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Gender Roles In Poof ! And Susan Glaspell's Trifles

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Lynn Nottage's Poof! and Susan Glaspell's Trifles share themes of spousal abuse and gender roles. The plays are strikingly similar when it comes to their themes and the way they are conveyed yet they are set nearly 100 years apart. Poof! is set in the present and relies on the conversation of two women. Trifles is set in the early 20th century and involves two women and two men investigating a murder. Both plays reveal their themes of spousal abuse and gender roles by their setting of the kitchen, and show that gender roles have not changed in the last hundred years.
Both plays take place in the kitchen which affirm the theme of gender roles in America throughout the plays. For example, in the play Poof!, the dialogue clearly conveys this:
LOUREEN. Chicken’s warming in the oven, you’re welcome to stay.
FLORENCE. Chile, I got a pot of rice on the stove, kids are probably acting out…and Edgar well…Listen, I’ll stop in tomorrow.
LOUREEN. For dinner?
FLORENCE. Edgar wouldn’t stand for that. Cards maybe. (Nottage 1567)
Clearly from the dialogue, Florence does not have a say in the decisions that are made for the family. She would have to go to her husband Edgar who has all the power in making decisions. Furthermore, Edgar expects the food to be ready when he gets home from work. This theme of gender …show more content…

She is taught to keep a smile on her face even though she is being abused by her husband and treated unfairly. Similarly, Minnie has to deal with abuse and that causes her to lose her cheerful and energetic attitude. Mrs Hale adds, "She used to sing. He killed that, too," (Glaspell 6). Although these plays are nearly 100 years apart, they both reveal themes of gender roles and the silencing of women. Still today women are often shunned by men and spousal abuse is still something dealt with today with women being on the receiving end of abuse more often than

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