"Trifles" and "A Jury of Her Peers" Susan Glaspell

A Jury of Her Peers and Trifles by Susan Glaspell are very similar in nature. They both share the same plot. However, one piece is a play and one is a short story . I found that it was easier for me to read the short story. I believe plays are easier to understand if they are actually acted out, rather than reading them alone. Personally, I liked the short story better because it flowed much better because there were no breaks to denote what a character was doing. The only advantage I found in reading the play was that its title was more poignant. Another thing I found interesting was that even though both pieces have different names, both titles are effective after reading the pieces. The short story is named A Jury of Her Peers because Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peter basically decided the fate of Minnie. They both decided not to turn in the evidence and, therefore, held a major role in the story. The name of the play is also very interesting. In the play Hale states that women are constantly “worrying over trifles.” Yet, these are the same trifles that if the men paid attention to they would be able to get plenty of evidence against Minnie. It is very ironic that the men are sarcastic towards the women during the whole play when the women solved the case.
Before I first read the pieces I thought it would be easier to base the Cultural/Historical analysis off of the play because I thought it would be more descriptive. However, as I read the short story I changed my mind. I think through the descriptions given, it would be easier to relate the short story to what was actually going on in America at the time it was written. It would be good to research women's rights at the time and how women were perceived, especially by the opposite sex.