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  • Essay / The Bagatelles of Susan Glaspell and a jury of her peers

    Susan GlaspellTriflesSusan Glaspell wrote many literary plays in the early 1900s. Two, in particular, have a very similar theme, namely the play Trifles and the short story “A jury of his peers”. Les Bagatelles was written in 1920 and “A Jury of His Peers” was written in 1921, a short story adapted from the play. Susan Glaspell was born in Davenport, IA, on July 1, 1876, as the middle child and only daughter. In college, she wrote for her school newspaper, The Drake, and after Glaspell graduated, she began working for the Des Moines News. She got the idea for the play and short story after covering the murder of a woman on a farm. In both of Glaspell's plays, the main character, Mrs. Wright, is accused of killing her husband. Minnie Wright was a farmer's wife who did not have much contact with the outside world. The murder investigation took place at his home. Three men are responsible for investigating the case and two women accompany them. The women did not help the men, but they solved the case and also protected Mrs. Wright from any wrongdoing. The three men tried to find a motive, but the case remains unsolved. Susan Glaspell shows in both plays how women are neglected in investigations. When speaking with women, Henderson and other men make a major mistake in thinking that women derive their identity from their relationship with men. For example, Henderson tells Mrs. Peters that just because she is married to the sheriff, she is also married to the law, so she is a reliable person to obey the law. Mrs. Peters suggests that over the course of the course, she discovered a different side of herself that is more closely tied to her experience as a woman than to her marriage to Mr. Peters. Mrs. Hale concludes that all the women go through... middle of paper ...... and they themselves see that Mrs. Wright deserves their protection, which has several meanings for the women. They gather with her against the law; they also protect her by not telling her the truth about her ruined reserves. Mrs. Hale regrets not protecting Minnie Wright from isolation and loneliness, and she rushes to her defense and protects Minnie Wright earlier by helping her now. Women's empowerment is the major factor in both plays written by Susan Glaspell. The male detectives couldn't figure out what could have happened, but when the women try to put all the pieces together, they are left aside and without substance. Glaspell shows how the women acted as if they were detectives, much more than the men in helping to solve the case, showing that they were just as valuable as the men, and in fact much more..