Question

Select the correct answer.

Which theme is reflected in this excerpt from "A Jury of Her Peers" by Susan Glaspell?

And then again the eyes of the two women met—this time clung together in a look of dawning comprehension, of growing horror. Mrs. Peters looked from the dead bird to the broken door of the cage. Again their eyes met. And just then there was a sound at the outside door.
Mrs. Hale slipped the box under the quilt pieces in the basket, and sank into the chair before it. Mrs. Peters stood holding to the table. The county attorney and the sheriff came in from outside.

"Well, ladies," said the county attorney, as one turning from serious things to little pleasantries, "have you decided whether she was going to quilt it or knot it?"

"We think," began the sheriff's wife in a flurried voice, "that she was going to—knot it."

He was too preoccupied to notice the change that came in her voice on that last.

"Well, that's very interesting, I'm sure," he said tolerantly. He caught sight of the bird-cage. "Has the bird flown?"

"We think the cat got it," said Mrs. Hale in a voice curiously even.

A.
gender roles
B.
loneliness and isolation
C.
deception and loyalty
D.
public versus private life
E.
love and friendship

Answer 1

C

Step-by-step explanation:

This is a much much harder question to answer than the other one posted on Triffles (1916). The theme isn't exactly listed. The theme really is the different ways things are seen by men and women.

I wouldn't pick A. The difference is not exactly in the roles of each. The difference is in their psychologies. That is brought out when one of the men asked, without any interest in the answer, whether Mrs. Wright was going to knot or quilt what she was working on. He thought he was humoring the women. They thought he was being super obtuse and should have realized his question meant nothing.

B may very well be true, but not in this passage. One of the themes running through this 1 act play is how hard it is for women to live in spaces that are lonely and isolated.

C I think I would pick this one. The women by this time know what happened. But they think Mrs Wright was not without just cause.

D I'm not sure I know why public vs. Private would be important. It is the difference between what men and women see, not a reflection of their lives.

E love and friendship is too strong.