“The thing women have yet to learn is that nobody gives you power, you just take it.” (Rosanne Barr a feminist.) Susan Glaspell’s careful use of diction, symbolism and irony in the story Trifles creates a challenge to the status quo in today’s society. Back in early 1900s, around the time Glaspell wrote the play, males dominated society. Women were being deprived of their natural rights, and were limited on professional occupations opportunities. Society was provincial to the actions of women during this time, Women were stereotyped to do the usual “Woman’s job” of being a housewife, pleasing the man, and taking care of the children. The first literary technique used in Glaspell’s novel Trifles is the irony. The title of this play, Trifles …show more content…
“She—come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself—real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and—fluttery.” (1901). The women who visit the Wright home after the murder of Mr. Wright notice an empty bird cage and recall that Mrs. Wright had owned a song bird. The women observe that the door of the cage is broken and the hinge has been pulled off; Mrs. Hale observes that someone was “rough with it,” which suggests the motive of the crime. When the women discover the dead bird wrapped up in a piece of fine silk in Mrs. Wright’s sewing box, they piece these clues together and discover the reason why Mrs. Wright killed Mr. Wright. The broken hinge can mean broken dreams in the sense of whenever Mrs. Wright was happy or looking forward to something in her life, her husband took that away from her. This could be one of the reasons Mrs. Wright felt justified in killing in her husband. The broken hinge on the birdcage can also symbolize freedom. The door was open, and the bird, at first, we are led to believe, flew away, that it got to leave and be free and happy. Now, that Mrs. Wright was rid of her husband, she now had that same option of being free to enjoy a life that was taken away from her. This birdcage being all rusted and broken shows the audience that nothing in the house was good, and everything that happened to this woman was