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Essay On Trifles By Susan Glaspell

1054 Words5 Pages

In Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles, feminism is a prevalent concept. The need for feminism is portrayed subtly through the relationships between men and women throughout the play. Glaspell displays feminism in Trifles through characterization and comments made by characters. The concept of feminism in the play is profoundly relevant especially when trying to determine the justification for Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters in hiding evidence against Minnie Foster; without the need for equality and respect, the women would have no valid reason to withhold evidence from the men. Glaspell’s depiction of the men in Trifles clearly illustrates the need for equality between the two sexes. She characterizes the men as benevolent sexists. They see the women as dependent upon them, but in all actuality, the men are the ones that are dependent upon the women. They are dependent on the women for many everyday necessities, such as cooking and cleaning, but in terms of the play, Glaspell makes it known that the men are dependent upon the women in …show more content…

Instead, throughout the entire play, there is inequality between the feelings of men and women; by this, male superiority is shown. The men, especially the towns County Attorney, look down on Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters as if they are inferior and their insight is irrelevant, almost as if the women are useless when trying to do anything besides be a homemaker; and even then, they aren't good for much. By keeping the motive they discover to themselves, the women are making a bold statement: their need for equality is more important then the mens’ need to find out why Minnie killed her husband. If not for the inequality between men and woman, and the constant banishment from everyday activities eventually leading to drive Minnie off of the edge, the murder may not have ever

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A trifle is defined as someone or something of little value or importance. Women during the time of 1916 were treated as people of lesser value. In her play Trifles, Susan Glaspell uses symbolism, irony, and characterization to illustrate how men and women are unequal during that particular point in time. The woman overcame the obstacle of the murder case on their own, illustrating how Glaspell’s work challenges the status quo of the society during the time of 1916. Glaspell’s main interest in writing Trifles is to focus on the roles women played during the time.

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Section 1: Introduction Susan Glaspell’s Trifles is a play about the effect of gender differences on perceptions of duty, law, and justice. The play Trifles was a murder mystery that got investigated by the County Attorney (George Henderson), the Sheriff (Henry Peters) along with his wife (Mrs. Peters), and a neighbor farmer (Lewis Hale) with his wife (Mrs. Hale). The story took place in an isolated farm house that was miles from the rest of the community in the Midwest. The victim of this murder mystery was John Wright as he was found dead with a rope around this neck.

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" Trifles" demonstrates the oppressive attitude usually acknowledged among men towards women. In the play, different scene in this play show how men don’t realize the little things that can help in solving this crime events mystery. Most of the play reflect on gender roles and power dynamics together with stereotypes of both men and women. In the play, men are stereotyped as strong and brave, hardworking as they have a professional positions while the women are seeing to be delicate and weak from the beginning of the play.

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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.

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n the play Trifles by Susan Glaspell, she uses many symbols to indicate why Mrs. Wright killed her husband John Wright. While Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale were gathering items to give to Mrs. Wright who was being held in jail, they discovered that Mrs. Wright had a bird that they found dead in a pretty sewing box wrapped in a piece of silk. Mrs. Peters says to Mrs. Hale, “Why, here's a bird-cage. Did she have a bird, Mrs. Hale? ...

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The characters in the play reveal some of the gender stereotypes through the way they are presented in the beginning of the play, “The sheriff and Hale are men in the middle life… They are followed

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Throughout the play, the male characters, including the sheriff and the county attorney, dismiss the women's concerns and belittle their intelligence, referring to them as "trifles. " The attitudes of the males toward the women are a reflection of the gender roles prevalent at the time, where women were commonly considered less important than men and their concerns were frequently disregarded. Ultimately, “Trifles” serves as a powerful piece of the gender roles and power dynamics of the time and highlights the importance of valuing and respecting women's perspectives and

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In the one-act play Trifles by Susan Glaspell, John Wright is found strangled to death in his midwestern farmhouse. Throughout the play, Glaspell suggests that the women are superior than men. Town sheriff Mr. Peters and county attorney Mr. Hale set out to find evidence about the murder in order to bring the killer to justice. The wives of both the men, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale begin their own investigation of the murder themselves. The men of the town make fun of the women for worrying about “women things”, such as an unfinished quilt by Mrs. Wright.

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Susan Glaspell, the playwright of Trifles relays feminist drama in a fascinating and psychological way. This play introduces women helping women in confinement to find freedom. Confinement can tear a woman apart, but the desire for freedom from society is embedded deep in the heart of all strong women. Trifles was written

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Feminism could also be a big part of the play because of the way females are treated back then. In the play, women are portrayed as uptight because of what they say. For example, in act two scene two Helena

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The title is significant to women's rights and feminism. Mr. Hale uses the sentence to degrade women by implying that women only worry over meaningless objects and actions rather that thinking logically. Glaspell is implying that women of her time should not be taken as fools simply because they have different body parts. Women are intelligent beings and through their perspective, many things unknown to a man may present itself. Glaspell knew this and that is why she created this play.

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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.

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Nevertheless, while using the play’s setting to first project the notion that men are superior to women in the society, the actual murder investigations depicted by the play goes to underline that indeed women are not inferior to men. Therefore, while placing the women’s intelligence over that of men, Trifles challenges the typical male-dominated detective story by deviating from the norm of men being superior, women only being good for the kitchen, and women paying attention to unimportant things like a jar of preserves busted. Although the men in the play, Trifles, are depicted most determined to resolve the murder by combing throughout the entire house to discover the clues related to the murder and the motive of the murder, women are keener in observing the small spaces they have been allowed to access. In the

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The play seems to ‘deny the significance, and even, occasionally the presence of the female characters, however, basing vast power on their chastity and fertility while revealing a patriarchal society. A patriarch society is one that is under the control of men. The males are the heads and the masters, the females are the tails and subjects (Dash, 81). In other words, it is a society that takes women as inconsequential people.

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