The Ladies

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Recommended: Comprehensive essay of feminist theory

“Don’t forget the ladies,” are the words that Abigail wrote to her husband John Adams during the drafting of the Bill of Rights. Unfortunately, her words went ignored because 130 years after that document was signed, women were still not given basic rights in America. During this period, female writers began to make themselves known on the dramatic stage through works such as the Yellow Wallpaper, and The Awakening. Glaspell, a 20th century feminist writer, wrote Trifles and A Jury of Her Peers to express her criticism for women’s rights; she also based it off a true story that she reported. She uses these writing pieces to examine the treatment of women and how she opposes the gender stratification that has hindered women during her time. This paper will attempt to analyze the role of women during the early 20th century, to compare and contrast how the men and women of the story examined the crime scene, and Glaspell’s opposition on the gender stratification.

The before 20th century, society has not been kind to women because they were considered the weaker or fairer sex. Even though women were granted equal rights in the 1920s, women had to silently and unwillingly grapple with unjust treatment from American society. Glaspell uses Trifles to examine this quiet struggle “[as] the first major work of feminist theater written by an American playwright,”(Beatty) and adds a revolutionary new voice to the dramatic arts of the time. Due to its “absence [ from the stage during the early and mid-20th century, it has indicated] the way that women have traditionally been eclipsed on the American stage”(Beatty). Glaspell’s choice of the word Trifles, instead of the title of the short story which is A Jury of Her Peers was as insightful in...

... middle of paper ...

...ist writers have used various types of media to help express the equality gap between men and women. But, even today there is still an implicit equality gap that still lingers throughout both genders. As society grows and matures, the suffrage of the women and men will always play an important role in making a statement for equality.

Works Cited

Beatty, Greg. "Trifles." Masterplots II: Drama, Revised Edition (2003): 1-3.
MagillOnLiterature Plus. Web. 4 May 2014.

Carpentier, M. C. (2008). Susan Glaspell new directions in critical inquiry. Newcastle,
UK: Cambridge Scholars Press.

Carpentier, M. C., & Ozieblo, B. (2006). Disclosing intertextualities the stories, plays, and novels of Susan Glaspell (37 ed.). Amsterdam: Rodopi.

Glaspell, Susan. Trifles. 1916. Drama Packet. Comp. Siobhan Wright. Westminster, MD:
Carroll Community College, 2013. 2-14. Print.

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