Sisterhood Scene In Trifles

Sisterhood

Susan Glaspell captures in one act, the restricted breath of women in a society where men are the lawmakers, judges, and of course breadwinners. They are the Country Attorneys and Sheriffs. She is showcasing a classic example of the Separate Sphere’s Ideology and proving how deficient it is in theory. During this time prior to the suffrage movement, a woman’s intellectual capacity is restricted by the dominant male ego, in this case the professional and capable skills of a couple of the characters. The men convinces themselves since they are the law, and that women’s ability to understand and decipher complex issues, such as the murder of Mr. Wright was not possible. The investigators in this play reflecting the Separate Spheres

According to County Attorney Henderson it is because she is not the best homemaker. In this scene, the County Attorney says, “Dirty Towels! Not much of a housekeeper would you say ladies?”(Trifles 982). The women were line by line verbally attacked with words of the three men in the play. Suggesting that nothing in the kitchen was of any importance, women worrying over trifles, and like mentioned before failing in “basic” duties of a wife (Trifle 982). This is also the first time Mrs. Hale vouched for the reasons this was not a matter of poor domesticity traits, rather having a lot to do with appeasing the male ego. She says to the men, “There’s a great deal of work to be done on a farm..Men’s hands aren’t always as clean” (Trifles 982). The remarks of the men are clear in its restriction of what women thinks of as being important, and how they should perform. Although, the scene trivial to the men, it is the very foundation at which the women figured out a likely motive, gathered clues and formed a bond where they step silently into the sphere of the

And while I agree there are many things that were not able to be including due to it being only one act, Susan Glaspell captures the essence of the why’s of the suffragette movement. She brilliantly shines a perfect light on the inner struggles of the dynamics inside a marriage and the struggles of being a married woman. According to the male authority figures, women’s roles cannot be complex because their thoughts are filled with unicorns and rainbows. While the men unlike the women are left to do important things like determine the motive of a woman’s husband. Far from the truth that statement was, Glaspell expounds upon the male ego and how it is their doom in this murder mystery. She elevates the female intellect although in a humorous way above the prejudices against the female sex. Rather than sit and sew in 1916, she created a literary work that unknots the female