Trifles By Susan Glaspell

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Trifles, by Susan Glaspell which happened to be inspired by a true story took place in Iowa during the 1900s. This play is set to depict the conviction of a wife, who is currently being charged with the murder of her husband.” Susan Glaspell’s one-act play still exists as a fascinating hybrid of murder mystery and social commentary on the oppression of women” (McDaniel). Although, the main focus surrounds the murder that has taken place, neither the victim nor the suspect was actually involved in the play. The main characters are immediately introduced in the opening scene, which included the county attorney, the sheriff and his wife, and neighbors to the victim and suspect, the Hale’s. These five individuals each contributes to the play in some sort of way. Whether it was assisting in interpreting the crime and the motive behind it, and in turn discovering evidence that could either make or dismiss the case as a whole. …show more content…

The play commences with Mr. Hale recounting the events from when he initially discovered the crime scene to the sheriff, county attorney, and the wives’. As the play continues to progress, the men eventually depart from the kitchen to find clues for a motive around the house leaving the women behind to ponder with their thoughts. Filled with concern for their friend, the wives’ begin to tidy of kitchen as they too try and understand the motive of this crime. Unlike like the men, the women notices small details around the kitchen while, also coming across items that gradually helps them to understand why Mrs. Wright committed this crime. To which they later hid from the men, to protect their

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  • 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).

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  • Pathos In Trifles

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    One of the goals in the play is to raise awareness about domestic violence. This is done effectively through the events that are played out in the

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  • The Theme of Justice in Susan Glaspell's 'Trifles'

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    Susan Glaspell’s most memorable one-act play, Trifles (1916) was based on murder trial case that happened in the 1900’s. Glaspell worked as a reporter, where she appointed a report of a murder case. It was about a farmer, John Hossack who was killed while he was asleep in bed one night. His wife claimed that she was asleep next to him when the attack occurred. No one believed in her statement, she was arrested and was charged on first degree murder.

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  • Gender Differences in Susan Glaspell's Trifles

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    Susan Glaspell's play, "Trifles", attempts to define one of the main behavioral differences between man and woman. For most of the story, the two genders are not only geographically separated, but also separated in thought processes and motive, so that the reader might readily make comparisons between the two genders. Glaspell not only verbally acknowledges this behavioral difference in the play, but also demonstrates it through the characters' actions and the turns of the plot. The timid and overlooked women who appear in the beginning of the play eventually become the delicate detectives who, discounted by the men, discover all of the clues that display a female to be the disillusioned murderer of her (not so dearly) departed husband. Meanwhile, the men in the play not only arrogantly overlook the "trifling" clues that the women find that point to the murderer, but also underestimate the murderer herself. "These were trifles to the men but in reality they told the story and only the women could see that (Erin Williams)". The women seem to be the insightful unsung heroes while the men remain outwardly in charge, but sadly ignorant.

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  • Distinct Understanding on Trifles by Susan Glaspell

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    Susan Glaspell writes Trifles based on a real life murder and introduces the contemporary feminist concerns of identity and the necessity for female support and understanding. In the story, the county attorney, the sheriff and a neighboring farmer go to the isolated, abandoned farmhouse to investigate John Wright’s murder, while the wives of the sheriff and the farmer go along to get some personal belongings for Minnie, who is now in the jail. John Wright is strangled in his bed and his wife, Minnie is the major suspect as she does not wake up when the crime happens. The three men start the search for the clues to a possible motive for the murder with a bumptiously arranged and perfect plan. They laugh at the women’s care on the trifles, which is actually the key point of the crime case. Ultimately, the women find out the truth of the case that the men do not, and decide to hide the evidence as they empathize with the life that Minnie has been living. Trifles by Susan Glaspell features the divergence of principles on judgment between female and male, and highlights the difference in gender and behavior. Mrs. Peter and Mrs. Hale’s empathy, protection for women, and perception of judgment and ethics turn the ending of the play around.

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    In order to understand the main idea of the play, it is important to understand details of the background of the author as it will help to illustrate a possible connection to the play.

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  • Literary Analysis Of Setting In Susan Glaspell's Trifles

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    Trifles is based on a murder in 1916 that Susan Glaspell covered while she was a journalist with the Des Moines Daily News after she graduated from college. At the end of the nineteenth century, the world of literature saw a large increase of female writers. Judith Fetterley believed that there was an extremely diverse and intriguing body of prose literature used during the nineteenth century by American women. The main idea of this type of literature was women and their lives. The reason all of the literature written by women at this time seems so depressing is due to the fact that they had a tendency to incorporate ideas from their own lives into their works. Glaspell's Trifles lives up to this form of literature, especially since it is based on an actual murder she covered. This play is another look at the murder trial through a woman's point of view.

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  • Plot Structure in Susan Glaspell's Trifles

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    The play "Trifles" by Susan Glaspell is a whodunit type of murder mystery. But in this case, the "professionals," whose job it is to find out what happened, failed in their task. The County Attorney (Mr. Henderson) and the Sheriff (Mr. Peters) attempt to piece together what had transpired on the day when John Wright was murdered. They interviewed Mrs. Hale, Mrs. Peters, and Mr. Hale who told them that Mrs. Wright, John's wife, had been acting strange when he had found her in the kitchen. After taking in all of this information, they left Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale in the kitchen.

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  • Susan Glaspell's Trifles - The Sweetness of Revenge

    594 Words  | 2 Pages

    Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles, seems to describe the ultimate women’s suffrage story. No longer will men have an upper hand against women after reading this story. Cleverness will be the key to retaining power from the men in this story. The one thing that woman are criticized for, the idea that women tend to look at the ‘little picture’ instead of the ‘whole picture’, will be there path to victory. Two stories of revenge are told in this story, the revenge of suppression and revenge of being portrayed as ‘unsophisticated, unintelligent’ women. First we have the story of Mrs. Wright and the struggles with her husband, John. Married women throughout history have been portrayed and played the role as being inferior to the husband in marriage. This seems to be the case with Mrs. Wright. Even though John’s public image was somewhat respectable, it was obvious that behind close doors the story was different. There is evidence of abuse in this marriage. First, the discovery of the broken door leads me to conclude that John was very physical and anguished. Second, it is assumed that Mrs. Wrights husband had broke her canary’s neck. The canary, which of course had to be caged, was represented as the old Minnie Foster herself. The canary is a beautiful, free spirited bird that had a sweet voice, as Minnie had at one time. This was the end of the line and ‘Minnie Foster’ was about to be reborn. She would stand up for all those abused and suppressed house wives across the world and makes the first ‘final’ decision she had ever been allowed to make. The bird’s cage was her jail. The bird’s death was her freedom for the fate of the bird was the fate of her husband. John was discovered with a rope tied around his neck, the freedom of a women who could no longer be held down. This was the first implementation of women’s power in the story. The women at Mrs. Wright’s home played an important role in the story as well. The ‘professional’ detectives were busy about the house finding clues to indict Mrs. Wright in the murder case. They ridiculed the women in the house by ‘putting them in their place’ as typical ladies, so worried about small things and useless ordeals. Mrs. Hale noted the stitches in the quilt to be erratically stitched as if something were wrong.

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  • Trifles By Susan Glaspell Literary Analysis

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    In fact, when Mrs. Hale comments that Mrs. Wright was not one for housekeeping, Mrs. Peters replies by saying “Well, I don’t know as Wright had either.” (748). The disheveled state that the house is in, as well as the fact that Mr. Wright is characterized as a hard man who is unwilling to share his part expresses the idea that their marriage was unhappy, and in turn, Mrs. Wright could have motive to harm him. Likewise, when the men leave the women to find clothes for Mrs. Wright, the two discover more possible evidence that the men will shrug off. For example, Mrs. Hale examines some quilt work that Mrs. Wright was working on, and notices that the most recent square is very sloppy compared to the rest of the work on the quilt. Moreover, the fact that they believe she crafted it by knotting is very significant (750). This correlation times closely with Mr. Wright’s time of death, and could indicate as a stressor, which the women can pick up on. Since the men laugh at their seemingly trivial observation, they are close to solving the crime on their

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  • Trifles Title Analysis

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    Susan Glaspell’s Trifles (1916), is a play that accounts for imprisonment and loneliness of women in a patriarchal society. The plot has several instances where women issues are perceived to be mere trifles by their male counterparts. The title is of significant importance in supporting the main theme of the story and developing the plot that leads to the evidence of the mysterious murder. Trifles can be defined as things of less importance; in this story dramatic, verbal and situational irony is used to show how the insignificant trifles lead to a great deal of truth in a crime scene investigation. The title of the story “Trifles” is used ironically to shape the unexpected evidence discovered by women in

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  • Susan Glaspell's Trifles

    1399 Words  | 3 Pages

    The play begins with five characters, Mr. Hale, Mrs. Hale, Mrs. Peters, the Sheriff, and the County Attorney, who arrive at the house of John and Minnie Wright to investigate the death of John Wright. Mrs. Wright is the only suspect so far and is being held in custody. As the men do their investigation, the women also do their own investigation. The men pity the tactics of the women. However, the women end up finding the key evidence.

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  • Trifles

    465 Words  | 1 Pages

    The play, Trifles by Susan Glaspell, it is set in the Wright house. The play starts when the County Attorney Henderson, Sheriff Peters and Mr. Hale together with their wives; Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters entering the abandoned house of Mr. and Mrs. Wright. Everything in the house was in disarray, unwashed dishes, uncooked food and dirty towels on the table. The two women looked disturbed and seemed hesitant to follow the men inside the house. The Sheriff asked Mr. Hale to retell how discovered the death of Mr. Wright.

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  • Critical Analysis Of Trifles

    745 Words  | 2 Pages

    One woman’s Trifles is another man’s clues. The play Trifles, was written by Susan Glaspell based on the murder of John Hossack, which Susan reported on while working as a news journalist for Des Moines Daily News. Susan Glaspell was an American Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, actress, novelist, journalist, and founder of the Provincetown Players. She has written nine novels, fifteen plays, over fifty short stories, and one biography. At 21 she enrolled at Drake University even after the prevailing belief that college make women unfit for marriage. But many don’t know that her work was only published after the death of her husband George Cram Cook. Trifles is an example of a feminist drama. The play shows how male dominance was

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