Trifles

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Recommended: Compare the setting to a doll's house and trifles

The women in Susan Glaspell's “Trifles” and Henrik Ibsen's “A Doll's House” creates a complex picture of male-female relationships and their effects on women's views about reality. Nora Helmer, the main character of Ibsen's play, seems totally happy with her family and social life: she is constantly pampered and patronized by her husband and plays the role of a trivial, small girl who cannot take pertinent choices. In a similar manner, Minnie Foster, the central character of Susan Glaspell's “Trifles”, spends her life in separation and rejection, banned by her husband from realizing her purpose and aspirations. Nora and Minnie are two strong females in a male-dominated world, who choose different ways to cope with gender inequalities and protest against gendered standards and expectations of female performance. Minnie Foster and Nora Helmer are two females living in a male controlled world. They must play mindless girls, who voluntarily obey with male expectations and requests. Women's emotions in both stories are rather trifling. Nora and Minnie spend their lives in seclusion and religious neglect, which they repeatedly take for granted. Nora's husband does not seem to take Nora sincerely. Nora for Torvald is not a person but a nice, trivial object to her husband. Torvald acts, as if Nora cannot have her view but needs to be continually belittled: "Bought, did you say? All these things? Has my little squirrel been wasting money again? ... Come, come my little skylark must not drop her wings. What is this! Is my little squirrel out of temper?" Torvald treats Nora like a small, silly girl who cannot take personal decisions. He ranks himself as the head of his family and always infers that Nora is a minor element in their family re... ... middle of paper ... ...ial and personal troubles and put an end to constant gender inequality influencing their lives. Women and their importance in society are common things of literary analysis. In Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House and Susan Glaspell's Trifles, Nora and Minnie are two strong women in a male-dominated world, who decide unlike ways to cope with gender inequalities and rebel against gendered ideals and prospects. Nora and Minnie are alike in the gist that they regularly have to obey their husbands' mandates. The culture assumes them to be obedient and inferior. Though, neither desires to accept her lesser public status. Minnie and Nora select different means of coping with gender inequalities Nora leaves her house forever, and Minnie murders her husband. Both women ultimately prevail over their social adversities and put an end to gender inequalities altering their existences.

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