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 …show more content…
Mrs.Hale and Peters discover that Minnie Wright strangled her husband after he killed her bird. Her bird represented her happiness and her freedom and once John Wright took that away from her, Minnie tried to take it back, by killing John. Just as John had control over the Minnie’s life, the men control the progression and structure of the play. As the men the walk in and out of scene the plotline changes.Showing that the play needed it needed men to act in order for the plot move along, as did society mandate that men control women Glaspell deliberately casts the play in a single scene, to reinforce her critique on society and how in in this era demanded that a man had taken charge and have control over a woman because, “women are used to worrying over trifles.” (11) This fallacy is what rationalises, the women hiding incriminating evidence and to hide the evidence. Despite, Mrs. Peters protests, “But, Mrs.Hale, the law is the law.” (15) Although, it is hard to rationalise any murder, Mrs.Hale and Peters help protect Minnie Foster from having her happiness from being taken
One striking characteristic of the 20th century was the women's movement, which brought women to the forefront in a variety of societal arenas. As women won the right to vote, achieved reproductive freedom through birth control and legalized abortion, and gained access to education and employment, Western culture began to examine its long-held views about women. However, before the women’s movement of the 20th century, women’s roles were primarily of a domestic nature. Trifles by Susan Glaspell indicates that a man’s perspective is entirely different from a woman’s. The one-act play, Trifles, is a murder mystery which examines the lives of rural, middle-aged, married, women characters through gender relationships, power between the sexes, and
Trifles” is a play written in 1916 by Susan Glaspell. The play’s audience consists of young adults to those in their late 50’s. Mrs. Glaspell takes a serious matter of domestic violence and uses her platform as an author to raise awareness about the issue. In the play “Trifles” a neighbor went to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Wright only to find Mr. Wright dead in his bed. He had been strangled to death by a rope. The neighbor questioned Mrs. Wright about the matter and her response was odd and suspicious. Mrs. Wright was taken to jail while the home is being investigated for further evidence. Mrs. Glaspell’s play “Trifles” effectively achieves the goal in raising awareness on domestic violence by the evidence of the crime and through pathos.
Susan Glaspell's Trifles explores the classical male stereotype of women by declaring that women frequently worry about matters of little, or no importance. This stereotype makes the assumption that only males are concerned with important issues, issues that females would never discuss or confront. The characters spend the entirety of the play searching for clues to solve a murder case. Ironically, the female characters, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, uncover crucial evidence and solve the murder case, not the male characters. The men in the play, the Sheriff, County Attorney, and Hale, search the scene of the crime for evidence on their own, and mock the women's discussions. The women's interest in the quilt, broken bird cage door, and dead canary, all of which are assumed to be unimportant or trifling objects, is what consequentially leads to their solving of the crime. The women are able to discover who the killer is by paying attention to detail, and prove that the items which the men consider insignificant are important after all.
Susan Glaspell in Trifles explores the repression of women. Since the beginning of time, women have been looked down upon by men. They have been considered “dumb” and even a form of property. Being physically and emotionally abused by men, women in the early 1900’s struggled to break the mold formed by society.
The play Trifles was written by Susan Glaspell in 1916. It reflects the author’s assimilation with culturally tied views of gender and sex roles. As the title of the play, “Trifles”, evokes the concerns of women who are often regarded as trifles—insignificant subjects—that bear little or no significance to the true work of society which is, evidently, fulfilled by men. Glaspell (Susan Glaspell 1902) questions, and thus calls the viewer or reader to also wonder, the comparative value of men’s and women’s work and perspectives by introducing a taut-filled drama that stretches out the development of two different accounts, one female and one male. Holstein (Suzy Clarkson Holstein 2003) contends in her essay, though the questioning Glaspell (Susan Glaspell 1902) raises is not only on women’s roles in society, how knowledge and perspective are evaluated in specific circumstances.
Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles, was written in 1916, reflects the author’s concern with stereotypical concepts of gender and sex roles of that time period. As the title of the play implies, the concerns of women are often considered to be nothing more than unimportant issues that have little or no value to the true work of society, which is being performed by men. The men who are in charge of investigating the crime are unable to solve the mystery through their supposed superior knowledge. Instead, two women are able decipher evidence that the men overlook because all of the clues are entrenched in household items that are familiar mainly to women during this era. Glaspell expertly uses gender characterization, setting, a great deal of symbolism and both dramatic and verbal irony, to expose social divisions created by strict gender roles, specifically, that women were limited to the household and that their contributions went disregarded and underappreciated.
Susan Glaspell’s classic play, Trifles, recites the story of two simultaneous investigations of the murder of John Wright. The male characters consisting of Henry Peters, Lewis Hale, and George Henderson are conducting an official investigation whereas the women; Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are coordinating their own, more productive, investigation. Trifles, in an essence, is a murder mystery however, the play demonstrates a private, domestic, and female domain. Women were barely a part of the social role in the twentieth century. During this time they were thought only useful in the reproductive role that confined them to raising children and taking care of them as well as their household and husband. Therefore, Susan Glaspell being a writer during this time mostly produced pieces criticizing society’s
The play “Trifles,” by Susan Glaspell, written in 1916 is based on a real life murder that Glaspell came across as a young reporter. Inspired by her observations, she was able to turn the tragic event into a one-act play which involved a farmer named John Wright, who was strangled by the neck in bed. The main suspect is assumed to be his wife (Minnie Foster), who is placed in jail and does not appear on the scene. Instead two female characters, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, become the voice for Mrs. Wright throughout the play. A division is displayed amongst the genders within this play, and the setting and character roles are used to it point out. “Trifles,” by Glaspell uses irony and symbolism to uncover the importance of female identity versus the law by allowing the two women and Minnie Foster to seek revenge over male authority.
Trifles is based on a murder in 1916 that Susan Glaspell covered while she was a journalist with the Des Moines Daily News after she graduated from college. At the end of the nineteenth century, the world of literature saw a large increase of female writers. Judith Fetterley believed that there was an extremely diverse and intriguing body of prose literature used during the nineteenth century by American women. The main idea of this type of literature was women and their lives. The reason all of the literature written by women at this time seems so depressing is due to the fact that they had a tendency to incorporate ideas from their own lives into their works. Glaspell's Trifles lives up to this form of literature, especially since it is based on an actual murder she covered. This play is another look at the murder trial through a woman's point of view.
In Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles Mr. Wright’s murder is never solved because the two women in the story unite against of the arrogance of men to hide evidence that would prove Mrs. Wright as the murderer. The play Trifles is about the death of farmer Mr. Wright and how the town sheriff and attorney try to find evidence that his wife Mrs. Wright killed him. As the play progresses the men’s wives who had come along were discovering important pieces of evidence that prove the men’s theory but chose to hide from them to illustrate the point that their ideas should have been valued and not something to be trifled. The very irony of the play comes from its title trifles and is defined as something that isn’t very important or has no relevance to the situation that it is presented to. In this play the irony of the title comes from the fact that the men find the women’s opinions on the case trifling even though the women solve the crime which ends up being the downfall of the men as they would have been able to prosecute Mrs. Wright if they had listened which made the women’s opinions not trifling. Glaspell was born in an age where women were still considered the property of men and they had no real value in society in the eyes of men except for procreation and motherhood. This attitude towards women was what inspired Glaspell to write the play Trifles and to illustrate the point that women’s attitudes should be just as valued as men’s and to let women have a sense of fulfillment in life and break the shackles that were holding them only as obedient housewives. Trifles was also inspired by a real murder trial that Glaspell had been covering when she was a reporter in the year 1900. Glaspell is a major symbol of the feminist movement of l...
Susan Glaspell’s Trifles is a play about the effects of gender differences on perceptions of duty, law, and justice. In Trifles women are perceived as not intelligent and dependent on men. The play “Trifles” is about a man that has been murdered by his wife, the men in charge of investigating the crime are unable to solve the murder mystery through the crime scene. Instead, two women who come with the men where the crime took place, unintentionally, solve the crime by reading a series of clues the men cannot seem to put together, because of the domestic item around the house. The women can put the clues together because of specific places of running a house. The significance of the title of the story “Trifles” is used because men dismiss the women concerns as trifling and that is why Susan Glaspell named her to play “Trifles”. She also wanted to show the differences of duty, law, and justice between men and women.
Trifles by Susan Glaspell is a play that explores ideals in an intriguing and fascinating way. It is about the investigation into life of Minnie Wright after the discovery of her husband’s death. Three men and two women dive into the home of the Wright’s to uncover some of the mystery surrounding their lives and Mr. Wright’s untimely death. These men being the county attorney, Mr. Hale, and Mr. Peters. The women in the play being Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters. By doing the investigation it is revealed the gender roles and the inequality among genders during that time period. Glaspell uses many elements within this play to bring a new depth. This play explores the inequality of genders and how this type of society impacts on individuals within that
The significance of the position of women in this early 20th century community and the title of the play Trifles, is condescending. Susan Glaspell manipulatively uses her extensive knowledge about the murder case, to expose and express the way women actually felt during this period. As a reporter she was controlled and restricted to what she could actually publish. She constantly uses subtle but deep ways to associate the play to hash treatment of women and the way they are viewed by males in society. Lewis Hale casually states that "women are used to worrying over trifles"(Glaspell 663). He is enforcing how the men actually perceive the women in society ...
One woman’s Trifles is another man’s clues. The play Trifles, was written by Susan Glaspell based on the murder of John Hossack, which Susan reported on while working as a news journalist for Des Moines Daily News. Susan Glaspell was an American Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, actress, novelist, journalist, and founder of the Provincetown Players. She has written nine novels, fifteen plays, over fifty short stories, and one biography. At 21 she enrolled at Drake University even after the prevailing belief that college make women unfit for marriage. But many don’t know that her work was only published after the death of her husband George Cram Cook. Trifles is an example of a feminist drama. The play shows how male dominance was
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