Breaking the Ties of Oppression in A Jury of Her Peers Susan Glaspell's "A Jury of Her Peers" is a look at the lives of farm wives in the Midwest at beginning of the century. These women live in a male-dominated world, where men consider them incompetent and frivolous. The only identity they have is the one associated with their husbands. They stay on the farm to complete their repetitive and exhausting chores. The wives have little or no contact with other people due to the distances between the farms. Glaspell uses her female characters to rebel against the inequalities women face and to demonstrate that women are competent and, when pushed too far, fight back. The male dominant society that is condescending, controlling, denies individuality, demands submission and abuses women, is a punishing and depriving society. It is a harmful and abusive society, not only for women, but also for men. Typical of the dominant male mood, the male perspective on women in "A Jury of Her Peers" is condescending from start to finish. Slightly modifying Shakespeare's famous metaphor, "The world's a stage," men are the puppeteers and women "merely" puppets, highlights the men's beliefs (Act II, scene 7, lines 143-144). Men believe they are superior and more intelligent than women. The feeling of superiority is evident in Mr. Hale's comment: "women are accustomed to worry about trifles" (Glaspell 186). Likewise, these feelings of superiority are shown in the county attorney's musings that women "would know a clue if they came across it" (Glaspell 187). Glaspell uses this emotion to create irony in the story. Show how... middle of paper......~journals~S~hyp.html&querydocid=1096142@library_a&dtype=0~0&dinst=0>Sherman, Beth. "The dirt on men, despite liberation, education, maturation and good old nagging, women still can't get their men to clean the house. Is it a lost cause or is there a way to make them men become clean?" September 26, 1992. YES., Newsday. February 17, 1999. Walradth, Ellie. "The historian says that farm wives are happy." February 21, 1997. University of Wisconsin. February 17 1999.=0>