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Susan Glaspell's Trifles

750 Words3 Pages

In the one-act play Trifles by Susan Glaspell, John Wright is found strangled to death in his midwestern farmhouse. Throughout the play, Glaspell suggests that the women are superior than men. Town sheriff Mr. Peters and county attorney Mr. Hale set out to find evidence about the murder in order to bring the killer to justice. The wives of both the men, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale begin their own investigation of the murder themselves. The men of the town make fun of the women for worrying about “women things”, such as an unfinished quilt by Mrs. Wright. However, the two women investigating the murder use their women like views on evidence to help them piece together the murder. The ladies discover that John Wright had killed a pet canary and that he had neglected and mentally abused Mrs. Wright for years. The women come to the conclusion that what Mrs. Wright’s action were justified for. Feeling sorrow for what Mrs. Wright had to go through, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale hide the evidence in order to protect Mrs. Wright from being convicted. Trifles is seen as a feminist drama because it displays the cleverness and wit that both Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters had in solving a murder while both their husbands were portrayed as men who were unable to perform at the rate their wives did. Although there were some similarities, the men and the women in the one-act play Trifles contrasted greatly …show more content…

While both the women and the men in Trifles use different viewpoint on the solving of the murder, they both share the ambition to solve it. Both Mr. and Mrs. Peters and Mr. and Mrs. Hale shared the drive to have a criminal face the justice that they deserve, until Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters begin to sympathize with the suspect. However, other than these few similarities, the men and the women in Trifles severely

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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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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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1795 Words | 8 Pages

In addition, the men also made a claim of “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles” (Glaspell, 187). This shows the men in the play was stereotyping the women’s roles because they assumed that women only worry about the smaller things around the house. However, the women did agree that their role in society was very strenuous. In the Trifles, Mrs. Hale said, “There’s a great deal of work to be done on the farm” (Glaspell, 187). This quote suggests that the women agreed that their duty was mostly domestic work like taking care of the farm and the house and they also defended Mrs. Wright by saying that it takes a lot of effort to keep the farm neat and clean.

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699 Words | 3 Pages

Mrs. Wright is the main character in Susan Glaspell’s one-act play Trifles. While Mrs. Wright is being held by the police for her husband’s murder, a few men go to investigate her home, and a few women go along to gather some of her things to bring to her in jail. As the ladies collect Mrs. Wright’s possessions, they begin to come across trifles. The trifles include: a messy kitchen, a poorly sewn quilt, and a broken bird cage with a missing bird. The women view these items as important clues, and withhold their findings from the men so that they could help Mrs. Wright out of her troubles.

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1006 Words | 5 Pages

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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230 Words | 1 Pages

In the article we see that a total negative can be turned in to a positive. I lured that this land all of the water is particle like acid and if you were to step in it to long you would start to decompose in to the water. Even if you were to get in to the water It would feel like you were being boiled a like because it is 125 degrees outside. The place would be so hot would die because of heat exertion.

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1577 Words | 7 Pages

The audience is constantly trying to figure out if Minnie actually killed John, more than if John abused Minnie. Because of this, “Trifles” is distracting and thinking about the murder takes attention away from the theme of abuse, while “POOF!” is directed on the abuse and what to do with her husband’s ashes the whole time. By staying on the topic of abuse and clearly laying it out, the audience can learn about domestic abuse and genuinely understand the meaning behind the

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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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691 Words | 3 Pages

The women began to pity Mrs. Wright as they knew her before she married to Mr. Wright. The females felt pity, where the men just accessed the situation at hand. After the women examine the empty bird cage they remember the way that Mrs. Wright use to sing and compared her to her former self as Minnie Foster. “Trifles,” introduced the masculinity here from the Sheriff’s side instantly putting his instinct into saying that there was a murder that happened at the farmhouse, was caused by Mrs. Wright without any hesitation. He didn’t look into the sadness, or let the depressing home get to him as much as what his intentions and his well-being come into play before his

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1014 Words | 5 Pages

The play “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell is largely based on stereotypes. The most prevalent one explores the difference between gender roles. Glaspell exerts the repression of women in the 1900s. During that time, women were highly looked down upon by men, and were only seen as the housekeepers and child bearers. This example is displayed throughout the play with the men, however, the women in this play prove that the stereotypes of gender roles held against them are completely wrong, which is shown through the characters, set design, and symbolism.

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570 Words | 3 Pages

“Trifles” by Susan Glaspell The play “Trifles” written by Susan Glaspell is a mysterious piece of writing that many may have enjoyed and left with some questions in their mind. When readers are left with questions, it shows that the audiences actually paid attention throughout the whole play. The play is about a mysterious crime investigation where a woman named Minnie Wright killed her husband, John Wright.

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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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1070 Words | 5 Pages

Women did not have the right to vote yet, they were expected to act a certain way, where “respectability, then, included a set of ideas, normative values, and behavioral codes,” (Hickey) and men dominated all aspects of society, except for taking care of the children and the home. Just as at this period of time, the men in the play consider themselves superior, and leave them to their domain in the kitchen. Yet it is in the kitchen where the evidence of the motive for the murder is found, the one place the men never investigate, and it is the women who find the

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1001 Words | 5 Pages

Trifles the Challenge The play, Trifles, places both men and women in sharp contrast to one another in relationship to their roles and social position in the society. While men occupy the important positions such as the Sherriff and the county attorney, women are basically attributed to no more than playing domestic roles. Indeed, even in the investigation of Mr. Wright’s murder, men are playing the core role of investigators while women are simply left in the kitchen to play the minor of collecting things requested by Mrs. Wrights. The social stereotypes of men playing important roles than women in the society is set and advanced by the setting of the play.

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1054 Words | 5 Pages

Glaspell’s depiction of the men in Trifles clearly illustrates the need for equality between the two sexes. She characterizes the men as benevolent sexists. They see the women as dependent upon them, but in all actuality, the men are the ones that are dependent upon the women. They are dependent on the women for many everyday necessities, such as cooking and cleaning, but in terms of the play, Glaspell makes it known that the men are dependent upon the women in

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