Trusting Trifles:
Perspective and Unity in “Trifles”

“Trifles” by Susan Glaspell follows the story of Mrs. Wright through a murder investigation that she is being committed for. Through the personal investigation conducted by the women in the play, the reader gets an inside perspective of the domestic woman and what may have caused her to murder her husband. Throughout the story the women in the play deal with discrimination by the male characters who do not understand the perspective and troubles of a domestic woman. Their interests are treated as seemingly insignificant compared to the men’s work for the investigation despite the importance of the details they discover about Mrs. Wright’s life with her husband. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are able to unify as the play develops, allowing them to dismiss biases and assumptions. Gender roles within a household lead to the placement of the characters within the play. In a standard farmhouse during this time period, it was common for women to do the domestic work while men worked out in the farm and took care of other masculine duties that did not deal with cooking or cleaning. For this reason, the common place for domestic women would be stereotypically located in the kitchen where most of the cooking and cleaning would be done. Because of these stereotypes of gender roles within society, the women in the play are strategically placed in the kitchen for majority of the play. The men on the other hand go about their business