Breaking the Bonds of Oppression in Susan Glaspells A...

Breaking the Bonds of Oppression in A Jury of Her Peers Susan Glaspell’s A Jury of Her Peers is a view into the lives of farmer’s wives in the Midwest at the turn of the century. These women live in a male dominated world, where the men consider them incompetent and frivolous. The only identity they have is that associated with their husbands. They stay at the farmhouse to complete their repetitive and exhausting chores. The wives have little or no contact with the other people because of the distances between farms. Glaspell uses her female characters to rebel against the inequalities that women face and to prove that women are competent and when pushed too far --strike back. The male dominant society that is†¦show more content†¦The men deprive themselves of the answers they desperately seek. Men giving their names to their wives expand the control they have over them and deny them personal identities. By denying women public identities, states history Professor Kurt Leichtle, society [tries] to protect what it [feels] should be a system of ideals for women’s behavior (Walradth quoting Leichtle). Glaspell’s women characters have no individual identities, only those related to their husbands. Similar to the puppet that has no control over its actions and only moves at the direction of the puppeteer. Mrs. Peters, the sheriff’s wife, has no personal identity and Glaspell does not give her a first name to symbolize this fact. Mrs. Peters tries to live up to the stereotype of a proper sheriff’s wife. Defending her role, she says to Mrs. Hale, the law is the law (Glaspell 190). However, Glaspell gives Minnie Foster Wright a first name as well as a maiden name. Glaspell is showing that at one time Mrs. Wright was a real person with her own identity, b ut this was all before she married Mr. Wright. Glaspell only uses Mrs. Wright’s first name when she is referring to her in her youth and always Minnie Foster (her maiden name), never Minnie Wright. Mrs. Hale remembers Minnie Foster as a lively and appearance conscious girl that loves to sing in the choir and even compares her to a bird (Glaspell 189, 192).