“You’re only a man! You’ve not our gifts! I can tell you! Why, a woman can think of a hundred different things at once, all them contradictory! —Georgette Heyer. In the article "Silent Justice in a Different Key: Glaspell's 'Trifles'" by Suzy Clarkson Holstein, Holstein emphasizes the differences between the male and female perspectives from the occurring events in the play "Trifles.” Today it is evident that men and females think very differently. Males think based on their motor skills and females base their thoughts on their intuition and emotions. In the play "Trifles" the opening scene introduces the sheriff, Mr. Peters, and an attorney, Mr. Henderson, who are investigating the stone-cold murder of John Wright, who was strangled to death. Mr. Hale, who is a witness, his wife, Mrs. Hale and Mr. Peters wife Mrs. Peter who are also introduced to the audience as they were gathering belongings to bring to Mrs. Wright to jail. During this investigation the prime and only suspect is John Wright’s wife, who claims she did not kill her husband. As soon as the characters are introduced in the play it is noticeable both the male and female gender have a role, the men must go find evidence and the females need to make themselves at home and keep to themselves. As the play moves along the males find evidence based on what seems evident and …show more content…
Talking about Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters “the two characters begin to reconstruct the accused woman’s life. They do so through several means; memories of her, memories of their own lives (similar to hers in many ways), and speculation about her feelings and responses to the conditions of her life” (Holstein 283.) The two women immediately placed themselves in Minnie Wrights position. And while reconstructing Mrs. Wright life based on their own memories and emotions they acknowledge the murders missing clue “Minnie’s dead pet bird” (Holstein
Three women, Minnie Wright, Martha Hale, and Mrs. Peters express sisterhood by hiding of incriminating evidence such as the dead bird while the men fail to prove of her complicity. This essay focuses on themes of sisterhood and gender roles, and the passiveness that manifests in the process of gathering evidence. The theme of Sisterhood. As the plot unfolds to ascertain the murder of John Wright, Mrs. Hale says, “it looked very lonesome this cold morning, it had always been a lonesome place” (Glaspell, 1992), while referring to the house of Minnie Wright.
Mr. Hale and his son, Harry, went upstairs and found the body in the bed with a rope around his neck. Alarmed, Mr. Hale told Harry to go to call the police through a telephone across the road while he stayed behind at the Wright's’ residence. The police then arrived to the scene of the crime and took Minnie into custody. We are here today to prove that Minnie Wright is guilty of the premeditated murder of her husband, John Wright. We have evidence that proves that Minnie Wright had motivation to kill her
Minnie’s quilt, the dead bird and its cage, and the kitchen show that living in a man’s world is not easy. In the end, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale recognize that they too have experienced the same loneliness and mistreatment that led Mrs. Wright to murder her husband. The men don't value the women in this story and they don't see them as being very intelligent either. It is for this reason “A jury of her peers” is created. Peers being the women themselves as they stand up, united against the subjugation they have all experienced.
To begin, when hale arrives in salem his books show how much he knows about witchcraft. As the play progress he starts to notice that the events in salem are not witchcraft. He notices that it is just people accusing other people they do not like. Next, Hale goes into salem confident it is witchcraft. When hale arrives in salem, he believes the girls and what they are saying about witchcraft and the people they are accusing.
Knowing all of this, Hale becomes desperate to have Elizabeth save her husband and even wishes for him to sin in order to continue living as a role model for the people of Salem. Hale recognizes the significance of each accused on a personal level and he cannot bear to see them suffer for a crime they did not
The play “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell is largely based on stereotypes. The most prevalent one explores the difference between gender roles. Glaspell exerts the repression of women in the 1900s. During that time, women were highly looked down upon by men, and were only seen as the housekeepers and child bearers. This example is displayed throughout the play with the men, however, the women in this play prove that the stereotypes of gender roles held against them are completely wrong, which is shown through the characters, set design, and symbolism.
There is no question that women have struggled over many years to be seen as equals by their male counterparts. Years of struggle and oppression continued throughout time, but the oppression took different forms over the course of history. Susan Glaspell wrote, “Trifles” which explores a woman’s status in society during the 1920s and the political leanings that perverted society at the time. The play demonstrates how women were subjected to mental abuse and viewed as intellectually inferior as dictated by American society and politics. “Trifles” exposes how political leanings in the government favored and enabled a patriarchal society as well as displaying how the Women’s Rights movement was beginning to combat these prejudices.
She sees it as vital information; something that could present them with Mrs. Wright’s state of mind around the time of her death. Mrs. Hale is currently mending the quilt when Mrs. Peters asks where she might “’find a piece of paper, and string.’” This leads Mrs. Peters to discover the empty birdcage inside of the cupboard. Instantly, they both start asking one another questions regarding the cage; they are unable to recall Mrs. Wright ever owning a bird. While talking back and forth, they notice that one of the door’s hinges is broken.
He caused her to be lonely and that caused her to go a little crazy. This madness is what made her feel no sympathy when she realized John was dead. These actions are what led Hale and Peters to come to the result of she killed her own husband. However, the attorney didn’t realize the radical alteration in her personality like Mrs. Hale did, only because he did not know Minnie Foster when she was beautifully happy and full of life. This is evident in the short story when the attorney refers to her as Mrs. Wright and Mrs. Hale
" Adversely, the story doesn't leave much for the reader to decide how to feel, it almost tells one how to feel because the detail is so engaging. That was just the point that Glaspell was trying to make though when she decided to turn the play into a story. It was the story, rather than her play, that drove her message home; the pursuit of justice for women in a man's
The one-act play, “Trifles,” by Susan Glaspell, has several themes that are incorporated within it. There are several dominant ideas such as female identity, patriarchal dominance, isolation, and justice are themes that are all reflected in different ways throughout the play; however, gender is the main theme of “Trifles.” There is a considerable difference between the roles of the men and the women in this play. The men are expected to act in a more controlling, dominant way, while the women are expected to act in the typical ‘housekeeper’ fashion. The theme of gender is brought out through the play in many dramatic elements such as character, tone, and dramatic irony.
Trifles the Challenge The play, Trifles, places both men and women in sharp contrast to one another in relationship to their roles and social position in the society. While men occupy the important positions such as the Sherriff and the county attorney, women are basically attributed to no more than playing domestic roles. Indeed, even in the investigation of Mr. Wright’s murder, men are playing the core role of investigators while women are simply left in the kitchen to play the minor of collecting things requested by Mrs. Wrights. The social stereotypes of men playing important roles than women in the society is set and advanced by the setting of the play.
Quen Head Comp 2 11:30 Literary Analysis “Trifles” Gender Roles Everyone around the world has a mindset that certain genders have certain rules in relationships and everyday life. The author, Susan Glaspell, showed many ways in the story “Trifles” how males can look at things in a different perspective than women sometimes do. For generations, women have fought for power and rights, one of the biggest events in history is The Women’s Rights’ Movement starting in 1848 and going on for years until 1920 when the 19th amendment that granted American women the right to vote. Throughout history the fight between women and men has been a long process from rights, to gender specific roles in career, pay, and equality.
He killed that too”, which is an exact representation of how women were inferior, muted, and defused (“A Jury of Her Peers 1643). Because the women felt so inferior to the men, they never spoke up when they found the dead bird which explained that Minnie Foster was the murder of John Wright. Another reason for this action was that Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters felt united as women due to their social status and situation. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale chose to hide the dead bird and not to disclose the actual murder clues and details they found as it was their moral duty as
Peters and the play begins. It is a large change to differ the characters from Glaspell’s original idea. Mrs. Hale is referred to as “married to the law” (Glaspell 989) by the County Attorney because she is the Sheriff's wife. Because a large part of the show is done without the men in the room the characterization of these two women are very clear, and very different. Mrs. Hale is very quick to talk against the men, when they are not around.