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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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