's A Jury of Her Peers, where Glaspell exemplifies the differences between men and women as they conduct their investigation of the murder of Mr. Wright.

From the beginning of the investigation, the men and women had vast differences in the way they went about looking for substantial evidence. For instance, the men approached the house with confidence and seemed to feel indifferent towards the situation even though the

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The women hid this crucial evidence from the men because they could relate to how Minnie Foster must have felt at the time. murder victim was a close acquaintance. The men, being more logical went straight to the crime scene, yet the women were more concerned with Minnie Foster's whereabouts and what she was doing around the time of the murder. " Quilt it represents the fact that she was guilty and knot it, that she was not. Peters went to retrieve Minnie's clothes they examined how shabby it appeared and figured that when you look good, you feel good and that Minnie was not as happy as she used to be. Living in a house isolated down a long road, and being at home alone while her husband worked can drive a woman to insanity. Hale concluded with the fact that Minnie Foster was interrupted for some reason and began to wonder what it was. Hale patched up the quilt that was blemished by repairing a few stitches. Instead of acknowledging the fact that Minnie Foster committed murder, she looks past this and inquires what could possibly induce her to do so. In this case of A Jury of Her Peers, thinking practically lead the men nowhere. In addition, word puns were used to communicate the innocence of Minnie Foster when the men asked if she was going to quilt it or knot it, the women answered, "She was going to knot it. Not only did they wonder how it was constructed, but they discovered that at first the quilt was stitched fine and evenly, however one block was stitched quite differently. Not to mention, her treasured pet bird was killed heartlessly by her husband. Hale was worried that he would add unnecessary comments and make things harder on Minnie Foster.

Approximate Word count = 1367
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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