Hale states “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles” (561). The same trifles he states women are worried over, are the trifles that if men paid attention to they would have plenty of evidence against Minnie Wright. In “A Jury of Her Peers” Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peter basically decided the fate of Minnie. In “A Jury of Her Peers” Glaspell shows how there is criticism of a legal system that denied women the change of a fair trial by an all-man jury. They found evidence that the men could not find and decided “not to turn it in. All of this held a significant role in the story, but they are the ones that solved the case. In the play the sheriff mocks Mrs. Hale “They Wonder if she was going to quilt it or just knot it” (563). He also said something in “A Jury of Her Peers” on page 575 line 159. There are not many changes between the play and the short story. Most of the changes happen in the opening of the story when it is more detailed, as to where the play is all about action. If you are watching the play it is much better than the story because you can see all the action and
From the play “Trifles” written by Susan Glaspell I’ll be explaining the role of the women characters and how they were portrayed in the story. The play describes setting with homicide, mystery and dishonesty among its characters. It's a play that bases on stereotypes in relationships and attitudes between men and woman at this time in our history. The male characters play the powerful leader being for example, the sheriff, deputy and the attorney where the female characters Mrs. Peter and Mrs. Hale in a kind of seen but not heard role. Who were sent out to learn more about the details of the murder of Mr. Wright, who was found hanged in his bed.
Trifles by Susan Glaspell is a one-act play centered around a woman, Mrs. Wright, who allegedly murdered her husband, Mr. Wright, in the night. There are no witnesses of his death; only unofficial confessions and he-said she-said talk. Without viable evidence and information (and the absence of Mrs. Wright altogether), the play soon focuses on a group of people who gather at the Wrights’ home the day after the murder. These characters include a male sheriff, county attorney, and neighboring farmer and their two wives. It is their job to determine what truly happened to Mr. Wright and piece together any evidence that would enable the conviction of Mrs. Wright. It is with the plot, setting, and overall use of symbolism that Glaspell communicates her message and themes. These messages and themes, which are the glue to the play, allow the audience to understand how unhappy of a life Mrs. Wright lived and how men viewed women’s roles as unimportant.
In the early 20th century gender expectations and feminism was different. When trifles was written, it was a period when women had no respect, were inferior, and were put in domestic roles. Women did not have power, until World War One where they were put into industrial roles. Although, the women 's movement was changing things, it did not occur until later on. In the book, Trifles also called Jury of Her Peers, Susan Glaspell incorporated the vast differences of both genders in society in her short story.
The similarities that Trifles and “A Jury of Her Peers” both have is that they have the same story with all the same characters. Both of them feature that Mr. Wright was strangled by a rope, with the leading suspect as his wife Mrs. Wright. They even share the events that are described in the story. “As he asked it he took out a note-book and pencil”(AJHP 1). “[The county attorney who had his notebook out, made a note]”(Trifles 711). Both of these depict that the same thing had happened around the same time. They has the same characters do the same thing. Glaspell wanted there to be a direct connection to the two different pieces
Although the play Trifles and the short story “Jury of her peers” are very similar there are some differences throughout the play and story from the characters, title, and the description. Susan Glaspell wrote both the story and play. Susan Glaspell wrote Trifles, her first play, was performed and published in 1916; the following year Glaspell wrote “A Jury for Her Peers” as a short story version of the same story in order to reach a wider audience. Both texts are early feminist masterpieces, and with this edition readers can read both versions of this classic story which challenges male prejudice.
The play, Trifles, is about Mrs. Wright’s murder, while Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters figure out the reasoning and who committed the crime. The short story, “A Jury of Her Peers” is the same story but retold in a different fashion with a few details changed. This change in storytelling creates changes to the story by using thoughts and narration more often than only using conversation and action. The changes between Susan Glaspell’s Trifles and “A Jury of Her Peers” are shown by the changes in the opening, the characterization, and the descriptions of the stories.
It has a third person limited point of view so it includes paragraphs entirely dedicated to character’s thoughts as well as visual descriptions. In contrast to “Trifles” though, an intro is included, so the reader isn’t just thrown into a middle of a crime scene. “When Martha Hale opened…” (Jury 1). In the play, it starts within the scene of the rime, but in the short story, the entire first page or two is dedicated towards introducing the characters and the arrival to the Wright’s household. Next, a comparison in the levels of description in the two ever o varying texts. In the scene in which Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale decide to steal evidence, in “Trifles” it is described as “The women’s eyes meet for an instant.” (“Trifles” 722) whereas in A Jury of Her Peers, the scene is described as “Martha Hale sprang up… eyes met the eyes of the other woman… got it in the pocket of her big coat.” (Jury 14). In the short story, the scene is largely expanded so the reader does not have to assume much and the thoughts of the characters are revealed throughout the transaction. A Jury of Her Peers is a short story, third person limited, where assumption is not as necessary than with
In the early 1900's Susan Glaspell wrote many works, two stand out, the play "Trifles" and the short story "A Jury of Her Peers". Trifles was written in 1920, while "A Jury of Her Peers" was written the following year. The true greatness of these works was not recognized until the 1970's. In the short story "A Jury of Her Peers" a woman named Minnie Wright is accused of the murder of her husband. Minnie Wright is a farmer's wife and is also isolated from the outside world. There is an investigation that takes place in the home of the murder. There are three men that are involved on the case and two women accompany but are not there to really help solve the murder. These two women will solve the murder and protect Mrs. Wright of any wrongdoing.
The drama Trifles and the short story “A Jury of Her Peers”, are both written by Susan Glaspell. Both texts are about the same story. A woman is imprisoned for murdering her husband, and the authoritative men are searching her house for the motive. Two other women in the house find evidence and decide to hide it. The texts have different ways to convey thoughts, and similar ways to show actions.
and Mrs. Hale, Sheriff Peters and his wife, and Mr. Henderson. The character’s dialogue, for the most part is no different in each story. Though there are similarities in plot, characters, and dialogue, there are differences in the title of each work and the point of view of each work. First, the title Trifles is suggestive that females are of little importance to the men. One of the male characters indicates that women tend to worry about things that are of no consequence. The title also subtly references the fact that women tend to notice the trifling things. This is evident by the fact that the men make fun of the women for wondering about a quilt Minnie was making while the women noticed an uneven square sewn into an otherwise evenly sewn quilt. They used this clue to conclude that the farmer’s wife was nervous about something. Although the title “A Jury of Her Peers” seems to indicate that someone will be judged by a jury in a court, the actual jurors are the farmer’s wife’s peers. The jurors, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, can understand what the farmer’s wife is like because they are her peers. The women empathize with the farmer’s wife and hide incriminating evidence from the men. It is with this action that the women take revenge on the male dominance they must live with each day just as the farmer’s wife took her revenge out on her husband for killing her bird. Another difference is the point of view of each work. Trifles is a one-act drama and the reader must rely on actions of the characters to try to understand each characters point of view while “A Jury of Her Peers” has an omniscient narrator who is able to tell the reader the thoughts of the characters. For example in “A Jury of Her Peers” when Mr. Hale asked Mr. Peters to tell him what happened when he arrived at the house the day before, the narrator gave the reader access to what was going through Mrs. Hales’ mind as her husband gave his account of what
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.
Susan Glaspell wrote two different forms of literature that have basically the same plot, setting and characters. This was during a period in which the legal system was unsympathetic to the social and domestic situation of the married woman. She first wrote the drama version “Trifles” in 1916 and then the prose fiction “A Jury of Her Peers” in 1917. The main difference was the way the prose fiction version was presented. Glaspell effects emotional change in the story with descriptive passages, settings and the title. The prose fiction version has a greater degree of emotional penetration than the drama version.
Trifles is based on a murder in 1916 that Susan Glaspell covered while she was a journalist with the Des Moines Daily News after she graduated from college. At the end of the nineteenth century, the world of literature saw a large increase of female writers. Judith Fetterley believed that there was an extremely diverse and intriguing body of prose literature used during the nineteenth century by American women. The main idea of this type of literature was women and their lives. The reason all of the literature written by women at this time seems so depressing is due to the fact that they had a tendency to incorporate ideas from their own lives into their works. Glaspell's Trifles lives up to this form of literature, especially since it is based on an actual murder she covered. This play is another look at the murder trial through a woman's point of view.
One woman’s Trifles is another man’s clues. The play Trifles, was written by Susan Glaspell based on the murder of John Hossack, which Susan reported on while working as a news journalist for Des Moines Daily News. Susan Glaspell was an American Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, actress, novelist, journalist, and founder of the Provincetown Players. She has written nine novels, fifteen plays, over fifty short stories, and one biography. At 21 she enrolled at Drake University even after the prevailing belief that college make women unfit for marriage. But many don’t know that her work was only published after the death of her husband George Cram Cook. Trifles is an example of a feminist drama. The play shows how male dominance was