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. The setting and symbolism of the play act as a portal that allows for the dramatic development of the message and themes. Throughout the play, Glaspell continually uses the setting to demonstrate the differences between men and women during that time period, and further, how the lives and roles of women were devalued and considered unimportant. From the start of the play, the audience immediately gets a feel for the run-down atmosphere of the farmhouse, the life Mrs. Wright must of led, and more importantly, the distinct separation between the male and female sexes. Not only are the genders separated biologically and geographically throughout the play, they also differ in mindset, behavior, and overall thoughts regarding the motive of the murder. This can be seen when Mr. Henderson, Mr. P... ... middle of paper ... ...their eyelids to cover any pigmentation and light application of mascara. The makeup should not be overdone as it should portray how they are tired both physically and emotionally of living a life based upon their husbands’ wants and desires belittling them every chance they get. In conclusion, the production of Trifles by Susan Glaspell will resemble the message and themes spoken of throughout the play. Written to portray the deprecation of women, this play uses the plot, setting, and symbolism to demonstrate the overall message and themes. Although the ending of the play is never stated, one never finds out the fate of Mrs. Wright or suspect involved in killing the bird, one thing will always remain clear: Susan Glaspell and her play will continue to go down in history being preformed to showcase that women are human beings and they all deserve equal treatment.
The short one-act play Trifles by Susan Glaspell, was years ahead of its time. Its time was 1916, but the subject matter is timeless. The aspect of this play that most caught my interest was the contrast between the men and women characters. This is a play written in the early 1900s but transcends time periods and cultures. This play has many strengths and few weaknesses, but helps to provide a very accurate portrait of early American women and the issues they dealt with in everyday comings and goings.
In her landmark feminist play, "Trifles," Susan Glaspell offers a peek at the complicated political and social systems that both silenced and divided women during their struggle for equality with men. In this simple but highly symbolic tale, a farmer's wife, Minnie Wright, is accused of strangling her husband to death. The county attorney, the sheriff, a local farmer, the sheriff's wife and the farmer's wife visit Minnie's farm house. As the men "look for clues," the women survey Minnie's domestic environment. While the men scoff at the women's interest in what they call "trifles," the women discover Minnie's strangled bird to realize that Minnie's husband had killed the bird and Minnie had, in turn, killed him. They bond in acknowledgment that women "all go through the same things--it's all just different kind of the same thing" (1076). As their horror builds and the women unravel the murder, they agree to cooperate with one another, conspiring to protect Minnie against the men by hiding the incriminating "evidence."
The play, Trifles, written by Susan Glaspell, establishes the discrepancy between men and women’s perception and roles during the early 1900s. Its title, Trifles is tied to the concept that is reemphasized many times in the play, which illustrates that women’s thoughts, observations, and voices were considered as trifles or something of which that has least significance to the society and its values. Glaspell gradually builds the plot up to a controversial murder mystery by giving each character specific attributes and by developing symbolism with the objects mentioned in the play. However, if the play was elaborated to incorporate more details of some factors such as characterization and background of Mr. Peters, Mr. Hale, Mrs. Peters, and Mrs. Hale for a movie, then it could possibly lose its mysterious sensitivity and hinder imagination of particular components of the mystery in the readers’ mind.
In conclusion, in Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles, the main conflict is the women’s role in the home and the way the men belittle the women. The gender conflicts were the main reasons why Mrs. Wright murdered her husband. Glaspell’s play displayed a very aggressive tone, and also used a very gloomy and lonely mood as well. Also, one of the major symbols that was discussed throughout the play was the knot used to strangle the life out of Mr. Wright. This play shows women that we should not let a man control every action that we make, and to never allow them to belittle
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.
Susan Glaspell’s 1916 play, Trifles was about an abusive relationship between a husband and wife, John and Minnie Wright. Minnie finally breaks down and kills her husband because he took away from her the only thing that brought joy to her miserable life, her canary.
As Lewis Hale stated, “ ‘Well, women are used to worrying about Trifles’ ” (918). Unbenounced to Lewis Hale, uncovering the mystery of John Wright's death was a matter of paying attention to the smallest details. Susan Glaspell’s one act play Trifles was written in 1916 during women’s suffrage. While the two women Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters wait in the kitchen for the men to investigate, they discover many pieces of evidence and a motive that could have lead to the death of John Wright. These subtle clues include, a quilt with sloppy stitching, a broken bird cage, and a strangled canary.
Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles, seems to describe the ultimate women’s suffrage story. No longer will men have an upper hand against women after reading this story. Cleverness will be the key to retaining power from the men in this story. The one thing that woman are criticized for, the idea that women tend to look at the ‘little picture’ instead of the ‘whole picture’, will be there path to victory. Two stories of revenge are told in this story, the revenge of suppression and revenge of being portrayed as ‘unsophisticated, unintelligent’ women. First we have the story of Mrs. Wright and the struggles with her husband, John. Married women throughout history have been portrayed and played the role as being inferior to the husband in marriage. This seems to be the case with Mrs. Wright. Even though John’s public image was somewhat respectable, it was obvious that behind close doors the story was different. There is evidence of abuse in this marriage. First, the discovery of the broken door leads me to conclude that John was very physical and anguished. Second, it is assumed that Mrs. Wrights husband had broke her canary’s neck. The canary, which of course had to be caged, was represented as the old Minnie Foster herself. The canary is a beautiful, free spirited bird that had a sweet voice, as Minnie had at one time. This was the end of the line and ‘Minnie Foster’ was about to be reborn. She would stand up for all those abused and suppressed house wives across the world and makes the first ‘final’ decision she had ever been allowed to make. The bird’s cage was her jail. The bird’s death was her freedom for the fate of the bird was the fate of her husband. John was discovered with a rope tied around his neck, the freedom of a women who could no longer be held down. This was the first implementation of women’s power in the story. The women at Mrs. Wright’s home played an important role in the story as well. The ‘professional’ detectives were busy about the house finding clues to indict Mrs. Wright in the murder case. They ridiculed the women in the house by ‘putting them in their place’ as typical ladies, so worried about small things and useless ordeals. Mrs. Hale noted the stitches in the quilt to be erratically stitched as if something were wrong.
In the play Trifles, written by Susan Glaspell, we observe like flies on the wall as two women discover the crimes of a peer and weigh her guilt against their own. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale find similarities within themselves and their experiences that mirror the feelings of Mrs. Wright prior to her alleged offense. Not only are we witness to this in their words, but in the stage business that takes place as well, denoted by descriptive stage direction. In their hearts, we see them struggle throughout the play with the social constructs of gender roles, guilt, and culpability.
Susan Glaspell wrote both Trifles and a “Jury of her Peers” two stories that are nearly indistinguishable from one another. The subtlety of Trifles is purposefully ironic, the devil is in the details of both the play and the short story. The short story takes us into a little more detail than the play, revealing things unspoken and thoughts that could not be conveyed on the stage. There are many themes of this story, the societal place of the women, justice and that details are important in solving a mystery.
The theme of the play,”Trifles,”by Susan Glaspell, is demonstrated through the situation of a woman revolting in a society dominated by males.
Trifles is a play that is an investigation of the murder of John Wright. The sheriff and the county attorney arrive with at John Wright's farmhouse to look for evidence. Mr. Hale tells the story of how he discovered Mr. Wright strangled with a rope and how Mrs. Wright was acting strangely. He describes the murder as a gruesome act to kill a man by strangling the victim since it was a gun in a house. The men investigate for evidence for a motive to convict Mrs. Wright, the wife of John Wright. The men try to find something to show anger or a sudden feeling. The men pass judgment on Mrs. Wright due to her dirty kitchen. Women were not seen as a dangerous creature during this time. So putting away a woman must take hard course evidence to convince
Susan Glaspell's play, "Trifles", attempts to define one of the main behavioral differences between man and woman. For most of the story, the two genders are not only geographically separated, but also separated in thought processes and motive, so that the reader might readily make comparisons between the two genders. Glaspell not only verbally acknowledges this behavioral difference in the play, but also demonstrates it through the characters' actions and the turns of the plot. The timid and overlooked women who appear in the beginning of the play eventually become the delicate detectives who, discounted by the men, discover all of the clues that display a female to be the disillusioned murderer of her (not so dearly) departed husband. Meanwhile, the men in the play not only arrogantly overlook the "trifling" clues that the women find that point to the murderer, but also underestimate the murderer herself. "These were trifles to the men but in reality they told the story and only the women could see that (Erin Williams)". The women seem to be the insightful unsung heroes while the men remain outwardly in charge, but sadly ignorant.
In the early half of the twentieth century, the ever changing environment and culture allow men to have greater economic and social independence from nineteenth-century customs. But in this era of change, many women were still bound by the inequities of the nineteenth century.In contrast to this stark reality, Susan Glaspell in her single act play, Trifles; seeks to shed a light on the inequalities in the lives of women. Glaspell uses the overlying theme of social injustice, as a critic against the system of patriarchy in this era. Trifles is set in a rural farm town during a murder investigation. Minnie Wright neé Foster is the prime suspect in the murder of her husband John Wright. The local county attorney, sheriff and a neighbour to the Wrights; come to the house to
Susan Glaspell’s Trifles (1916), is a play that accounts for imprisonment and loneliness of women in a patriarchal society. The plot has several instances where women issues are perceived to be mere trifles by their male counterparts. The title is of significant importance in supporting the main theme of the story and developing the plot that leads to the evidence of the mysterious murder. Trifles can be defined as things of less importance; in this story dramatic, verbal and situational irony is used to show how the insignificant trifles lead to a great deal of truth in a crime scene investigation. The title of the story “Trifles” is used ironically to shape the unexpected evidence discovered by women in