Women In The Play Trifles

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Recommended: Portrayal of women in literature

In the play, Trifles, it is very clear that one tattered woman was fed up. At this time, women were to be seen and not heard. They were to obey their husbands and keep up appearances. This appears to take place just before the women’s rights movement takes off. It was not fair for a women to be judged in court by a jury of all men. One issue among many for women at this time. Women were not taken seriously, or treated equally.
The story is about a woman, Mrs. Wright suspected of murdering her husband. As the officer comes to look for evidence, the officer’s wife and the wife of a neighbor are also there. The men first criticize the Mrs. Wright’s lack of keeping the house. The women defend her, as a farmers’ wife is very busy. The County Attorney said “Ah, loyal to your sex I see.” The officer’s wife, Mrs. Peters and the neighbor, Mrs. Hale sympathize at seeing Mrs. Wright’s fruit jars all broken. After all, it was very hard work to can all that fruit. They managed to find one jar to save her. The men again make a comment about the women just being worried over trifles. As the men go upstairs the women look to put together a few things for Mrs. Wright. When they do, the first thing they notice is that she was making a quilt and stitched it poorly. Knowing the men were only looking for motive or evidence that Mrs. Wright was not in her right mind, Mrs. Hale pulled those queer stitches. She doesn’t admit to covering evidence, but when the men enter they say they were just wondering if she was going to quilt or knot it. Of course the men have a laugh over this. Here they are looking for evidence of a murder and all the women are worried about is a darn quilt. They didn’t find that odd at all. Men saw women just like that, absent mi...

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...eps were just the beginning of women finally starting to see the faint light of the rights they deserved. In 1916, although shut down quickly, the first birth control center is opened in the United States. Progress was being made and it was about time.
Reading a play like Trifles helps people get a glimpse into the life of a distressed woman in the late 1800’s/early 1900’s. Although not very specific, with the banter between the men it is not hard to see that they have little to no respect for women. They complain about a dirty house when the woman that lived there was removed unexpectedly by the police. The wives that are there are teased and belittled because of what the men thought were their simple minds. Little do they know that Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters had just participated in a cover up that would prevent a solid case from being formed against Mrs. Wright.

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