Isolation The Homestead Act of 1862 was enforced to help settle the disputes among the people that wanted to obtain a piece of land. In the play Minnie Wright was unable to control the pressure forced upon by her husband, which is similarly related to the hardships homesteading women faced. John Wright the head of the household was considered to be a kind natured man, but his motive was to neglect his wife’s happiness. He paid little to no attention to her and prevented her from singing which was the only thing she had interest in. Mr. Wright might look like a good guy but his intentions were evil when it came to his relationship with his wife. Minnie Wright used to live her life happily by spending time at the local choir singing, but after she married John Wright, her life took a swing and she found herself forlorn. Homesteading has evolved since The Homestead Act of 1862. It was a way for Americans to claim a piece of land and an opportunity to work hard and make buildings that would bring revenue. The problems that many Americans faced included isolation, weather and being able to farm efficiently. These problems where experienced by families with men that had control over the family wanting to claim land. It was not easy for the homesteaders to settle on the great planes. Building a house with wood was not an option due to it being limited, so they made sod houses. Living in a sod house was not easy as they faced dirt and deceases. The sod houses often leaked and consist of massive amount of fleas and bedbugs. The homesteaders fixed these problems by thickly coating the floor with whitewash and the ceiling with clay. The housework was not easy when there was no wood for fuel or any candles. The only way for women to b... ... middle of paper ... ... a three day process (wash, dry and iron) a nurse and a teacher in her “spare” time. Many widows with children were homesteaders because the priorities were different and they had more control over the family. Freedom for the wife to choose her duties was irrelevant since the husband’s were usually the head of the household. While the need for revenge is not the only type of punishment for John Wright, Minnie decides to take matters into her own hands and strangles her husband the same way she strangled the bird to death. Works Cited United States. National Park Service. "The Last Homesteader." National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, 10 Apr. 2014. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. "Encyclopedia of the Great Plains." Encyclopedia of the Great Plains. Ed. David J. Wishart. University of Nebraska, n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
English colonists that came to settle the New World had one conception of what property was; in their minds, property equaled money. This differed greatly from the Native Americans’ perspective, where property equaled survival. When the English colonists took land that naturally belonged to the Indians under the rights of the charter given to them by the English Crown, they misconstrued many of the conceptions of property that the Natives’ had. Even though the English were similar to the Natives in certain aspects, in most, such as who had the right to the land, how the land should be farmed, what value property actually had, and who pre-owned and could distribute the land, both cultures differed greatly, leading to eventual conflict between the English and Native Americans.
The character Mrs. Wright is portrayed as a kind and gentle woman. She is also described as her opinion not being of importance in the marriage. It is stated by Mr. Hale that “ I didn’t know as what his wife wanted made much difference to John” .(745) Her neighbor, Mrs. Hale, depicts her as “She─come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself─real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and─fluttery. How─she─did─change”. (752) It appears that Mrs. Wright is a kind and gentle woman, not capable of committing a murder. But, with the evidence provided and the description of Mr. Wright’s personality it can also be said that the audience will play on the sympathy card for Mrs. Wright. She appears to be caught in a domestic violence crime in which she is guilty of, but the audience will overlook the crime due to the nature of the circumstances. By using pathos it will create a feeling that Mrs. Wright was the one who was suffering in the marriage, and that she only did what she felt necessary at the
John Wright helped kill the song within Minnie. Heather mentioned that he took care of business outside the home, he paid the bills and did his duty; but he did not do anything to give opportunity to Minnie. Lewis Hale said, "I didn't know as what his wife wanted made much difference to John." The men are focused on evidence to support the murder charge against Minnie, but the women see how John slowly took life away from his wife. Mrs. Hale said, "I don't think a place'd be any cheerfuller for John Wright's being in it." She was left in an empty house that was dark and without hope. He choked the life out of her, and she knotted
When Mrs Hale and Mrs. Peters first walk into Minnie Wrights house, they see how lonely and unkept her house was. The men could not understand why a woman would keep her house in that condition, but the women determine how sad and depressed Mrs. Wright was. "'I might 'a' known she needed help! I tell you, it's queer, Mrs. Peters. We live close together, and we live far apart. We all go through the same things—it's all just a different kind of the same thing! If it weren't—why do you and I underst...
In this play, the women are housewives; responsible for bearing children, and keeping the house. They are often made fun of or made to feel less of themselves when they didn’t perform those duties to the specifications of the men. The city attorney openly criticizes Mrs. Wrights housekeeping skills by stating “here is a mess, dirty towels! Not much of a housekeeper would you say, ladies?” (Glaspell 1109-1110). Mrs. Hale describes Minnie Foster as “real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and fluttery” (Glaspell 1114). But a lot of changes are evident once she marries Mr. Wright. She spends her days in isolation, focusing on her quilts, preserves, and caring for her canary. She didn’t receive any type of appreciation for her hard work. This defeats her mentally and she doesn’t have any joy left in her life. While looking for evidence in the murder, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale find red flags that support her mental decline, such as blocks on the quilt described as “all over the place” (Glaspell 1113), like she didn’t know what she was doing and a “dead bird in a fancy box, wrapped in a piece of silk” (Glaspell 1114). After the death of her beloved canary at the hands of her husband,
Settlers who first arrived at the Great Plains found the grasslands keeping the grain like soil intact. In result many settled down in the area and began building ranches and farms. At firs the there was mostly cattle ranching and some farming. However, a series of droughts and overgrazing of the grasslands let to the growth of land cultivation. Also recurrence of wet weather led to the belief that “previously” dry land is suitable...
The European settlers who first arrived at the Great Plains found hardy grasslands that held the fine-grained soil in place in spite of the long recurrent droughts and occasional torrential rains. A large number of the travelers settled down in this area and built farms and ranches. These land uses led to soil exposure and great erosion. The cattle ranches were very profitable for the settlers; unfortunately, this led to overgrazing and degradation of the soil. In addition, farmers began to plow the natural grass cover and plant their own crops. Without the original root systems of the grass to anchor the soil, much of it blew away. The wide row crops were very disastrous because between the crops, the land was kept bare; as a result, this area was exposed to the elements. Also, the nutrients in the soil were used up by the plants faster than they could be replaced. The soil had become exhausted.
Wishart, David J. "Reservations." University of Nebraska-Lincoln - Encyclopedia of the Great Plains. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. 2011. 22 January 2014.
and Mrs. Hale. Minnie was once a cheerful soul who sang in the choir. Now she had become a lonely farmer’s wife, who had been found in a somewhat cationic stated seemingly unbothered by the death of her husband. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters find her quilting pieces and notice where her once perfect craftsmanship seemed to be rushed and poor quality. Then the ladies find the dented birdcage and begin discussing what may have happened, as Minnie was spotted happily carrying the canary through town. At this moment, a key piece of evidence is located by the ladies. The box containing the dead canary is found. Inside the box, the ladies find the canary has had its neck wrenched. At this point, Mrs. Hale recounts her memory of John Wright. She states John was a hard man while Minnie was a cheerful timid soul like a canary. Based on hearsay, Mrs. Wright was extremely lonely with no children. The house has been very silent except for the timid canary chirping. John kills the canary and this triggers Minnie to
This dark dialogue reveals the cold truth of many marriages; the men appear kind, but their actions say otherwise. Many women were abused and taken advantage of due to the fact that they were to be submissive and did what they were told to do. As the wives analyze the Wright’s relationship, Mrs. Hale describes John Wright, not even personally knowing the man, as “Like a raw wind that gets to the bone...” (Glaspell 10). This chilling simile reveals that even to the public eye, he provoked terrifying feelings. After years of the abuse Minnie Wright faced, she snapped and murdered her husband when he went too far and killed her canary. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are able to rationalize this because they have “...an understanding of female violence in the face of male brutality…” (Ben-Zvi 165). They understand how hard her life was with a man like John Wright being Minnie’s husband because they see the presence of abuse in the relationship reflected through their own marriages. The female subjectivity that Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters have reveals the reality behind many marriages of this time: cold and
Hale’s case. She feels responsible for her neighbor’s decline into isolation. Her conflict is within herself and the choices she made, or rather didn’t make. Mrs. Hale laments, “I wish I had come over sometimes when she was here. I— (looking around the room)—wish I had. . . I could've come. I stayed away because it weren't cheerful—and that's why I ought to have come. . . it's a lonesome place and always was. I wish I had come over to see Minnie Foster sometimes. I can see now— (shakes her head)” (). We can hear the shame and regret in her words. While she herself did not commit the crime, she feels equally culpable, seeing as she did absolutely nothing to keep Minnie Foster, the singing, cheerful woman, from deteriorating into the broken spirited Mrs. John Wright that killed her creator. She feels that Mrs. Wright was justified in her actions, which Mrs. Hale highlights as she regales, “She used to sing. He killed that, too” (). She is not culpable for killing her husband, because everything about herself had been killed by him, like the bird. Mrs. Hale resolves to hide the bird, exonerating Mrs. Wright of her offense. She does this in part because, in some way, it absolves her of her negligence and makes up for all the years of neglected friendship. Like Mrs. Peters, she too takes a moment to decide what she wants to do, only grabbing the bird at the last possible second before it could be
Hale was able to sympathize and understand Mrs. Wright’s position and how difficult it is to be a farmer’s wife during this time period. Minnie’s life before marriage used to be quite different and have changed dramatically after she became Mrs. Wright. Mrs. Hale remembers the young Minnie Foster (Mrs. Wright) as an outgoing person who was known for always dressing up nicely and enjoys singing (926). At that time, she had the freedom to do whatever she wants without being under controlled by someone. During her marriage, she lived in a farmhouse that wasn’t so cheerful that was located down in a hollow and far away from the roads (929). She believed that something about that place made her feel unwelcome, which explains why she and everyone else choose to stay away from it. The abandoned farmhouse wasn’t the main reason why people stayed away from. They were actually afraid of Minnie’s husband, John Wright because he was demanding, controlling and abusive. Mrs. Wright didn’t participate in any activities because there is always work that needs to be done in the farmhouse. Mrs. Hale learns what kind of person Mrs. Wright is marrying to and realizes that she or any other women shouldn’t deserve this type of
Wright. Marriage was more dedication and real, than it is now. Getting a divorce in the 21st century is almost more normal than not, it is happening to more and more people sadly. This relates to the play Triffles because it is inferred in the play that she killed her husband when two women Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters find a bird. The bird was Minnie’s friend, it resembled her as a person as described by Mrs. Hale, “She-come to think of it, she kind of like a bird herself-real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and-fluttery,” (Glaspell733,T). Minnie Wright and other women in marriages during this time were supposed to appear nice well-mannered women who were supposed to please to their husband. Minnie Wright and her relationship with her husband changed and when her husband harmed her bird, which was the last straw for Minnie Wright. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters two local friends of Minnie’s, find the bird during the investigation, and say]
Walter Coppinger, a Professor of Geosciences at Trinity College in San Antonio and long-time observer of Montana geology, was the first person to describe to me the many problems of the western rangelands that have developed out of the over-grazing of cattle. From a hilltop among the upland slopes of Whitehall, Montana, he pointed out a few patches of bare earth on the horizon and some gullying out of trails across the rangelands in the distance. Rangelands are areas of land on which livestock are left to roam and graze. Traditionally the great plains and rolling hills of the Western States have been dominated by rangelands left to cattle and bison, and though it has long been acknowledged that cattle grazing and roaming can alter the features of the land, the extent and depth to which they can do this has been underestimated and at times ignored. Privately owned pastures and rangelands in the United States have suffered a more than 15% decrease in number of acres since 1940, but despite figures like this one and a multitude of essays lamenting the "shrinking of the great plains," the number of cattle in the Western United States has more than doubled in the last 60 years (Trimble and Mendel, 1995; U.S. Census of Agriculture). With the numbers of grazing animals growing and the lands for them to occupy getting smaller, a better understanding of how and to what degree these animals affect the soil is needed.
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