Comparison of Susan Glaspell's work "A Jury of Her Peers" with Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour"

Introduction

This paper presents a comparison of two stories, namely, Susan Glaspell's work "A Jury of Her Peers" with Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour". Both of these stories revolve around the difference of behavior among men and women.

Glaspell skilfully shows how the men and women look at the household differently. While the men seek evidence to convict the accused, the two women come across trifles such as a disordered household, an irregular quilting pattern, and a strangled canary. They conclude that such details are indicative of Minnie's motivations for the murder. The women gossip openly about Minnie's abusive and authoritarian husband and discuss why they sympathize with her desperate act. Glaspell creates a courtroom in that Iowa farmstead, and the women become jurors who decide that Minnie is not guilty. They base their judgment not on legality but on simple humanity and compassion. The women decide not to reveal their evidence to the male investigators out of respect for Minnie's long suffering.

Similarly in the case of “The Story of an Hour”, Chopin's questioning though humorous attitude is strongly evident in one of Chopin's most anthologized and best-known tales, “The Story of an Hour” (1894). Mrs. Mallard, a woman suffering from a heart condition, is told that her husband has been killed in a train accident (Beer, 54). She is at first deeply sorrowful, but soon realizes that even though she had loved and will mourn her husband, his death has set her free: “There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature.” As Mrs. Mallard descends the stairs, however, the front ...