How Feminism Is Portrayed in Susan Glaspell’s Trifles

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How Feminism Is Portrayed in Susan Glaspell’s Trifles
Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles, may not be the best story to read and it may be confusing to some people, but it teaches the reader a great deal about how women were treated and how women were viewed during the early 1900’s. When analyzing the play from a feminist standpoint, Mrs. Wright’s motive for killing her husband becomes more clear and understandable to why she did it. Susan Glaspell gives the reader an idea of how men and women were treated during that time. In the next few paragraphs, I will use Susan Glaspell’s feminist approach to demonstrate how Mrs. Wrights murdering of her husband is completely justified.
If you were to ask someone if killing another person is justifiable, most of your answers would probably be a definite no and the occasional maybe depends on what they did, and I would have to agree with the people who say depends on what they did. No one ever kills anyone without a motive unless you are insane, but that is a police officer or detectives standpoint on the situation. Now from a Christian standpoint, the belief is that taking a life is a sin and only God can take a life. In the case of Susan Glaspell’s character Minnie, learning the past of her and her and her husbands relationship can help the reader realize why Minnie killed her husband. If the reader was to go through this process, then it creates sympathy for Minnie and people feel sorry for her, just like Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters did throughout the story.
If the reader was to analyze the title very closely, then the reader would realize that the title “Trifles” is the perfect example of how women were treated by men in this play. In the time period that the play resembles, back then men wo...

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... is a touchy subject for some people, but one of the greatest minds in history hit it right on the head when he said “Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish”. -Albert Einstein.

Works Cited
Alkalay-Gut, Karen. Jury Of Her Peers: The Importance of Trifles Winter 84 21.1 (1984): 1. Web.
Brainy Quote. "Equality Quotes." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
Glaspell, Susan. Trifles. New York: Frank Shay, 1916. Print.
Lewis, Tanya. "How Men's Brains Are Wired Differently than Women's." Scientific American Global RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
Moore, Julie. "Differences Between Men and Women in Susan Glaspell's Trifles." Yahoo Contributor Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.
Wollstonecraft, Mary, and Mary Wollstonecraft. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman ; & A Vindication of the Rights of Men. New York: Cosimo Classics, 2008. Print.

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