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Susan Glaspell's Trifles

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Susan Glaspell's "Trifles" is a one act play based in the early 20th century that includes a strong female perspective of society at that time. The play is a murder mystery surrounding the Wrights, Mrs. Wright the wife and suspect, and John Wright the murder victim. We are presented with Mrs. Wright as the suspect of the murder of her husband. The story also uses the general mood of society toward women and how they were viewed as beneath most men and not having the intelligence or ability to perform as well as men in most situations. The play uses characterization, plot development, theme, and symbolism to portray the differences between men and women. The women view the house as a home while the men view it has a nothing more than a crime …show more content…

The inciting incident of the play is the possible murder of Mr. Wright by his wife in their home. This is discovered by a neighbor when he makes a visit to the house. After the detention of Mrs. Wright and the passage of a day, the Sherriff and county attorney return to the house with the neighbor, the neighbor's wife, and the Sherriff's wife. It is clear from the start that we have two views of the scene. The men approach the house in a logical and legal manner asking "has anything been moved? Are things just as you left them yesterday?" (Glaspell 4). The women still view the house as a home that people lived in. This is made clear when the attorney places his hand in some thawed preserve and Mrs. Peters notes the preserve must have frozen and broken the jar along with knowing that Mrs. Wright "worried about that when it turned so cold." (Glaspell 8). Where the women view such knowledge as important the men view such things as "trifles." (Glaspell …show more content…

The men are focused on the material in the house and finding evidence to solve the crime while the women concern themselves with the little things that made the house a home. In one of the great ironies of the play the women remark that they are taking up their time with "with little things while we’re waiting for them to get the evidence" (Glaspell 13). While the men fail to "see" the motive the women discover the evidence the men are looking for because as people know "Evidence, of course, is generally comprised of 'little things'" (Holstein 284). The difference of world views between the men and the women allow the women to discover what the men fail to, all by paying attention the trifles that make up the life of Mrs.

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599 Words | 3 Pages

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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709 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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781 Words | 4 Pages

Symbolism is heavily used to show that specific detail. Initially the title correlates with the dictionary definition. The title demonstrates that the women were trifles and always thought of as lower than the men. In the mind of men, women were just accessories, nothing more than someone who cooks and cleans the house and who doesn’t know anything other than wifely duties. Another solid example of symbolism is Glaspell’s use of the birdcage.

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1795 Words | 8 Pages

This shows the attorney assumed that Mrs. Peters was bound to the law because she is the wife of the sheriff; however, he did not account that women were extremely underrepresented in the government because women could not vote or serve has juries. On the other hand, Mrs. Peters did believe in the laws when she states, “The law has got to punish crime, Mrs. Hale” (Glaspell, 191). This shows that Mrs. Peters strongly believe that the law will punish the crime that the murderer committed. However, Mrs. Hale did hold a different opinion about the law when she saw what Mrs. Wright went through when she married Mr. Wright. Mrs. Hale said, “I wish you’d seen Minnie Foster...

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699 Words | 3 Pages

          As soon as the group enters Mrs. Wright’s home, they notice the first, off-putting clue; the kitchen is a disaster. At the sight of the kitchen,

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796 Words | 4 Pages

In Susan Glaspell's play “Trifles,” there is a difference between the men and women’s way of perceiving evidence to Mr. Wright’s murder case. The men spend most of their time searching for solid evidence upstairs where Mr. Wright's murder takes place. However, the women spend most of their time in Mrs. Wright’s kitchen. Instead of seeking tangible evidence, they inspect the condition of the items and acknowledge how they have been muddled around. Different perspectives lead to a variety of discoveries such as the women’s way of perceiving evidence.

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1454 Words | 6 Pages

" 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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674 Words | 3 Pages

When Mrs. Hale accuses “Men’s hands aren’t always as clean as they might be”, the County Attorney brushes off her concern by saying that she is “loyal to her sex”. Using this blatant disregard of a logical point, Glaspell emphasizes how ridiculous the situation really is. Later in the text, the women go about cleaning up the house as if they cannot help themselves. Mrs. Hale even makes the comment: “Bad sewing always makes me fidgety.” By using degrading language towards the female characters and having everyone, including themselves, disregard them because of their gender, Glaspell forces her readers to feel sympathy for the women and incredulous or upset towards the men.

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1014 Words | 5 Pages

Wright and John Wright. In any crime scene there is a possibility of change through the effort of manmade and social construction, which is why description is very important in any scene. From the similar experiences of the women in the play, they know the truth but hide from the fear of the men who look down upon them. Glaspell cares about the way gender is constructed in the play as well as how the set has been gendered. The men believe that they grant female identity by virtue of the women’s relation to the men rather than through their inherent qualities as females.

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498 Words | 2 Pages

The play takes the reader along the investigation of Mrs. Wright’s house, the crime scene, and gives the reader information that allows the reader to infer that she is guilty. In Trifles, Susan Glaspell uses symbolism and setting to reveal the internal conflicts of Mrs. Wright.

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842 Words | 4 Pages

Equally important is the fact that the action of the story takes place in the kitchen, a space traditionally associated with women and women's work throughout history. Since gender roles and the oppression of females are the central theme of this story, setting the action in the kitchen helps pull us into the female characters' world. This helps us understand why it was easier for the women to find the clues of the murder than the men. If we weren't sympathetic to the women after witnessing the men belittle them and their roles, then being placed in this feminine area pulls us more strongly to the women's side. We can see this subtly in modern times, women are prone to be the “boss” of the house when they do not have a job.

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823 Words | 4 Pages

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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150 Words | 1 Pages

Glaspell’s one-act play is a feminist murder mystery about the murder of John Wright. John Wright is believed to have been murdered by his wife. Throughout the story, county attorney George Henderson and Sheriff Henry Peters are trying to find a possible motive of John Wright’s murder so Mrs. Wright can be tried in court. However, while the men are investigating upstairs, their wives are surveying around the Wright’s house downstairs and find what is believed to be Mrs. Wright’s motive to kill her husband of thirty years. “Trifles” has an obvious approach towards the inequality of women in the legal system when it comes to marriage, divorce, and arrest.

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1001 Words | 5 Pages

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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763 Words | 4 Pages

The play provides both comedic and mournful moments. In the end of the play, it is deeply revealing of the powerful bond the women share. Robert Harling uses conflict, mood, tone, and characters to portray this. The title suggest that women are delicate like

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