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Trifles By Susan Glaspell: Sisterhood Empowers Women

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Recommended: Glaspell’s play, trifles gender role

Sherilyn Rudney
English 110
Essay #3 Drama

Sisterhood Empowers Women
Rural American women were usually depicted as oppressed, and marginalized women without a voice, and were controlled by the men around them. However, Susan Glaspell set out to dispel that myth and looked to stand for the trials and hardships of the women in rural America who were isolated and forgotten by society. Glaspell amassed a fortune of women ensuring that they would form the bond of sisterhood that would be necessary to overcome the prosecutory oppressions that plagued women in the 19th century. The only way women can overcome oppression is with the help of fastidious women who form bonded sisterhoods that empower oppressed women.
Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles (1916), …show more content…

Hale and Mrs. Peters have found the real problem and understand through their own experiences that there is deeper psychological issue at hand, before Mrs. Wright married, she was Minnie Foster and described by Mrs. Hale as a woman who “used to wear pretty clothes and be lively.” (Glaspell 1257). This shows that there was a psychological shift after she married Mr. Wright. She no longer sang and was confined to the house with an abusive husband, Mrs. Wirght felt into a depression. Mrs. Hale remarks that Mrs. Wright felt bad about her appearance, “You don’t enjoy things when you feel shabby.” (Glaspell 1258). Subsequently, Mrs. Hale feels guilty for ignoring Mrs. Wright leaving her alone and isolated without any friends, “I wish I had come over sometimes when she was here.” (Glaspell 1259). Glaspell has successfully captured the sympathy of the audience. We see Mrs. Wright as an abused women who has been hopelessly defeated by her abusive husband, and Mrs., Hales feelings of guilt and remorse are shared by most …show more content…

It is incredible to think that women in the 19th century would be paired with men, and then perform this play in a domestic space that was defined as a designation for all women at that time. Glaspell wanted to cut the apron strings and empower women by exposing the patriarchy for what it was. She wanted women to know that they were not bound or limited to the confines of domestic servitude; women were capable of holding a sacred space and did not need to live out their lives in the confines of a

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