Virginia Woolf once said,“For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.” These insightful words, of English modernist and feminist writer, seem a perfect summation of the enduring oppression and silencing of women in society. A paramount theme and notion present in fellow feminist playwright, Susan Glaspell’s Trifles. Glaspell’s 1916 one act play explores notions of gender, justice, and freedom; through her command of the English language and rhetoric.
Notably, one of the principal ideas presented in Glaspell’s work is the concept of gender roles, moreover, the notion of institutional misogyny present in 20th century America. These said ideas are fleshed out through the characters of the play. The play opens with the introduction of five characters: Sheriff Peters, Hale, County Attorney
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The Sheriff, Attorney, and neighbour Mr. Hale look for evidence while the women Mrs. Peters and Hale are left to their own devices in the kitchen. Condescendingly, the men mock the women’s concerns over Mrs. Wright’s stored preserves, its stated: “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles.” (Hale, act 1) It’s inferred that women- who care only of trifles, something of little or no importance, must be trifles themselves. Ironically, these said trifles: the quilt, preserves, a little bird- which will be discussed later, are what solves this mystery. A major concern expressed by all the characters is motive; why would Mrs. Wright kill her husband? While discussing the marriage and disposition of the victim, its stated: “Yes--good; he didn't drink, and kept his word as well as most, I guess, and paid his debts. But he was a hard man, Mrs. Peters. Just to pass the time of day with him. (Shivers.) Like a raw wind that gets to the bone.” (Mrs. Hale, act 1) Abuses, which have been hinted at all throughout the play are finally spoken of in these lines. Audiences find, that Mrs. Wright- “real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid” - would murder her
The power of women is different than that of men. Women display a subtle and indirect kind of power, but can be resilient enough to impact the outside world. In Trifles, Susan Glaspell delivers the idea that gender and authority are chauvinistic issues that confirm male characters as the power holders, while the female characters are less significant and often weak. This insignificance and weakness indicated in the play by the fact that the women had the evidence to solve a murder, but the men just ignored the women as if they had no value to the case at all. This weakness and inability of the female to contest the man’s view are apparent. According to Ben-Zvi, “Women who kill evoke fear because they challenge societal constructs of femininity-passivity, restraint, and nurture; thus the rush to isolate and label the female offender, to cauterize the act” (141). This play presents women against men, Ms. Wright against her husband, the two women against their spouses and the other men. The male characters are logical, arrogant, and stupid while the women are sympathetic, loyal, and drawn to empathize with Mrs. Wright and forgive her crime. The play questions the extent to which one should maintain loyalty to others. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale try to withhold incriminating evidence against Mrs. Wright, and by challenging the reader to question whether
Susan Glaspell in Trifles explores the repression of women. Since the beginning of time, women have been looked down upon by men. They have been considered “dumb” and even a form of property. Being physically and emotionally abused by men, women in the early 1900’s struggled to break the mold formed by society.
Susan Glaspells “A Jury of Her Peers is a short story that reveals the gender conflict and women’s struggle in a male-dominated society. With writers like Glaspell, we learn that flat characters are not irrelevant, but help to highlight and develop the qualities of the major characters. Lewis Hale, a neighboring farmer, Henry Peters, the Sheriff, and George Henderson, the county attorney are the flat characters in this story. Glaspells uses the male characters to reveal the subjugation of women that was a characteristic of the society at the time. The author shows the readers the similarities in the attitude of all the male characters through their actions, speeches and thoughts.
The play Trifles was written by Susan Glaspell in 1916. It reflects the author’s assimilation with culturally tied views of gender and sex roles. As the title of the play, “Trifles”, evokes the concerns of women who are often regarded as trifles—insignificant subjects—that bear little or no significance to the true work of society which is, evidently, fulfilled by men. Glaspell (Susan Glaspell 1902) questions, and thus calls the viewer or reader to also wonder, the comparative value of men’s and women’s work and perspectives by introducing a taut-filled drama that stretches out the development of two different accounts, one female and one male. Holstein (Suzy Clarkson Holstein 2003) contends in her essay, though the questioning Glaspell (Susan Glaspell 1902) raises is not only on women’s roles in society, how knowledge and perspective are evaluated in specific circumstances.
Susan Glaspell provocative Play, "Trifles" offers a glimpse into the patriarchal culture and disillusionment of marriage as it acts as the catalyst for examination into personal identity, societal responsibility, and the irreverence that women faced in America at the turn of the 20th century. Based in 1916 this one act play includes elements of what the women 's suffrage movement was all about. Through nuances and subtlety in speech gender imbalances are revealed in the characters and give way to motive for murder. In line with the theme the writer had used before women are disregarded wholly and their thoughts counted as frivolous. Characters question themselves as to if they could justify a murder if there fellow woman was under duress. While the men
...y, but Glaspell told their personalities through the voices of other characters. Integrating the male chauvinism delicately in various scenes and actions of the play, Glaspell showed the then existing male dominance, and challenged the readers and viewers to question who is actually guilty of the murder, Minnie Foster or the male dominant society! Glaspell also indicated that by tampering with evidence, the female characters not only concluded Minnie is not guilty of the crime, but also psychologically triumphed over their male counterparts.
Susan Glaspell was an American playwright, novelist, journalist, and actress. She married in 1903 to a novelist, poet, and playwright George Cram Cook. In 1915 with other actors, writers, and artists they founded Provincetown Players a group that had six seasons in New York City between 1916-1923. She is known to have composed nine novels, fifteen plays, over fifty short stories, and one biography. She was a pioneering feminist writer and America’s first import and modern female playwright. She wrote the one act play “Trifles” for the Provincetown Players was later adapted into the short shorty “A Jury of Her Peers” in 1917. A comparison in Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles” and “A Jury of Her Peers” changes the titles, unfinished worked, and
...mpletely dependent upon men. Playwright Susan Glaspell cleverly causes the reader to question the way that women and men are viewed in society. The women in Trifles, though they were overlooked by the men, solved this case while the men failed to do so when they were supposedly in charge. In failing to recognize the women’s ability to contribute to their work the men succeed in causing the women to unite, giving them the real power and knowledge to solve this mystery. All the while the women are moving a little closer together and moving forward toward their rights.
Mrs. Hale’s keen wit and patience contributes to her embodiment of The Fate sister Clotho the Spinner, which is even more evident in her correcting of Minnie Wright’s improper stitching (Russell). Mrs. Peters begins the process of investigation deeply devoted to keeping the law. She doesn’t want any disruption in the house, saying, “I don’t think we ought to touch things” (Glaspell p. 666) when Mrs. Hale began searching for clues. Upon finding the dead canary, Mrs. Peters view on the situation changes drastically, and she decides with Mrs. Hale to hide the tiny dead bird from the men. They both figure that if the dead canary was discovered, Mrs. Wright would be thought to be a mad woman, though it was likely Mr. Wright who killed it.
In the play Trifles, written by Susan Glaspell, a small number of people are at the Wright house trying to figure out why and how Mr. Wright was murdered. Mrs. Wright is already the suspect, and all that is needed for the case is evidence for a motive. The jury needs something to show anger or sudden feeling so that they can convict her for murder. The men, Mr. Henderson, Mr. Peters, and Mr. Hale are there to find the evidence. The women, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, are there to pick up a select few items for Mrs. Wright. While the men are going about business and looking for evidence to build a case against Mrs. Wright, the women are looking over what Mrs. Wright left behind and intuitively trying to understand what happened. They are also trying to fathom why Mrs. Wright would be compelled to perform such an act of violence. As the story goes on, it constructs each of the characters in slightly different means. Susan Glaspell presents Mr. Wright and Mrs. Hale as having contrasting and comparable characteristics. While Mrs. Hale and Mr. Wright differ in terms of emotions, they are similar in their cleanliness and are well respected by others.
In Susan Glaspell’s short play, “Trifles,” the author meticulously explores the gap between the sexes as it existed in early twentieth-century America. American culture, on the whole, has evolved considerably over the years, yet change comes very slowly. “Trifles” was published in 1916 prior to the Women’s Suffrage Act. This was a period in American history where women were treated as chattel, rarely respected and valued only by the efficacy of their homemaking skills. These sentiments are craftily exposed in this “whodunit” tale, loosely based upon a true murder case Glaspell covered as a reporter. This play is a mystery consisting of two separate investigations: the “official” investigation conducted by the
In Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles Mr. Wright’s murder is never solved because the two women in the story unite against of the arrogance of men to hide evidence that would prove Mrs. Wright as the murderer. The play Trifles is about the death of farmer Mr. Wright and how the town sheriff and attorney try to find evidence that his wife Mrs. Wright killed him. As the play progresses the men’s wives who had come along were discovering important pieces of evidence that prove the men’s theory but chose to hide from them to illustrate the point that their ideas should have been valued and not something to be trifled. The very irony of the play comes from its title trifles and is defined as something that isn’t very important or has no relevance to the situation that it is presented to. In this play the irony of the title comes from the fact that the men find the women’s opinions on the case trifling even though the women solve the crime which ends up being the downfall of the men as they would have been able to prosecute Mrs. Wright if they had listened which made the women’s opinions not trifling. Glaspell was born in an age where women were still considered the property of men and they had no real value in society in the eyes of men except for procreation and motherhood. This attitude towards women was what inspired Glaspell to write the play Trifles and to illustrate the point that women’s attitudes should be just as valued as men’s and to let women have a sense of fulfillment in life and break the shackles that were holding them only as obedient housewives. Trifles was also inspired by a real murder trial that Glaspell had been covering when she was a reporter in the year 1900. Glaspell is a major symbol of the feminist movement of l...
Gender is such a familiar part of our daily life that it usually takes a well-planned interruption of how women and men are supposed to act in order to pay attention to how it is generated. In our social point of view, man role has been to take care of his family and children. The housework is usually the basis of the woman’s role. In the play “Trifles,” women were ignorant and lack respect for the men. Men superiority extents are the men in the story feel comfortable with disparaging Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale’s interest in trifles with the clear synthesis that women are so impulsive and in generous about the significant issue such as Mrs. Wright’s farmhouse investigation at hand. In addition, when the male follows the repellent condition of the kitchen, they instantly execute that the women must be distracted from Mrs. Wright’s homemaking abilities because they all know Mr. John Wright as a good and dutiful man. From that reason, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale can help Mrs. Wright if they hide the evidence. In the play the County Attorney mentioned, “And yet, for all their worries, what would we do without the ladies?” (776). In this statement, the Attorney makes a sexist remark. This remark makes Mrs. Hale angry and she responds by standing up for Mrs. Wright. This shows the women’s value and how they care and stand up for their fellow women. The men see women as
Wright was described as a beautiful women filled with such joy and life until she married John Wright. Mrs. Peter’s and Mrs. Hale feels sorry for her because her husband treated her so bad. Due to female bonding and sympathy, the two women, becoming detectives, finds the truth and hides it from the men. The play shows you that emotions can play a part in your judgement. Mrs. Peter’s and Mrs. Hale felt sorry that Mrs. Wright had one to keep her company no kids and she was always left alone at home. “yes good; he didn’t drink, and kept his word as well as most, I guess, and paid his debt. But he was a hard man, Mrs. Peters just to pass the time of day with him. Like a raw wind that goes to the bone. I should of think she would have wanted a bird. But what you suppose went with it?” Later on in the play the women find out what happens to the bird. The bird was killed the same way Mrs. Wright husband which leads to the motive of why he was killed. Mrs. Wright was just like the bird beautiful but caged no freedom not being able to live a life of her own. Always stuck in the shadows of her husband being told what to do and
Most of the actions take place in the kitchen setting which demonstrates the author’s deliberate move to show the important details about the wifely role. The women hold their conversation in the unkempt kitchen, a domestic sphere that reveals everything about the lives of women. While the men were busy searching for clues around the farmhouse, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale see some evidence in the trifle that Mrs. Wright had left in the kitchen. The women can deduce that the messy kitchen with dirty pans gives a signal of incomplete work. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peter spend most of their time in the messy kitchen that significantly reveal Mrs. Wright’s state of confusion (Manuel 61). Mrs. Hale understands Mrs. Wright’s experiences of loneliness and desperation from the male-dominated circumstances. The female characters sympathize with her situation by acknowledging the forces in her life that made her take the roles including that of murdering her husband. The men overlook the evidence that the women can trace in the house, and their dialogue suggests lack of sympathy towards women as noted from their humiliation and sarcasm towards women. For example, the women can relate the death of the canary to the murder scene. The attorney shows how woman’s concerns are unimportant, instead of sympathizing with Mrs. Wright for what has befallen her, they portray their women