Silent Justice in a Different Key: Suzy Clarkson Holstein´s Trifles

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I. Article Summary: Suzy Clarkson Holstein's article, “Silent Justice in a Different Key: Glaspell's 'Trifles'” evaluates the play Trifles and how the difference between the men in the play mirror how a woman's perspective is very different from a man's. Trifles is about two women, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, who show up at a house with their husbands and the county attorney to investigate a murder. The entire time the men are looking for evidence to implicate the accused wife, Minnie Wright, of killing her husband. Meanwhile, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are there to gather up some items to bring Minnie Wright in jail. While doing so, the women uncover evidence that would prove the wife is culpable but decide to hide it from the men in the last moments of the play. Trifles is evaluated on how the women are able to come up with the evidence unlike the men because they didn't approach it like a crime scene but rather a home, “By contrast, the women arrive at a home. Although neither they or the men realize it, they too are conducting an investigation” (Holstein 283). Holstein also notes they are able to find evidence because they use their own life experiences to relate to the accused murderer, Minnie Wright as shown here; “But the women do not simply remember and sympathize with Minnie. They identify with her, quite literally” (285). Holstein finishes the article by noting the women decide to hide the evidence because of the solidarity they feel towards Minnie Wright; “From Mrs. Hale's perspective, people are linked together through fragile, sometimes imperceptible strands. The tiny trifles of life –a neighbor's visit, a bird's song, the sewing of a quilt –have profound reverberations” (287). II. Article Evaluation: In Suzy Clarkson ... ... middle of paper ... ...n in the play; for example, “In the beginning, the women are silent from the powerlessness Belenky has described (23-24)” (284). This reference is the first time this new author is mentioned and Holstein doesn't explain really anything except that I need to go read Belenky to see the point that Holstein is trying to make in this article. Also, of the four references from different books, three of the books are fourteen or more years old and it seems Holstein is using out of date sources to make her points. For all of these reasons I didn't feel that Holstein's article gave clear insight to the points about Trifles she may have been trying to convey to the reader. Works Cited III. Article Citation: Holstein, Suzy Clarkson. “Silent Justice in a Different Key: Glaspell’s ‘Trifles.’” Midwest Quarterly 44.3 (2003): 282-290. Advanced Placement Source. Web. 10 Apr. 2014

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