A Study Guide for Susan Glaspell's "Jury of Her Peers"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Susan Glaspell's "Jury of Her Peers," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Short Stories for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Short Stories for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Jul 6, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535826754

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A Jury of Her Peers

Susan Glaspell

1917

Introduction

Susan Glaspell’s A Jury of Her Peers, first published in 1917, is a short story adaptation of her one-act play Trifles. Since their first publication, both the story and the play have appeared in many anthologies of women writers and playwrights. Although Trifles was written first and performed in 1916 by Glaspell’s theater troupe, the Provincetown Players, the play was not published until three years after the short story appeared in the March 5, 1917 edition of Everyweek magazine. Inspired by events witnessed during her years as a court reporter in Iowa, Glaspell crafted a story in which a group of rural women deduce the details of a murder in which a woman has killed her husband. Understanding the clues left amidst the trifles of the woman’s kitchen, the women are able to outsmart their husbands, who are at the farmhouse to collect evidence, and thus prevent the wife from being convicted of the crime. The play was received warmly, and Glaspell made only minor changes in adapting the play into a short