Thesis For Trifles By Susan Glaspell

“Trifles” written by Susan Glaspell explores the oppressive nature of an enduring patriarchal hierarchy within farm life throughout the 1900’s coinciding with the extensive psychological damage solitude and isolation imposed on the soul of, Mrs. Wright.

Thesis: Glaspell utilized the image of a bird to juxtapose/compare/contrast the death of Mrs. Wright’s canary to the death of Mrs. Wright’s soul.

Denotatively a bird is defined as a, Any of a class (Aves) of warm-blooded vertebrates distinguished by having the body more or less completely covered with feathers and the forelimbs modified as wings, often capable of flying. The authors/Glaspell’s strategic comparison of Mrs. Wright to a bird can be interpreted connotatively that she was a free,

pretty and slight young woman, with the nurturing instinct to nurture her offspring. However, Mrs. Wright’s life stripped her of her bird like qualities, she has arguably lost her wings to fly, suggesting the extensive solitude she endured oppressed her innate nature. Therefore, Glaspell is commenting on the repressive nature of her life that her husband has imposed on her, she is no longer lively and sweet, but rather indifferent and stagnant. The image of a bird connotes such associations of prettiness, flightiness, fragility, softness, and free, thus the death of Mrs. Wright’s canary can be interpreted as the death of both her beloved possession that provided her with some degree of liveliness within a very gloomy, depressing home, while paralleling the death of the canary to suggest the death of Mrs. Wright’s soul; Mrs. Hale states, “she was kind of like a bird herself….How—she—did—change.” The setting of this play is of a freezing ill-kept old farmhouse. Therefore, the uninviting nature and coolness that pervades the barren farmhouse is suggestive to the toxicity of seclusion. Mrs. Wright was removed from society, she no longer partook in community festivities or organized events, and she was a wife to an inaudible patriarchal man without children.

In addition the use of depicting Mrs. Wright as a bird is suggestive to the social structure during the 1900’s in (FIND OUT WHERE). Glaspell’s use of such an image can be understood as a critique of the injustices of this time, suggesting that the preservation of a patriarchal structure within the household can have dire consequences on women. A bird is often thought of as fragile and weak, suggesting that women were expected to be bird like, and women who defied this norm contradicted this traditional society. In addition, because of the connotative interpretation of a bird, Glaspell is suggesting that Mrs. Wright was taken advantage because of her bird like qualities and that this social commentary is suggestive that as women, it is imperative that we begin to oppose this regressive social structure and oppose the oppression of men in order to save ourselves from patronizing men.