Trifles

837 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

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.

Show More
Related

  • The Unrecognized Dimensions of Nora

    1499 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll House, Ibsen tells a story of a wife and mother who not only has been wronged by society, but by her beloved father and husband because of her gender. Nora left her father’s house as a naïve daughter only to be passed to the hands of her husband forcing her to be naïve wife and mother, or so her husband thinks. When Nora’s husband, Torvald becomes deathly ill, she takes matters into her own hands and illegally is granted a loan that will give her the means to save her husband’s life. Her well guarded secret is later is used against her, to exort Torvald, who was clueless that his wife was or could be anything more than he made her. However, Nora has many unrecognized dimensions “Besides being lovable, Nora is selfish, frivolous, seductive, unprincipled, and deceitful” (Rosenberg and Templeton 894). Nora is a dynamic character because her father and her husband treat her as a child and do not allow her to have her own thoughts and opinions, as the play progresses she breaks free from the chains of her gender expectation to explore the world around her.

    Read More

  • Trifles And A Doll House Comparison Essay

    727 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell and “A Dollhouse” by Henrik Ibsen, the authors use symbolism to shed light on the way woman were once looked down upon by men. In both plays the woman face similar derisive attitudes from the men in their lives. Women are treated as property, looked down upon and only useful in matters pertaining to cooking, taking care of children, housework and sexual objects. The women’s marriages, socioeconomic and social status are completely different, but both women reach their emotional breaking point, and grow so discontent with their situations they are willing to take drastic actions.

    Read More

  • Trifles and A Dollhouse

    855 Words  | 2 Pages

    The plays, Trifles and A Dollhouse use the literary tool of symbolism to portray the way women were treated throughout the nineteenth century. Susan Glaspell uses the bird cage and the dead bird to signify the role and life of women in marriage and society, whereas Henrik Ibsen uses the dollhouse. These symbols allow the reader to recognize the plays main similarities in the treatment of women, such as men dismissing women as trivial and treating them like property; however, the plays portray the women’s lifestyles as different which seal their fates.

    Read More

  • A Doll's House and Trifles

    1060 Words  | 3 Pages

    In conclusion, Even though both Ibsen and Glaspell are showing the responsible for giving women insight to what their lives could be as an independent person who is treated as an equal, their plays deals somewhat different sight to deals with the problems of the inequality between men and women. In other words, in A Doll’s House, Nora – like many others – begins to realize that she is more than capable of thinking and living for herself. Unlike Nora, however, in Trifles, Mrs. Wright chose to stay married to her unloving and murder her husband. Moreover, unlike what A Doll’s house portrayed, in Trifles, Glaspell shows the power of women can gain by sticking together and looking out for one another in order to improve their social positions from the behavior of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters.

    Read More

  • A Doll's House A Raisin in the Sun

    3074 Words  | 7 Pages

    A Doll House, by Henrik Ibsen, and A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, both have central themes of search of self-identity within a social system. This is demonstrated by women characters from both plays breaking away from the social standards of their times and acting on their own terms. In most situations women are to be less dominant than men in society. These two plays are surprisingly different from the views of women in society and of the times and settings that they take place in.

    Read More

  • Trifles And The Doll House Analysis

    1802 Words  | 4 Pages

    The dramas Trifles by Susan Glaspell and The Doll House by Henrik Ibsen were written in the late 19th to early 20th Century; a genre representative of socially constructed norms associated to gender roles. During this era economic, political, cultural and social rights encompass male dominance. Female oppression was commonplace; society based a woman’s worth on motherhood and marriage. In the Trifles the men patronize the women, ridiculing their concerns while the women characterize their activity in the house as relatively unimportant. The Doll House focuses on Nora who struggles to become a self-motivated women in a woman-denying man’s world, exemplified by the treatment she experiences from her father, society and husband. The Trifles and The Doll House portray the gendered oppressive nature of society. Situational irony and symbols capture the intricate dynamics in the relationships that portray the reality of female disadvantage. The characters, dialogue and settings in the Trifles and The Doll House signify a theme deeply embedded in female oppression.

    Read More

  • Gender Inequality In Trifles And A Doll's House

    566 Words  | 2 Pages

    The plays, Trifles and A Doll’s house utilize symbols throughout the scenes to represent the way women were dealt with and perceived all through the nineteenth century. The symbols provide the audience ways to perceive the plays principle similarities in the representation of women, for example, men releasing ladies as inconsequential and portraying them as property; then again, the plays reflect the women’s ways of life as

    Read More

  • Comparing Edna of Kate Chopin's The Awakening and Nora of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House

    1036 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kate Chopin's work, The Awakening, and Henrik Ibsen's play, A Doll's House, were written at a time when men dominated women in every aspect of life.  Edna Pontellier, the protagonist in The Awakening, and Nora, the protagonist in A Doll's House, are trapped in a world dominated by men.  The assumed superiority of their husbands traps them in their households.  Edna and Nora share many similarities, yet differ from each other in many ways.

    Read More

  • A Doll’s House

    1504 Words  | 4 Pages

    The enforcement of specific gender roles by societal standards in 19th century married life proved to be suffocating. Women were objects to perform those duties for which their gender was thought to have been created: to remain complacent, readily accept any chore and complete it “gracefully” (Ibsen 213). Contrarily, men were the absolute monarchs over their respective homes and all that dwelled within. In Henrik Ibsen’s play, A Doll’s House, Nora is subjected to moral degradation through her familial role, the consistent patronization of her husband and her own assumed subordinance. Ibsen belittles the role of the housewife through means of stage direction, diminutive pet names and through Nora’s interaction with her morally ultimate husband, Torvald. Nora parades the façade of being naïve and frivolous, deteriorating her character from being a seemingly ignorant child-wife to a desperate woman in order to preserve her illusion of the security of home and ironically her own sanity. A Doll’s House ‘s depiction of the entrapment of the average 19th century housewife and the societal pressures placed upon her displays a woman’s gradual descent into madness. Ibsen illustrates this descent through Torvald’s progressive infantilization of Nora and the pressure on Nora to adhere to societal norms. Nora is a woman pressured by 19th century societal standards and their oppressive nature result in the gradual degradation of her character that destroys all semblances of family and identity.Nora’s role in her family is initially portrayed as being background, often “laughing quietly and happily to herself” (Ibsen 148) because of her isolation in not only space, but also person. Ibsen’s character rarely ventures from the main set of the drawi...

    Read More

  • A Feminist Literary Stance, Roles of Women in Henrik Ibsen’s Play A Doll’s House and George Eliot’s Novel Middlemarch

    1541 Words  | 4 Pages

    Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and George Eliot’s Middlemarch are based on events from their personal experiences. The events that lead Ibsen to feel the need to write A Doll’s House makes his approach on the feminist stance a bit more unusual from other writers. Ibsen shows his realist style through modern views and tones that are acted out by the characters in this infamous story. In the viewers’ eyes, it is the women in A Doll’s House that makes it so popular, Nora and Christine give readers a real sense of Ibsen’s feminist stance. George Eliot makes her feminist stance in Middlemarch in much the same way as Ibsen. In Middlemarch, one of the main female characters, Dorothea, wants control of her life and chooses happiness over wealth. These female characters from these well-known works are represented in such a way to give readers a grasp of the social conditions involving women.

    Read More

  • Nora's Decision to Leave in A Doll's House

    1431 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many women in modern society make life altering decisions on a daily basis. Women today have prestigious and powerful careers unlike in earlier eras. It is more common for women to be full time employees than homemakers. In 1879, when Henrik Ibsen wrote A Doll's House, there was great controversy over the out come of the play. Nora’s walking out on her husband and children was appalling to many audiences centuries ago. Divorce was unspoken, and a very uncommon occurrence. As years go by, society’s opinions on family situations change. No longer do women have a “housewife” reputation to live by and there are all types of family situations. After many years of emotional neglect, and overwhelming control, Nora finds herself leaving her family. Today, it could be said that Nora’s decision is very rational and well overdue.

    Read More

  • Free Essays - Becoming Independent in A Doll's House

    851 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen illustrates through an intriguing story how a once infantile-like woman gains independence and a life of her own. Ibsen creates a naturalistic drama that demonstrates how on the outside Nora and Torvald seam to have it all, but in reality their life together is empty. Instead of meaningful discussions, Torvald uses degrading pet names and meaningless talk to relate to Nora. Continuing to treat Nora like a pampered yet unimportant pet, Torvald thoroughly demonstrates how men of his era treat women as insignificant items to be possessed and shown off. While the Helmer household may have the appearance of being sociably acceptable, the marriage of Torvald and Nora was falling apart because of the lack of identity, love, and communication.

    Read More

  • A Doll’s House and The Cherry Orchard

    1506 Words  | 4 Pages

    Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, written in 1879, is set in late-19th century Norway. Upon publication, Ibsen’s biting commentary on 19th century marriage stereotypes created widespread uproar. In the play’s first act, the viewer is introduced to a young married couple by the names of Nora and Torvald. In tune with stereotypes of the time, the relationship is controlled almost dictatorially by the husband. Nora is often treated by Torvald the way one might expect a father to treat his daughter. For instance, Torvald incessantly refers to Nora by child-like nicknames such as “my little squirrel” and “skylark” and often speaks to her in a condescending manner. Nora, who acts as a symbol of all women of that time, initially fits in very well with the common perception of women in late-19th century Scandinavia. Torvald himself even extends this sentiment of male infallibility and female submissiveness to the whole female race, saying, “Almost everyone who has gone to the bad early in life has had a deceitful mother (Ibsen 27).” However, throughout the play Nora begins to break the mold of inferiority that was associ...

    Read More

  • Gender Stereotypes in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House and Susan Glaspell's Trifles

    1831 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the plays A Doll's House, by Henrik Ibsen, and Trifles, by Susan Glaspell, the male characters propagate stereotypes and make assumptions concerning the female characters. These assumptions deal with the way in which the male characters see the female characters, on a purely stereotypical, gender-related level. The stereotypes and assumptions made in A Doll's House are manifest in the way Torvald Helmer treats his wife, Nora, and in the way Nora acts to please her husband. These include the beliefs that women are lesser people, childlike in their actions and in need of being controlled. Nora knows as long as she acts in accordance with the way she is expected, she will get what she wants from Torvald. The stereotypes and assumptions made in Trifles are those of the women being concerned only with trifling things, that they are loyal to the feminine gender, and that women are subservient to their spouses.

    Read More

  • A Doll's House Sexism

    753 Words  | 2 Pages

    Women were taught to be dependent at a young age. They depended on the male figure for everyday life. Their main goal was to seek the approval of the male figure. Throughout A Doll’s House, we are given a constant reminder of Nora’s dependency. Nora needed the approval of Torvald in order for her to receive money of her own. Nora needed her father’s money/signature in order to bail Torvald out of death. Because Nora was a woman she wasn’t taught how to “live”. Nora’s character traits reflect the average woman in the 19th century. Galens and Spampinato point out, “Sexism as a theme is reflected in the disparate lives represented in this play. Nora’s problems arise because as a woman she cannot conduct business without the authority of either her father or her husband.” Now the real question is: Did Henrik Ibsen intentionally point out sexism in society through his play? According to S.H. Siddall, “Each takes a painful stand against narrow-minded tradition and hypocrisy. However, Ibsen objected to being appropriated in this way: he saw himself as an artist, not a propagandist. He was writing about people, their motivations, thoughts and feelings, rather than issues.” Although Ibsen did not intentionally write about sexism, his play opened many readers’ eyes to the roles of sexism in society. To feminist, he became a hero in the form of intellectual

    Read More

More about Trifles

Open Document