Write a literary analysis with researched information that thoroughly investigates and responds to the following prompt:
Conduct a feminist analysis of “A Jury of Her Peers.” In your analysis, you should discuss significant symbols from the short story that support your claims. You should also explain why the short story is still relevant to modern-day readers.
For help with using a feminist critical perspective to analyze literature, check out the Purdue OWL website: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/writing_in_literature/literary_theory_and_schools_of_criticism/feminist_criticism.html.
Some key questions you can ask yourself generate ideas on this topic:
How is the relationship between men and women portrayed?
What are the power relationships between men and women (or characters assuming male/female roles)?
How are male and female roles defined?
What constitutes masculinity and femininity?
How do characters embody these traits?
Do characters take on traits from opposite genders? How so? How does this change others’ reactions to them?
What does the work reveal about the operations (economically, politically, socially, or psychologically) of patriarchy?
What does the work imply about the possibilities of sisterhood as a mode of resisting patriarchy?
What does the work say about women’s creativity?
What does the history of the work’s reception by the public and by the critics tell us about the operation of patriarchy?
What role does the work play in terms of women’s literary history and literary tradition?
