Repression Of Women In Susan Glaspell's 'Trifles'

Rohan Trivedi

Neeraj Prakash

English 103-AS (17)

26 February 2018

Feminism and repression of Women in Susan Glaspell’s ‘Trifles’ Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles, may not be the best story to read and it may be confusing to some people, but it teaches the reader a great deal about how a women were treated and viewed during the early 1900’s. As the play progresses, Mrs. Wright’s motive for killing her husband becomes more clear and understandable to why she did it. The writer gives the reader an idea of how men and women were treated during that time. In my essay, I will use Susan Glaspell’s feminist approach to demonstrate how Mrs. Wrights murdering of her husband is completely justified and will also explore about the repression of women

Wright has made her throughout their marriage. Minnie did something that no woman had ever done before, she stood up to her husband but at the same time she also stood up for herself. Minnie Wright had no power over herself because of Mr. Wright and when she killed him, it gave her power over herself. Women are just as important as men and they deserve to be treated as such. Mrs. Wright was not treated as such, so her only escape was to kill her husband. Despite the demeaning view of the women by men, ‘Trifles’ shows how women can make a difference during any

During that time in the play resembles, men would ignore the women and push them off to the side because they thought everything a woman said was irrelevant and even today some men still have that same mind set. Also trifles is a thing of little value or importance, which significantly changes between the men and women in this play. The County Attorney and the other men throughout the story thought horribly of Minnie Wright and considered her to be a victim of a terrible crime before even thinking for one second that maybe she killed him for a reason. The men in the play mocked Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters for having sympathy for Minnie. The dead bird is the motive for killing Mr. Wright because Minnie Wright was never really allowed anything of her own and having the bird to keep her company meant a lot to her. The killing of the bird was a way of Minnie getting revenge on her husband for killing the bird, but it was also a way for Minnie to be free. Mrs. Hale infers that when she says “She come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself, real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and fluttery. How did she change?” (Glaspell 780), The change their referring to is because of Mr. Wright. He changed Minnie and it was an involuntary change, which in that time period it was common for a man to change his wife