12/2/2012
A Shift in Perspective Perspective, or point of view, plays an important part in a story. It can place the reader directly into the mind of a character, which creates a more personal and emotional attachment for the reader or it can cause the reader to be more of an impartial, third party observer. Proof of this is evident in a comparison of Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles” and her “A Jury of Her Peers.” The first is written as a play and as such the reader’s perspective is that of a third party watching the events unfold. “A Jury of Her Peers” is written as a short story and gives the reader the perspective of Martha Hale, one of the main characters. This change gives the story a whole new dynamic for the reader and causes more emotional involvement of the reader even though the two versions deal with the same subject matter and the same moral and ethical problems. The differing perspectives affect the reader from the very start of each piece. The play opens with a paragraph that sets the scene of the farmhouse, introduces the characters by name, and then jumps into dialogue between them. “A Jury of Her Peers”, however, begins with only Martha Hale and immediately gives the reader some insight into her mind and personality, “What her eye took in was that her kitchen was in no shape for leaving” (Glaspell). This lets the reader relate to Mrs. Hale in a more personal way that simply being introduced by name doesn’t. Being able to see through Mrs. Hale’s eyes and get into her mind then allows the reader to get more of a sense of her self-inflicted guilt as she thinks about all the opportunites she had to visit Mrs. Wright, but didn’t. The reader also gets this sense in “Trifles”, but not to the same degree and not in the same way. It is delivered by way of conversation between Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, “I stayed away because it weren’t cheerful—an that’s why I ought to have come” (Glaspell 172). Even though the same message is delivered in both versions, it feels more poignant for the reader when they know and understand Mrs. Hale a little better. Another item that is represented in both versions of the story is the role of the sexes in that day and the conflict between them at times. In both, for example, the men poke fun at some of the details the women notice in the farmhouse. The first time this occurs is when the women find that the fruit has gone bad. To the women, this is a pretty important thing, but to the men it means nothing. The second time it happens, the women have discovered a quilt that was started but not finished. In “A Jury of Her Peers”, the reader was already shown that starting and finishing things were very important to women by way of Mrs. Hale’s view on her own kitchen as she left to come to the farmhouse. In “Trifles” the reader does not get that impression until the quilt is discovered and the women discuss it. Like the fruit, though, the men brush it off as women being women and worrying about silly things whereas the women notice how uneven the unfinished portion of the quilt is and realize that it is the first sign that something might have been bothering Mrs. Wright. These examples are used in both versions of the story, but in “A Jury of Her Peers” Susan Glaspell took advantage of the perspective to show a more heightened tension between the women with the discovery of the quilt: “Their eyes met-something flashed to life, passed between them” (Glaspell). This trend continues when the women find the most convincing piece of evidence, a bird with a broken neck. In both versions, the women hide the bird rather than show it to the men, but the way that they come to that decision is different. In “Trifles” the women talk about what they found and Mrs. Hale ends up convincing Mrs. Peters not to show the men the bird. In “A Jury of Her Peers” the scene is very similar except that there is not as much conversation as there is an emotional overtone and assertiveness on the part of Mrs. Hale, “Then Martha Hale’s eyes pointed the way to the basket in which was hidden the thing that would make certain the conviction of the other woman” (Glaspell). The use of emotion again makes the reader feel more of what is happening to these women and the conflict that they have with what they found. The two versions of the story are similar in many ways. They both deal with the same subject, the exact same characters, and present the same problems and moral dilemmas. Where they differ, though, is in the presentation and the perspective used. “Trifles” is written as a play and makes the reader more of a third party observer. “A Jury of Her Peers” instead is written as a short story and uses the perspective of one of the main characters to convey the message Susan Glaspell wanted to deliver. Both of them tell the story very effectively and both leave the reader wondering about whether what the women did was right or wrong, but when it is presented in such a way as to get the reader more emotionally invested, the story is more effective and causes the reader to feel the plight of the women more.

References
Glaspell, Susan. “A Jury of Her Peers.” Literature: What Makes a Good Short Story. Annenberg Foundaton, 2012. Web. 2 Dec. 2012. http://www.learner.org/interactives/literature/story/fulltext.html
Glaspell, Susan. “Triffles” American Literature Since the Civil War Create Edition. McGraw-Hill. (166-175)