Playwright Susan Glaspell in 1916 published the extraordinary one-act play Trifles. Trifles is based on Glaspell’s short story “A Jury of Her Peers” which revolves around two main characters, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters. These two women are requested by the men, Mr. Henderson the County Attorney and Mr. Peters the Sheriff, to gather personal items for Minnie from her home. She was arrested for allegedly killing her husband, John Wright. His body was found by Mr. Hale and Harry. To confirm the allegation, the men conducted a thorough search of the Wright’s property for any incriminating evidence to support a motive for the homicide. Meanwhile, the women analyze Minnie’s possessions and the state of her home, in doing so uncovering the motive as …show more content…
She started her career as a journalist with the Des Moines Daily News covering the Hossack murder case. The focal point of her investigation was Margaret Hossack, the wife of the late John Hossack and her muse for Minnie Wright. Similar to her fictional counterpart, Margaret was also accused of murdering her husband in the year 1900 just two days after Thanksgiving. According to Margaret "she was asleep beside her husband but did not wake up while he was being murdered with an ax" (Angel 242). Margaret’s recollection of the murder was vague and inconclusive. Resulting in her Iowa community and Glaspell doubting her innocence. Based on her testimony, Glaspell condemned and asserted that Margaret was involved in her husband’s murder. Especially since no one else was ever arrested in connection with the crime to oppose her account of the event. In comparison to the play, Minnie recounts the night of her husband's death parallels the real life of Margaret except he died of strangulation. She states that she was asleep beside her husband when the intruder entered their bedroom and used a rope to strangle Mr. Wright (Glaspell …show more content…
Hale and Mrs. Peters had different opinions about Minnie, but as the play progressed they mutually bonded with uniting opinions. Their bond gave them the insight to help Minnie more effectively and “move from anger to action” to protect Minnie (Mael 282). This moment of resoluteness by the women countered the men’s earlier disparaging remarks that women are only concerned with trivial things such as knitting. They proved that when women work together for a common good, there is nothing they cannot achieve. Although Trifles was written more than a century ago, the play continues to resonate in the twenty-first century with unending issues such as domestic abuse and inequitable rights for women. Domestic abuse is still prevalent today and millions of women each year are trapped in abusive relationships in which they feel there is no way out. In some situations, it can create a generational cycle of abuse. Back in the 1900s, there were some laws to help women, but they were not enforced to benefit the victims. This might have been perpetrated by men condoning the actions of other men and the concept that a man is the head of his household. However, today there is a gamut of resources, services, and laws to protect women who are
At the time of this story men had precedent over women. Minnie Foster was actually a victim even though the story suggests that she and only she was the one that could have committed the murder of her husband, John Wright.
In the early 1900's Susan Glaspell wrote many works, two stand out, the play "Trifles" and the short story "A Jury of Her Peers". Trifles was written in 1920, while "A Jury of Her Peers" was written the following year. Trifles was written in only ten days. The true greatness of these works were not recognized until the 1970's.
In Susan Glaspell’s, “A Jury of her Peers”, it is the women who take center stage and captivate the reader’s emotions. Throughout the feministic short story, which was written in 1917, several repeating patterns and symbols help the audience to gain a deeper understanding of the difficulty of prairie life for women and of the bond that women share. The incredible cunning the women in the story demonstrate provides insight into the innate independence that women had even during days of deep sexual discrimination. In “A Jury of her Peers”, the hardships women of the early twentieth century must endure and the sisterhood that they can still manage to maintain are manifested as a mysterious, small-town murder unfolds.
The play "Trifles", by Susan Glaspell , is an examination of the points of view of the early 1900s against women and equality. The most noticeable theme in this story is men discrediting women's intelligence and their ability to do a man’s job, as detectives, in the story. A less noticeable theme is the sympathy the women in the plot find for each other.
Susan Glaspell's Trifles explores male-female relationships through the murder investigation of the character of Mr. Wright. The play takes place in Wright's country farmhouse as the men of the play, the county attorney, the sheriff, and Mr. Hale, search for evidence as to the identity and, most importantly, the motive of the murderer. However, the clues which would lead them to such are never found by the men. Instead it is their female counterparts who discover the evidence needed, and who are able to do so because of their gender.
I have always felt that a good piece of writing causes the reader to think about and analyze a given set of circumstances so that he expands his worldly understandings. Such writing is stimulating and often includes an element of controversy. The short story “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell is one example of this provocation in which the writer conveys her views on sexual injustice. In a way that is conceptually intriguing, Glaspell expresses her ideas about the misunderstandings between men and women during the early twentieth century. While personally disagreeing with the interpretive outcome of the story as well as the message that it is intended to present, I must admit that it did provide me with insight into the mind of a real feminist who lived during a time when women were treated as secondary citizens.
“Jury of Her Peers” is a short story that combines murder, lies and sexism while exposing the reader to the truth about women’s abilities and skills. Aside from being a murder mystery about the investigation of the sudden death of John Wright, the story’s theme is more about respect for women and making decisions based on one’s own beliefs and morals rather than allowing others to control them. Glaspell is a firm believer in women’s rights, and she dedicates most of her writing, including this piece, to displaying to society that women are indeed as smart and capable as men are to perform the duties and jobs of everyday life (internet*). The setting is in rural Dickson County, USA, just prior to 1920. This was a period in America’s history when women were seen as household workers only, that men were the only ones capable of making important judgment calls and decisions. Although one of the main characters, Mrs. Peters, lives her life by what the men make her to be, in the end she undergoes a movement that changes her into an independent person of society.
Mention the word feminist and most people think of the modern women's movement. Long before the bra burning of the 60’s, however, writers were writing about the lives and concerns of women living in a male dominated society. Susan Glaspell's play, Trifles, was written in 1916, long before the modern women's movement began. Her story reveals, through Glaspell's use of formal literary proprieties, the role that women are expected to play in society, and the harm that it brings not only the women, but the men as well. Character names are important in Trifles. Two characters who are never seen, John and Minnie Wright, provide the inciting incident for the play. The name "Wright" plays off the social stereotype of women seeking" Mr. Right," so they also represent the roles of men and women in the larger society. Minnie's name has a double significance, "Minnie" being "mini" or "minimized," which was descriptive of her relationship with John and in general of women's relationship with men. The taking of the husband's name is also important in the story. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are not given first names. The role that society has cast them in is one that is defined by their husbands. Mrs. Peters, who is married to the sheriff, is viewed in those terms, not as an individual. The county attorney even says "for that matter a sheriff's wife is married to the law" (Glaspell ..). Mrs. Peters herself tries to fulfill that role, saying "Mrs. Hale, the law is the law" (Glaspell ..). She tries to reinforce that identity until she is faced with the brutality of what John Wright did to Minnie. She says "I know what stillness is. The law has got to punish crime, Mrs. Hale" (Glaspell ..). The difference is that she is talking about the crime committed against Minnie, not the murder. The best example of the importance of names, especially married names, is the image of Minnie Foster. "I hear she used to wear pretty clothes and be lively when she was Minnie Foster . . ." Mrs. Hale says (Glaspell..). She talks about Minnie again on page ..: "I wish you'd seen Minnie Foster when she wore a white dress with blue ribbons and stood up there in the choir and sang" (Glaspell..). The image of Minnie Foster is used to show, by contrast, what John Wright ...
The action of Glaspell's play is executed by a mere five players, three of whom are men - a fact which in itself demonstrates the establishment of women as a minority, even in such a small sampling. The county attorney, Sheriff Peters, Mrs. Peters, eyewitness Mr. Hale, and Mrs. Hale are drawn together in a dismal and atmospheric farmhouse to investigate the murder of Joe Wright, whose wife is the prime suspect. Even in the play's most rudimentary introduction, we are presented with a marked distinction between the men's and women's perspectives. The men immediately perceive the house as a crime scene and as such feel compelled to interview Mr. Hale about details of his visit and officiously search for smoking-gun evidence as to the killer?s motives. Conversely, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters comprehend the environment as something more inti...
First, the crime Minnie Wright commits lashes out against her defined role as women during this time. At first glance, Glaspell creates a seemly innocent metaphor comparing Minnie Foster to a bird,
This story is based on the true events of the Hossack Murder. Glaspell was working for the newspaper when the murder happened so she covered the case. “Glaspell herself covered the trial in 1900–01 during her previous career as a reporter for the Des Moines Daily New”(The Hossack Murder.) This inspired Glaspell for more than 20 years to change her style of writing. She was more interested on the motive and peoples thoughts behind behavior instead. Around her time was still when women's suffrage was not so important. This became a major focus point on her career; to change the way people thought about women.
Pulitzer Prize winner Susan Glaspell is a pioneer for women of her generation. Ms. Glaspell was born in 1876, a time where women were not considered equal to men. When Glaspell became “of age”, instead of marrying, she went to college and graduated from Drake University in 1899. Glaspell’s career as a writer began when she got a job as a reporter for the newspaper. During that time she wrote several short stories that were published. Glaspell later married George Cook and he is the person that encouraged her to write plays. Due to this encouragement, she wrote one of her most well-known plays, Trifles (International Susan Glaspell Society.) This play is later turned into the short story “A Jury of Her Peers,” Glaspell uses imagery, chauvinism,
A Woman’s voice is far from being heard. Since the early nineteenth century, women have been treated unfairly and their thoughts, opinions, and work were never believed to be serious or educated enough to consider. In Susan Glaspell’s, “A Jury of Her Peers”, she writes that Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters were women who happened to accompany their husbands to a crime scene. While their husbands were busy mocking women and finding humor in the situation, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale were the ones to find enough evidence to support the motive of the murder. Even though they were intelligent enough to find the necessary clues to solve the murder mystery, their husbands would have
Peters, Lewis Hale who is the neighbor of the Wright’s, his wife Mrs. Hale, George Henderson who is the attorney on the murder case, John Wright who is the murder victim, and his wife, Minnie Wright who is being convicted of murdering her husband. In the first scene of the play, Mr. Peters, Mr. Henderson, and Mr. Hale are in the house where John Wright was murdered and they are standing in the kitchen talking about the crime scene and what was found the day before. Lewis Hale claims that Minnie Wright told him she was sleeping when her husband was strangled with a rope and did not hear a thing. The neighbor instantly thought that was a lie just from how she was acting when was asking her questions. Back then, women were not able to make decisions without their husbands allowing it first. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale wanted to collect some items for Mrs. Wright since she was being held in custody for being the prime suspect in murdering her husband, so they continued to ask their husbands if they could do such a thing. To the male characters in this story, there is no doubt in their mind that Mrs. Wright was in charge of this horrible act. The women thought other wise. The sheriff and neighbor proceeded to say that the women were more concerned about trifles then the big picture of what was actually going on. Which is how the play got its name Trifles, which means
“A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell focuses on the role of women and how they are expected to behave in society. Glaspell, emphasizing her work on feminist ideas, explains “that men possess and that women are denied” (914). She stresses how women are treated and how they are forced to act under the circumstances. Glaspell illustrates how women are oppressed in society and how that impacts them. Glaspell show us how women are inferior to men and how it can push them over the edge. The way they are required to act is physically and emotionally draining. In this short story told in third person, Glaspell uses symbolism through characters and objects in the story to display the stereotypical role women play and how the way they are treated