Discussion Questions Week of 10/12 Reed Steiner

1. I most definitely preferred Trifles to "A Jury of Her Peers". I read the play first and really thought it was good. Then I was thrown off guard at first because I did not know both stories were going to have the same plot. I thought reading them both of the was interesting at first because I thought it was fun searching for the differences in either story. I liked how "A Jury of Her Peers" was told from Mrs. Hale's point of view and the reader could get inside her head so the psychology of the characters more because she was explain it. After I was about half way done with "A Jury of Her Peers" I started to get board only because I knew what was going to happen. I thought Trifles was better to read, not because it was shorter or anything, but because it seem more suspenseful. Less of the information was being spoon fed to the reader. This forced to think harder and question what was going on. The play made the reader feel more like a detective because they were presented with all the same evidence Peters and Hale were given and had to come to a conclusion on their own. With Mrs. Hale explaining everything it was not as fun.

2. In the play Trifles and the short story "A Jury of Peers" there were quite a few people committing crimes. There was both Mr. and Mrs. Wright and even Mrs. Hales and Mrs. Peters were breaking the law. I would argue that a crime is the violation of mortality. Sometimes the law must be comprised because of moral choice. This would mean that both Mr. and Mrs. Wright did technically commit a "crime", but who's crime is the "crime at hand" or the main crime in the play. I believe that it is possible to break the law, but still do what morally right.

Mr. Wright, has a husband, had a moral duty to his wife to love, protect, and cherish his wife, but he did not do so. Making Mr. Wright the guilty one. Mrs. Wright was confided and suppressed so much that she was no longer herself. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters remember when Mrs. Write used to dress nice and sing they even refer to her as her maiden name suggesting that that was the person she really used to be. By the end of the story the reader comes to the conclusion that Mr. Wright was an abusive husband that drove his wife to murdering him. If you are unhappy it better to leave the man or get some kind of help to stop the abusive spouse, but their home was secluded and Mrs. Wright did not have any friends to turn to and it seems as though murder was her only option. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters were able to discover all the emotion and hidden baggage just by looking through Mrs. Wright kitchen. Knowing this, Hale and Peters hid the crucial evidence that would convict Wright of murder. Both Hale and Peters knew who was responsible for Mr. Wrights murder, and that was himself. Hales and Peters took the law into their own hands and do what is morally right because they were able to see the real crime.