Separation Between Sexes Essay, Research Paper

Since the time when Eve set herself apart from Adam by consuming the forbidden

fruit, there always has been vast differences in the way men and women conduct

themselves. These differences are very common among sexes, and are also easy to

distinguish. For instance, more women tend to cry in sad movies than men do.

This is because women are more emotional than men and can often express their

feelings easier. But probably the most popular difference between men and women

would be how women have the ability to go shopping for an entire day whereas men

will leave after they get what they want. These differences between men and

women are constantly being portrayed in the media, and moreover literature. The

piece of literature I will discuss is Susan Glaspell’s A Jury of Her Peers,

where Glaspell exemplifies the differences between men and women as they conduct

their investigation of the murder of Mr. Wright. From the beginning of the

investigation, the men and women had vast differences in the way they went about

looking for substantial evidence. For instance, the men approached the house

with confidence and seemed to feel indifferent towards the situation even though

the murder victim was a close acquaintance. But the women approached the house

with caution and hesitation. Mrs. Martha Hale’s first thought as she encountered

the crime scene was how in the past she thought, "I ought to go over and

see Minnie Foster". Martha regretted the fact that she never visited her

long time friend except when it was too late. Also, when the county attorney

asked Mr. Hale what happened the day before, Mrs. Hale was worried that he would

add unnecessary comments and make things harder on Minnie Foster. This indicates

that Martha Hale immediately sympathized with Minnie Foster although she had

done something as wrong as killing. Instead of acknowledging the fact that

Minnie Foster committed murder, she looks past this and inquires what could

possibly induce her to do so. Relevant to this go back to the idea that she

wished she would’ve visited Minnie earlier. Martha Hale assumed that loneliness

was a big factor which drove Minnie to do such a thing. Next, the attorney being

a male, functioned as a robot would; he had no feelings towards what happened.

Right after Mr. Hale told his version of what happened, the attorney continued

with, "I guess we’ll go upstairs first-then out to the barn and around

there." The attorney didn’t express any sympathy whatsoever, but was more

concerned with getting on with the investigation. When the attorney found a mess

of Minnie Foster’s preserved fruit, Mrs. Hale replied with, "Oh-her

fruit", and explained how Minnie was worried that the jars of her preserves

might burst. On the other hand, Mr. Peters returned the statement with

"Well, can you beat the woman! Held for murder, and worrying about her

preserves!" But what separated the men from the women was when the sheriff

decided that there was nothing but "kitchen things" in the kitchen

which lead them upstairs in search for evidence. As the men moved upstairs,

there were a number of significant differences in the way the men and women

conducted the investigation. First of all, the men went upstairs and the women

remained in the kitchen both in hopes of finding convicting evidence. The men,

being more logical went straight to the crime scene, yet the women were more

concerned with Minnie Foster’s whereabouts and what she was doing around the

time of the murder. Besides this, the women are more careful with everything and

take the time to examine things thoroughly unlike the men who seem to rush

things until they find what they want. For instance, Mrs. Hale noticed that the

bag of sugar in the kitchen was half full, and remembered in her own home how

she left the flour half sifted because she was interrupted. In result, Mrs. Hale

concluded with the fact that Minnie Foster was interrupted for some reason and

began to wonder what it was. Furthermore, when Mrs. Peters went to retrieve

Minnie’s clothes they examined how shabby it appeared and figured that when you

look good, you feel good and that Minnie was not as happy as she used to be.

Another example of the women’s ways of careful observation is when Mrs. Peters

found a quilt Minnie Foster began and wondered whether or not she quilted it or

knotted it. Most men wouldn’t look so far as to ask how the quilt was made, yet

the women were possessed by its beauty. In fact, the men laughed at the women

for inquiring such a thing. Not only did they wonder how it was constructed, but

they discovered that at first the quilt was stitched fine and evenly, however

one block was stitched quite differently. In the time that the women discovered

all this information which could lead to conviction, the men were finished

upstairs and did not find any sufficient evidence. While the men moved outside

to the barn area, the women were still inside the kitchen looking for evidence.

Although the women were searching for convicting evidence, they also planned to

hide it. One example of this occurred when Mrs. Hale patched up the quilt that

was blemished by repairing a few stitches. As the story reaches its’ climax, the

women find the dead bird wrapped up in Minnie Foster’s sewing box. Moreover, the

bird was not just killed, but it was tortured by having its neck wrung. The

women hid this crucial evidence from the men because they could relate to how

Minnie Foster must have felt at the time. Mrs. Peters said, "I know what

stillness is", "When we homesteaded in Dakota, and my first baby

died-after he was two years old -and me with no other then-." Obviously,

she could put herself in Minnie Foster’s position and empathize with how she

felt being so alone. Living in a house isolated down a long road, and being at

home alone while her husband worked can drive a woman to insanity. Not to

mention, her treasured pet bird was killed heartlessly by her husband. In the

women’s eyes, Minnie Foster has a good reason to kill her husband and they felt

the right thing to do was to disguise the evidence which could convict her. It

is amazing how the women found the convicting evidence and also discovered why

Minnie Foster committed the crime. The men on the other hand didn’t find the

substantial evidence they were looking for. In addition, word puns were used to

communicate the innocence of Minnie Foster when the men asked if she was going

to quilt it or knot it, the women answered, "She was going to knot

it." Quilt it represents the fact that she was guilty and knot it, that she

was not. In the final part of the investigation, the women succeeded in

detecting the proof they needed to convict or save Minnie Foster. As you can

see, the women are far different from the men since they go by emotions and tend

to sympathize with other women. On the other hand, the men are more likely to

think rationally and somewhat narrow-minded. In this case of A Jury of Her

Peers, thinking practically lead the men nowhere. Whether or not hiding the

evidence was morally wrong or not, they concluded if they were in Minnie

Foster’s shoes they would do the same thing too. Glaspell did a great job in

displaying the contrasts in the way women and men conduct themselves. By

dividing the men and women in the story and observing the outcome of the

investigation, you can understand how sometimes thinking logically is not always

the best thing to do.