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How Does Susan Glaspell Use Irony In Trifles

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Irony is an extremely powerful tool used by writers to persuade a person into feeling a certain type of way. Journalist, novelist, actress, and playwright, Susan Glaspell, makes full use of irony in her play, Trifles, where ignorant men try to solve a murder and leave their wives in the kitchen where they solve it themselves. The title itself is ironic as the men dismiss objects and observations, which become revealed as key pieces of evidence, made by the women because they find it to irrelevant or “trifling”, as the objects mainly pertain to stereotypically feminine subjects. Susan Glaspell’s title of Trifles is ironic because of the dismissal of important “trifles” such as the unfinished quilt, and the broken bird cage along with the dead canary. The quilt at first seems like a regular quilt by both parties. The difference is that the men continue to joke about the quilt as quilting comes across as just a simple woman’s activity to them while the women look further inspect the quilt, and relate back to the suspect, Mrs. Wright. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale notice the quilt has terrible stitching compared to Mrs. Wright’s previous works which were done flawlessly and they begin to discuss this strange occurrence: MRS. HALE. What do you suppose she was so nervous about?
MRS. PETERS. Oh—I don’t know. I don’t know …show more content…

Even if the women themselves do not realize it yet, they have uncovered the first piece of evidence against Mrs. Wright. This pair knows the blood and sweat that went behind quilting and they knew the difference in the stitching. This discussion of the quilt shows how even if the women are not specifically looking for evidence, they are still more perceptive and observant than the men who are searching every inch of the upstairs room where the death took

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In Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles,” there are two significant symbols that give a whole new dimension to the play. First, Glaspell employs the dead bird as a symbolic representation of Mrs. Wright, who used to be known as Minnie Foster before she married Mr. Wright. As a child, Minnie possessed similar qualities of a beautiful of bird called canary. For example, Mrs. Hales states: “She used to wear pretty clothes and be lively, when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls singing in the choir” (Glaspell 1042). Mrs. Wright used to sing in a choir like a songbird and wore pretty clothes just like the elegant feathers of a canary.

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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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Her reasoning, that “bad sewing always made me fidgety” (1085). The women begin to suspect that Mrs. Wright killed her husband, and keep finding clues that support their

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The story opens with Mrs. Wright imprisoned for strangling her husband. A group, the mostly composed of men, travel to the Wright house in the hopes that they find incriminating evidence against Mrs. Wright. Instead, the two women of the group discover evidence of Mr. Wright’s abuse of his wife. Through the women’s unique perspective, the reader glimpses the reality of the situation and realizes that, though it seemed unreasonable at the time, Mrs. Wright had carefully calculated her actions. When asked about the Wrights, one of the women, Mrs. Hale, replies “I don’t think a place would be a cheerful for John Wright’s being in it” (“A Jury of Her Peers” 7).

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Wright’s belongings are incomplete and out of place, particularly in the kitchen. The women find this to be abnormal and begin speculating the significance of these items. During one point in the play, Mrs. Hale notices an uneven stitch in Mrs. Wright’s unfinished quilt. She asks Mrs. Peters, “’what do you suppose she was so nervous about?’” Because of the death of Mr. Wright, Mrs. Hale views the stitching in a suspicious manner.

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Mrs. Hale states, “She was rockin’ back and forth. She had her apron in her hand and was kind of-pleating it” (Glaspell 1081). This allows us to know that Mrs. Wright was still shocked from what happened. It is also seen in her unfinished quilt and her messy kitchen. Her unfinished quilt has many knots in it.

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Robert Steveson once wrote, “In each two natures are at war - good and evil”, highlighting the struggle between good and evil within people. In the short novel In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Mr. Utterson, a lawyer, tries to unravel a mystery of occurrences and connections between a murderous criminal and a renowned doctor. As the story progresses, the complicated relationship between the doctor and the criminal is revealed and exposes the duality of the doctor. In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson emphasizes the duality of man through contrasting emotions of virtue and evil causing internal conflict. In Chapter 3, one can balance good and evil, but oftentimes, one tends to lean toward one side rather than another.

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Gabal Said The Trifles of Society The society holds different realities to act naturally obvious, that all men are made equivalent, and that they are enriched by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that include; liberty, life, and the quest for happiness among others. "Trifles" by Susan Glaspell, is a one-demonstration play, which incorporates components of what the women’s suffrage development is about. The play from Glaspell recounts the tale of a murder riddle of the wedded couple of Mrs. Minnie Wright and her better half, the murder casualty, John Wright; this story likewise joins the temperament of society at the time towards women, and how they were seen as trifled in the eyes of society as they are under the subordinate of men.

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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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The irony that makes Glaspell’s short story very memorable is that the men subjugated the women throughout the entire story, however, the women outsmarted the men and were the ones to solve the murder at the end. I personally found it amusing when the men would rather “…go into [the] upstairs” room and look for incriminating evidence when the evidence was downstairs with the women (Glaspell 368). These series of ironic events caused me to enjoy the short story more because it made me interested in the plot and it showed how ignorant the men could be which make the story very memorable. I also enjoyed the ironic twist at the end and how the plot worked out by allowing the women to piece the trifles such as the dead canary, the jars and the quilt together to solve the murder. The irony of this story also taught me a important lesson to never underestimate anyone because like the women in this short story they are smarter than

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The men also take light of the small details that the women take note of, in particular as to how Mrs. Wright was contemplating the construction of the quilt. As the women converse and share experiences of their own and those of Mrs. Wright, they begin to form

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In the short story, “The Open Window”, author Saki (H.H. Munro) uses multiple types of irony to elaborate the sense of the mood to readers. Saki uses dramatic irony, verbal irony, and situational irony to show the differences between the characters’ mindsets and personalities. Using different types of irony in stories makes one able to better understand multiple viewpoints of the characters. Dramatic irony is when the reader comprehends what is going on in the story or knows something the characters do not. An example of dramatic irony is shown in context where Mrs. Sappleton waits for her family to come home.

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Mrs. Wright’s quilt is evidence that she is angry or nervous. The quilt has a “‘log-cabin pattern’” and is quilted nicely, but the last few stitches are not. It “‘Looks as if she didn’t know what she was about.’” This difference in sewing shows a sudden change in mood or thought process. When nervous or angry people tend not to care as much about what they are doing and can even be aggressive.

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(kicks his foot against the pans under the sink) Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?” (Meyer 1389). In an ironic turn, the audience knows that the women have solved the murder mystery while the men remain oblivious of the truth because of their assumptions. The two women end up identifying with Minnie Wright’s abuse at the hands of her husband and feel the murder was justified. They then conspire to conceal the truth from their ignorant husbands and the County Attorney.

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