Which of the works in this module seems most difficult to understand, and why? You are required to write one original post, and then comment on several others as you fell inspired. Please, chose one.

20200609211451glaspell_jury_of_peers.ppt

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LitWeb Workshop: Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers”

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Fiction

Susan Glaspell (1876–1948)

Susan Glaspell grew up in Iowa and worked for the Des Moines Daily News. She also published magazine stories in Harper’s and the Ladies’ Home Journal. Her plays were performed by Provincetown Playhouse, a stage company that she and her husband, theater director George Cram Cook, founded in 1915 in Cape Cod.

“A Jury of Her Peers”

Hossack Case (1900–01)
Des Moines Daily News, Iowa
women’s rights in 1917
realism

Glaspell covered the murder case of Margaret Hossack, for which she wrote more than 20 articles in the Des Moines Daily News, concerning a woman accused of murdering her husband with an axe while he slept in their farmhouse bedroom. Hossack’s claims that she had slept through the attack, but her known history of domestic disputes with her husband led to her arrest and trial. She was initially convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, but the Iowa State Supreme Court overturned the verdict in 1902, and her second trial ended in a hung jury. In 1917, at the time Glaspell wrote “A Jury of Her Peers,” women could not vote or serve on juries in most of the United States, and they were discouraged from jury service even after the Nineteenth Amendment passed (the exclusion of women from juries was not eradicated from all states until 1975). Many of Glaspell’s works belong to realism—a movement that places a plot and ordinary characters in a specific time, milieu, and culture.

The image is a photograph of the Hossack family in 1892. Courtesy of Daniel J. Lawrence.

Glaspell as Journalist

“Mrs. Hossack’s Parting Plea” (April 19, 1901): “‘Sheriff Hodson, tell my children not to weep for me. I am innocent of the horrible murder of my husband. Some day people will know I am not guilty of that terrible crime.’

Those were the parting words of Margaret Hossack, the Indianola murderess, to Sheriff Hodson when she was turned over to the prison warden at Anamosa penitentiary last night. All along she was proclaimed her innocence of the murder and hopes the time is near at hand when the real murderess or murderer will be found out and punished.

It is universally believed at Indianola that if Mrs. Hossack did not murder her husband she knows who did.”

Students might examine Glaspell’s writing style as a journalist compared to her literary style in “A Jury of Her Peers.” What devices, structure, and tone does she use in news correspondence versus short stories? This is also an opportunity, perhaps, to compare Glaspell as a journalist to Stephen Crane as a news correspondent (his “The Open Boat” is based on a personal experience with surviving a shipwreck, for which he also published a news account).

Excerpt from “A Jury of Her Peers”

“Did you want to see what Mrs. Peters was going to take in?”

The county attorney picked up the apron. He laughed.

“Oh, I guess they’re not very dangerous things the ladies have picked out.”

Mrs. Hale’s hand was on the sewing basket in which the box was concealed. She felt that she ought to take her hand off the basket. She did not seem able to . . .

But he did not take it up. With another little laugh, he turned away, saying: “No; Mrs. Peters doesn’t need supervising. For that matter, a sheriff’s wife is married to the law. Ever think of it that way, Mrs. Peters?”(pars.277-282)

This excerpt, near the story’s end, illustrates the sexist assumptions made by male characters in the story. Because the women have picked up sewing materials, and because one of the women is married to a law enforcement official, the men assume that the women have nothing to cover up.

Discussion Questions

Why do the women hide the bird at the story’s end?
Why do you think Glaspell gave this story a different title from the play she wrote covering this same material (Trifles)? How do the two titles emphasize different themes conveyed by the plot?
Explain why “stillness” carries a sense of dread and misery for Mrs. Hale. What does this word mean for women in the story?

The story shows the different ways that men and women read and experience the world. The tense gender divides in your students’ reactions will likely illustrate that women generally defend while men condemn the women’s decision not to reveal the evidence they have gathered of Minnie’s guilt. The men are the authorities in the story, and they make known their contempt for women’s things, their “trifles.” The women, of course, succeed because of their focus on trifles but, as the story suggests, their perspective is not the empowered one.

Group Activity & Write-Up

Students will gather in groups of six, sub-dividing into the defense, prosecution, and jury. Groups will spend 15 minutes forming an argument with evidence gathered from the text to support their contentions. Each side presents its case and the jury provides a verdict. Share results with the class.

Many students may not yet have had the opportunity or desire to sit on a jury and witness the proceedings for a trial. This activity gives students the occasion to think about the roles that various people play in a courtroom, as well as how emotions and biases arise depending on the community.

Suggestions for Writing

Several of the statements made during the testimony are based on flawed arguments and assumptions. Write a paper in which you discuss the presence of logical fallacies in Glaspell’s work. Do these statements bear more influence on the outcome than the neutral and factual statements? As a reader, were you biased by the flawed arguments, or were you able to make an objective evaluation of the accused?

LITERATURE

THE NORTON INTRODUCTION TO

Kelly J. Mays

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