Trifles By Susan Glaspell: A Feminist Analysis

Makes No Difference

Trifles is a play by Susan Glaspell taking place in and around a farmhouse in 1916. The owner of the farmhouse, Mr. Wright, is found dead when his neighbor Mr. Hale makes an unannounced visit early one frigid morning. As he lets himself into the farmhouse he finds Mrs. Wright sitting in a rocking chair in the disarrayed kitchen. Eventually, she tells him that her husband is upstairs dead with a rope around his neck. While Mrs. Wright is in custody an investigation is taking place at the farmhouse and those in attendance include; George Henderson, the county attorney; Mr. Hale; Mrs. Hale; Henry Peters, the sheriff; and Mrs. Peters. While searching for a motive at the farmhouse the men were distracted because during that time period women were cast into low positions in society leading the men to mock the women in this play written by Susan Glaspell whom is known to produce work with strong feminist concepts.

You see, Mr. Hale, Mr. Henderson and Mr. Peters all felt superior to the women; Mrs. Hale; Mrs. Peters; and Mrs. Wright, which was normal for the times. The Progressive Era, 1900 to 1920, was a time when women ventured out the home more as industrialization grew and began working towards gaining their right to vote.

According to the 1900 census, and just like Mrs. Wright, 14 million married women did not work for pay (Schneider 23) instead she might garden, gather wild greens for the table, put up quantities of fruit, vegetables, and meat, sew, make her own soap, and do the family baking (Schneider 32) which was not an easy task especially since most households did not have electricity. Susan Glaspell hints at some of Mrs. Wright’s chores when Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale find an unfinished log cabin quilt and Mr. Henderson comes upon some preservers in the kitchen cabinet. For reasons unknown, Mrs. Wright did not have children to clean up after, either she did not bear children, they were adults, or died. She was so accustomed to doing housework that she even requested her apron from jail. Although Mrs. Wright did not work outside the home, women that did worked for less pay then the men for the same amount of work and were expected to do all their tasks early in the morning before work and late into the evening unless the family could afford help. Even more, physicians believed women were inferior to men stating, “during menstruation the flow of blood diverted energy from the brain, rendering women idiotic” (Schneider 10). Consequently, in the play, the men did not believe the women were as intellectual as them and continually mocked the women for worrying about trifles.
One may believe the men were just joking but a serious investigation was being conducted and more time should have been spent checking every little thing instead of insulting the women about their concerns. For instance, the sheriff quickly dismisses the kitchen, a place where women do work, from being a place where a motive could be found by declaring, “Nothing here but kitchen things” (Glaspell 986). At the same time, the attorney does a quick search of the kitchen but he stops once he discovers, as he sarcastically puts it, “a nice mess” (Glaspell 985) due to some of Mrs. Wright’s jars of preserves breaking because of the bitter cold. Mrs. Peters tells everyone that Mrs. Wright was worried that her preserves would freeze and with that said, the sheriff immediately replies, “Well, can you beat the women! Held for murder and worryin' about her preserves” (Glaspell 985) and the attorney following with, “I guess before we're through she may have something more serious than preserves to worry about” (Glaspell 986) and lastly Mr. Hale stating, “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles” (Glaspell 986). After this, the attorney goes on to say, “And yet, for all their worries, what would we do without the ladies?” (Glaspell 986), while coming across dirty towels he yells and makes Mrs. Wright out to be “not much of a housekeeper” (Glaspell 986). The mockery was very insulting to the women in particularly Mrs. Hale whom quickly came to Mrs. Wrights defense by explaining how there is a lot of work to be done on a farm and how men’s hands can be quite dirty and yet the attorney still has a patronizing remark by telling her how she is “loyal to her sex” (Glaspell 986). Soon the women come across a pretty log cabin quilt that Mrs. Wright was working on and they wondered if she was going to quilt it or not it to which she sheriff over heard and the men all laughed when he said, “They wonder if she was going to quilt it or just knot it! (Glaspell 989)” All the while the women unwittingly discover evidence of a motive right in the kitchen; a mangled bird cage and a dead canary with a broken neck. Undeniably, the men repeatedly teased the women throughout the play till the very end.
Lastly the writer, Susan Glaspell, a 1931 Pulitzer Prize winner, is known to fill her work with strongly feministic ideas that usually focus on the negative and destructive effects that male-female relationships have on women and also how women cope with their circumstances (Glaspell 982).

Susan Glaspell coauthored over 10 plays. Her play entitled Woman’s Honor rejected the idea of the honorable and docile woman and freed the belief of honor from contemporary gender theories. Another play, The Verge, developed out of Glaspell's recognition of the way society left some women feeling stuck in roles they were not fit for. Subsequently, Susan Glaspell’s feministic views compelled her to introduce her opinions within her

works.
Finally, Glaspell’s 1916 play Trifles takes place during a time when men thought less of women. During the men’s investigation they ridiculed the women for worrying about trifles. They considered women’s issues insignificant. While, women were making strides, working outside the home for a wage, and fighting for their right to vote, men still did not give them the admiration they deserved. Susan Glaspell, living 1882-1948, saw all this firsthand and was later deemed a feminist by the aspects of her works. For these reasons, Glaspell’s Trifles shows her readers that the men were not thorough in their investigation because they were distracted making fun of the women.