The female characters in GlaspellÆs A Jury of Her Peers and de MaupassantÆs The Necklace are influenced by status, diction, and character. In The Necklace, Mathilde Loisel is a woman who cannot tolerate her lower-class status, believing ôherself born for every delicacy and luxuryö (de Maupassant 1). MathildeÆs vain and materially oriented character eventually makes her an unhappy and bitter woman. In A Jury of Her Peers, the Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale have an agreeable social status in their community. However, the come to the aid of Minnie Foster, who lives in isolation with an abusive husband. The treatment of women by the men in the story makes the women resent being patronized. When the County Attorney implies the women are weak and invites them to the fire, Mrs. Peters responds, ôIÆm not coldö (2). Unlike MathildeÆs ultimately unhappy character, the women in A Jury of Her Peers have greater character strength and ultimately save one of their own who is less fortunate.
The status of Mathilde makes her miserable. She feels she has married beneath her, though her husband is completely devoted to her. She borrows a diamond necklace from a friend, after her husband receives a select invitation to a high society function. Once she loses the necklace and is forced into virtual servitude to help repay its cost, that she ôhad been so beautiful and so much admiredö at the ball becomes a painful memory (de Maupassant 6). Mathilde learns too late that the necklace was imitation. Her weak character and social status worked against her to ruin her life.
Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale know the suffering and isolation Minnie Foster endured. Poor, living with an abusive husband, and without children, MinnieÆs life has been one of virtual servitude to her husband and home. The men treat the women through their diction as inferior to males. The women resent this. They bristle when the Sheriff
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