Ethics In Trifles By Susan Glaspell

Ethics and morals, two very similar yet very different words. Many people believe that both words have basically the same meaning. The fact is that the two words are very different, morals is defined as a principle or habit with respect to right or wrong doing, where ethics is the principles of the morals. Below is the description of three stories that have contradicting morals as well as the ethics that go along with those morals when three different women are put into inconvenient situations and have important decisions to make. “Trifles” is a short story by Susan Glaspell where she writes about an investigation going on at a farmhouse where a woman has just murdered her husband. During this investigation, the investigators’ wives are present at the crime scene and do a little poking around themselves. As they search, they discuss the similarities between the murderous woman and their own lives. One of the woman is quoted saying just how similar their lives are, “I tell you, it’s queer, Mrs.

The story describes the wife washing clothes for patrons when her husband comes home irritated and drops his bull whip across her shoulders to resemble a snake. An article reviewing the story describes the scene like this, “however the use of the whip, rather than some other phallic or serpentine object, also positions Sykes as would-be owner and Delia as slave.” The husband was very demanding and abusive of his wife and when she was backed into a corner she had to throw away her morals and fight back, even when she knew it was not the right thing to do. When she finally decided to do this, the husband was taking back. The author states that “It cowed him and he did not strike her as he usually did.” So when she stepped outside of her comfort zone and confronted the situation, the husband stopped his