The following excerpts provide a broad overview of Glaspell's development as a playwright.'

In the essay below, Ben-Zvi investigates a murder trial that Glaspell covered as a reporter as a likely basis for Trifles.

Shafer offers a concise literary biography of Glaspell and an appraisal of her work.

In the essay below, Waterman surveys Glaspell's major plays and assesses her significance as a playwright.

Ben-Zvi assesses the ways that Glaspell's work paved the way for modern feminist writers, arguing that while Glaspell's "particular experiments may at first glance seem removed from those of women writing in modern and postmodern modes of the sixties, seventies, and eighties … they are in fact part of the same ongoing search for dramatic means to depict female experience. "

Like so much else in his life, his heroic effort to finish his last novel came too late; and the luck which might have kept him alive until he had finished was not with him. He had predicted to Perkins in the middle of December that he could complete a first draft by January 15, and at the rate he was going he might have done so; on December 20 he completed the first episode of Chapter VI. The next day he had a second, fatal heart attack. In the essay below, she argues that a full understanding of the symbo...

In the excerpt below, first published in 1986, Hedges reconstructs women's social history of the nineteenth-century American West to explain the symbolism of Glaspell's story “A Jury of Her Peers.”

In the following essay, Dymkowski investigates the "preoccupation with the limits of experience" displayed in Glaspell's plays.

In the following essay, Hallgren demonstrates how readers of “A Jury of Her Peers” are meant to collude with Glaspell-as-narrator in the same ways the female characters band together to mete out justice.

Like so much else in his life, his heroic effort to finish his last novel came too late; and the luck which might have kept him alive until he had finished was not with him. He had predicted to Perkins in the middle of December that he could complete a first draft by January 15, and at the rate he was going he might have done so; on December 20 he completed the first episode of Chapter VI. The next day he had a second, fatal heart attack. The name Susan Glaspell is followed in her biographical sketches by s...

In the following, Smith examines Glaspell's presentation of women in Trifles and she analyzes the play as "a possible fictional representation of a [spouse battering. "]

Like so much else in his life, his heroic effort to finish his last novel came too late; and the luck which might have kept him alive until he had finished was not with him. He had predicted to Perkins in the middle of December that he could complete a first draft by January 15, and at the rate he was going he might have done so; on December 20 he completed the first episode of Chapter VI. The next day he had a second, fatal heart attack. Until recently, Susan Glaspell has been little more than "a fo...

Like so much else in his life, his heroic effort to finish his last novel came too late; and the luck which might have kept him alive until he had finished was not with him. He had predicted to Perkins in the middle of December that he could complete a first draft by January 15, and at the rate he was going he might have done so; on December 20 he completed the first episode of Chapter VI. The next day he had a second, fatal heart attack. During the years in which she was writing her short stories Susan Gla...

In the excerpt below, Aarons stresses that American pioneer women needed the support of a larger female community in order to withstand the isolation of pioneer life.

Like so much else in his life, his heroic effort to finish his last novel came too late; and the luck which might have kept him alive until he had finished was not with him. He had predicted to Perkins in the middle of December that he could complete a first draft by January 15, and at the rate he was going he might have done so; on December 20 he completed the first episode of Chapter VI. The next day he had a second, fatal heart attack. Susan Glaspell (1876-1948) is a prime example of the "peculiar...

In this excerpt from a larger treatment of gender-based reading, Fetterley discusses how Glaspell attempted in “A Jury of Her Peers” to teach male readers how to “read” female narratives.

In the following excerpt, Alkalay-Gut analyzes details of “A Jury of Her Peers.”

Like so much else in his life, his heroic effort to finish his last novel came too late; and the luck which might have kept him alive until he had finished was not with him. He had predicted to Perkins in the middle of December that he could complete a first draft by January 15, and at the rate he was going he might have done so; on December 20 he completed the first episode of Chapter VI. The next day he had a second, fatal heart attack. Commentators on Susan Glaspell's classic feminist short story,...

Like so much else in his life, his heroic effort to finish his last novel came too late; and the luck which might have kept him alive until he had finished was not with him. He had predicted to Perkins in the middle of December that he could complete a first draft by January 15, and at the rate he was going he might have done so; on December 20 he completed the first episode of Chapter VI. The next day he had a second, fatal heart attack. Susan Glaspell is best known today, if she is known at all, as one of...

In the following essay, Mustazza maintains that when Glaspell adapted the play Trifles into the short story, “A Jury of Her Peers,” she changed the focus from the so-called trivial details of women's lives to women's powerlessness in the American legal system.

Like so much else in his life, his heroic effort to finish his last novel came too late; and the luck which might have kept him alive until he had finished was not with him. He had predicted to Perkins in the middle of December that he could complete a first draft by January 15, and at the rate he was going he might have done so; on December 20 he completed the first episode of Chapter VI. The next day he had a second, fatal heart attack. Between Susan Glaspell and Eugene O'Neill there lies a fundame...

Like so much else in his life, his heroic effort to finish his last novel came too late; and the luck which might have kept him alive until he had finished was not with him. He had predicted to Perkins in the middle of December that he could complete a first draft by January 15, and at the rate he was going he might have done so; on December 20 he completed the first episode of Chapter VI. The next day he had a second, fatal heart attack. The drama in America is gathering strength and individuality. Little ...

Like so much else in his life, his heroic effort to finish his last novel came too late; and the luck which might have kept him alive until he had finished was not with him. He had predicted to Perkins in the middle of December that he could complete a first draft by January 15, and at the rate he was going he might have done so; on December 20 he completed the first episode of Chapter VI. The next day he had a second, fatal heart attack. In the rude little auditorium of the Provincetown Players on MacDouga...

Like so much else in his life, his heroic effort to finish his last novel came too late; and the luck which might have kept him alive until he had finished was not with him. He had predicted to Perkins in the middle of December that he could complete a first draft by January 15, and at the rate he was going he might have done so; on December 20 he completed the first episode of Chapter VI. The next day he had a second, fatal heart attack. We owe Mr. Norman Macdermott, and the company of the Liverpool Repert...

Like so much else in his life, his heroic effort to finish his last novel came too late; and the luck which might have kept him alive until he had finished was not with him. He had predicted to Perkins in the middle of December that he could complete a first draft by January 15, and at the rate he was going he might have done so; on December 20 he completed the first episode of Chapter VI. The next day he had a second, fatal heart attack. Unlike some of the literary great, who, in making themselves into cos...

In this essay, Russell argues that the three women depicted in Trifles bear "strong resemblance" to the three Fates of Greek mythology.