A Jury of Her Peers

The short story “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell describes the investigation of a mysterious murder in rural Dickson County. Glaspell explores gender roles in the early 20th century, the effects of isolation on people’s emotional and mental states, and the duty of neighbors to help one another. Additionally, Glaspell comments directly on the sexism of this period in American history and the prejudices inherent in the belief that women’s proper and only place is in the kitchen. This short story is an adaptation of Glaspell’s original play, Trifles (1916).

Mrs. Martha Hale rushes back into her kitchen to grab her scarf because the day is cold and windy. She looks around at the disarray; she doesn’t like leaving her kitchen with things half done. Her husband calls out for her to hurry and she rushes to join the others in the buggy: Sheriff Peters and his wife; the county attorney, a young man named George Henderson; and her husband, Lewis Hale. They are needed to help with the investigation of John Wright’s murder. Yesterday, her husband stopped by the Wrights’ house and discovered Mrs.