we laugh indoors...

A Jury of Her Peers

I found Susan Glaspells's short story, A Jury of Her Peers attention grabbing and full of suspense. Throughout this short story a few lines caught my attention, talking about "things not finished, or half undone." I liked how Glaspell first introduced Martha Hale into the story by explaining how her kitchen was in no shape for leaving. She explains, "her bread all ready for mixing, half the flour sifted and half unsifted." Reading further into the story, later Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters were searching through the Wrights kitchen and came across a "half finished kitchen." I found this interesting how Glaspell related Mrs. Wrights kitchen compared to Mrs. Hales. I wasnt sure if that had any meaning to reasoning to the story, however, i found it appealing. The words "a person gets discouraged and loses heart," caught my eye in this short story. Comparing A Jury of Her Peers to Bernice Bobs Her Hair, by Fitzgerald, this theme could also relate. In A Jury of Her Peers, we see this happening to Mrs. Wright who has been a victim of an abusive relationship, where she chooses to perform irrational choices. We see this also happening in the short story, Bernice Bobs Her Hair, where Marjorie forces Bernice to become more social and interactive. Whereas, Bernice's decisions overcome her intuition which cause her to act foolishly.