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Trifles By Susan Glaspell Research Paper

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Title
A trifle is an object that is of little to no value. In Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles, the reader is shown the true value of these trifles. Throughout the play, it is shown how Mrs. Wright was isolated from others because of her husband. There are many different themes that one can look at through this play. In Trifles, by Susan Glaspell, gender roles are one of the top themes throughout the play.
Susan Glaspell was known for her contributions to two feminist organizations: Heterodoxy and the Lucy Stone League in 1914. The Heterodoxy organization was known for being an unorthodox group. Susan Glaspell helped contribute to this group because she wrote The Verge. The Verge, is one of Gaspell’s first full-length plays. The other feminist organization Glaspell was a member of is the Lucy Stone League. This group had a motto, “A wife should no more take her husband’s name than he should hers” (DBpedia). Through Glaspell’s plays and stories, she expresses gender roles, and how they impacted society.
Gaspell wrote this play at the height of the Women’s Suffrage Movement (Euylul). It is also noted that Gaspell was inspired to write this play after being a journalist during a murder …show more content…

Hale and Mrs. Peters, in a position where they discover what actually happened to Mr. Wright before the men of the story do. They discover this through the so-called “trifles” that women worry about. As the story moves forward, you can see the pieces of evidence begin to line up. First, the ladies walk around her kitchen and talk about how Mrs. Wright was Minnie Foster. This was before she was married to Mr. Wright. The ladies describe Minnie Foster with the following, “She used to wear pretty clothes and be lively, when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls singing in the choir” (1202). After Minnie married Mr. Wright, her bright personality faded and she did not participate in the Ladies Aid and did not talk to many

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When Mrs. Hale and her friend, Mrs. Peters, stumbled upon the evidence, they knew they couldn’t let the sheriff see it. They determined that it was right to hide it because they believed Minnie was the

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Hale and Mrs. Peters feel bad for Minnie and sympathize with her so they decide that they will hide the evidence of the murder of her husband. When Mrs.Hale and Mrs.Peters are getting ready to leave the house, they decided to take the evidence that would out Minnie in jail, “With a rush forward, she threw back the quilt pieces, got the box tried to put it in her handbag. It broke she could not touch the bird. She stood helpless, foolish” (Glaspell 299). When it was time to leave the house, Mrs. Hale and Mrs.Peters were taking the evidence that would put Minnie in jail because they saw the emotional abuse that Mr. Wright put her through.

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In Susan Glaspell 's Trifles, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are the primary characters that act out against social norms. An unseen character in the play; Mrs. Wright was one of the prime suspects in the case of her

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The diction of the play helps to advance the plot and the theme of this play immensely. The word choice between the genders is different; the women sound more educated whenever the men aren’t around. This goes to show that women were only expected to speak if they didn’t sound nearly as intelligent as the men did. Glaspells use of this gives the reader the impression that the women don’t even want to be speaking properly, for fear of rebuke from their spouse. The author’s use of diction helps us to understand the women and their importance in the society at the time.

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He caused her to be lonely and that caused her to go a little crazy. This madness is what made her feel no sympathy when she realized John was dead. These actions are what led Hale and Peters to come to the result of she killed her own husband. However, the attorney didn’t realize the radical alteration in her personality like Mrs. Hale did, only because he did not know Minnie Foster when she was beautifully happy and full of life. This is evident in the short story when the attorney refers to her as Mrs. Wright and Mrs. Hale

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The plays, "Trifles" by Susan Glasspell and "A Doll 's house" by Henrick Ibsen portray the way women were treated throughout the nineteenth century using the literary tool of symbolism. In Susan Glaspell 's "Trifles" she uses the bird cage and the dead bird to present the role and life of women in marriage and society, whereas Henrik Ibsen uses the dollhouse as a way for the reader to recognize the plays main similarities in the treatment of women. Even though the women in these plays share different lifestyles, they all face the same issues in their lives. In "trifles" Mr. And Mrs. Wright 's relationship can be described as abusive and lifeless.

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Mrs. Peters has realized the cold reality that Minnie Wright had no other option, but instead of telling the truth she says, “We don’t know who killed him, we don’t know” (16).Towards the closing of the crime scene, they all come down stairs. Mr. Hale goes to look after the horses, the sheriff and the court attorney enter another room for a brief moment, and Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are alone in the kitchen. In that moment, “… she threw back the quilt pieces, got the box,…(18) Mrs. Peters, the wife of the sheriff and a woman that the attorney asked if she’d even know a clue if she came upon it, “knotted” this case, but didn’t the way she would’ve if she still had the same mindset as

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Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are hiding the main evidence from the Sheriff and county attorney; for instance, the canary. Without this key evidence they will have no reason to blame Mrs. Wright for her husband's death. At this point in the passage, the women are still in the kitchen conversing, while the men are going all over the house looking for clues, only to see the already discovered body. The women are not sure what to do with Mrs. Wright’s bird, but they now know that Mrs. Wright did in fact kill her husband. “Martha Hale snatched the box from the sheriff's wife, and got it in the pocket of her big coat just as the sheriff and the county attorney came back into the kitchen.”

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Later on in the story, a quilt that Minnie Foster had been working on was found unfinished. Mrs. Hale had the kind idea for Mrs. Peters to take in the unfinished quilt with her when she brings in a few of Minnie’s personal belongings to take her mind off of

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Wright’s belongings are incomplete and out of place, particularly in the kitchen. The women find this to be abnormal and begin speculating the significance of these items. During one point in the play, Mrs. Hale notices an uneven stitch in Mrs. Wright’s unfinished quilt. She asks Mrs. Peters, “’what do you suppose she was so nervous about?’” Because of the death of Mr. Wright, Mrs. Hale views the stitching in a suspicious manner.

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In this section of Drama and Dramatic Poetry, my English class read “Trifles” and “POOF!”. “Trifles” is a one-act play that is dramatic and serious. In this play, the husband, John Wright, was found strangled with a rope in his bedroom and all of the evidence points to his wife, Minnie Foster. The question explored throughout the play is why she killed him. The story hints that she was a victim of domestic violence, but the audience cannot be absolutely sure because it does not outright say it.

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and I understand?” (Glaspell, 17), which is why they try to hide the evidence at the end. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters know why Minnie killed her husband because they too live in similar households, but the men leading the investigation will not because they are blind to what they do to the women around them. The men continue to throw jabs at the ladies not even knowing the women they are making fun of had just found everything they needed to send Minnie to jail,

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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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Talking about Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters “the two characters begin to reconstruct the accused woman’s life. They do so through several means; memories of her, memories of their own lives (similar to hers in many ways), and speculation about her feelings and responses to the conditions of her life” (Holstein 283.) The two women immediately placed themselves in Minnie Wrights position. And while reconstructing Mrs. Wright life based on their own memories and emotions they acknowledge the murders missing clue “Minnie’s dead pet bird” (Holstein

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The Women Can women who lead very different lives be similar? Susan Glaspell explores the differences and similarities of two characters in her story “Trifles.” Written in 1916, Glaspell’s fictional story uses an unforeseen event to bring Mrs. Hale, a farmer’s wife, and Mrs. Peters, a sheriff’s wife, together. Although Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters have their differences such as Mrs. Hale being outspoken, observant, and a leader, while Mrs. Peters is nervous and does not want to challenge authority, the women share some similarities such as being aware of male condescension and willing to keep information from male authorities if it means helping another woman.

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