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Women In Susan Glaspell's Trifles

338 Words2 Pages

A woman labeled with various nicknames by her husband may not seem like nothing to an outsider. Two women attempting to locate clues regarding their neighbor and a malicious crime is something that any friend would do. Both stories appear to be nothing out of the ordinary. That is, until these females decide to do what they feel is best and are antagonized for stepping foot in the direction of their choice rather than one that is laid out for them to follow. Nora, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are all women that appear as being feeble minded and docile as opposed to the male characters within the plays. All of these women go through various lengths to prove that they are not what they appear, they have transcended from being the fragile creatures they are labeled as and how they have become a better and stronger person because of their events. These are not the easiest changes; however, they are those that require recognition as it shows a transitioning person that is able to see their true purpose in life. …show more content…

The men were the ones that took care of the financial aspect of living. Mrs. Wright, a friend Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, is being held accountable for the murder of her husband. They have taken the time to visit her house to locate some things for her while she is incarcerated. The women immediately sense something is amiss when they enter the house and see things that are out of place. However, the County Attorney, Mr. Hale and the Sheriff, decide to forego what the women have seen and draw their own conclusions about the scenario. The men simply dismiss their notions on the basis that they are women and could not have such intellect to be able to point out what could have gone wrong in the house prior to their

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The author, Arthur Miller, uses these women to suggest that reputations during this time were extremely important and if tarnished could ruin lives. One woman with the most pristine reputation is Elizabeth Proctor. She is an admirable character throughout the play. Elizabeth is a very moral person and believes in

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Gender plays a very crucial role in both of these stories. In Trifles, the men were criticizing Mrs.’s Wrights work and kept complaining about how dirty her kitchen was. When Ms hale tried to defend her, the attorney’s respond by saying, “Ah, loyal to your sex, I see”. Both women, Mrs hale and Mrs peters were very agitated by how the men were talking behind Mr’s Wrights back and when they found the quilt and asked if she was going to knot it or quilt it, the men were laughing at them. Also, when Mrs peters told the men that Mrs. writers was worried about her fruits , the sheriff responded by saying how a women is held for killing someone and the only thing she is worried about is her fruits.

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          As soon as the group enters Mrs. Wright’s home, they notice the first, off-putting clue; the kitchen is a disaster. At the sight of the kitchen,

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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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Bob Ewell throughout the novel always was a very evil character. On page 320, “ Mr Robert Ewell asked Mr. Gilmer. That’s my name cap’n. Bob Ewell acts like the trial does not mean nothing and does not take it seriously. Also Bob Ewell was very mad when Atticus had exposed his anger issues to the jury.

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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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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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In Shakespearean plays, women are shown as dynamic individuals with potent messages about moral norms and just rights. Shakespeare presents his understanding on the “essence” of femininity through a character known as Beatrice in his play titled Much Ado About Nothing. Beatrice developed her façade that is presented in the beginning of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing through, what is referenced as, past experience. Beatrice left her façade behind and expressed her true self through Hero and Ursula’s cunning trick that taunted her to supposedly marry Benedick.

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In “The Fair Jilt,” Miranda’s character is a manipulative and ill-natured woman whose behaviors connect her to the traditional view of women being innately evil. Behn’s presentation of a woman who conforms to stereotypical behaviors is puzzling considering the grave need for women writers who tell their stories and demonstrate that women cannot be defined by stereotypes. Despite the appearance of Behn accepting these harmful stereotypes, her use of them allows her to reveal the underlying factors that cause women to “misbehave” and results in them being characterized as villains. In early literature, stories about women who swindle ignorant men for societal advancement or women who cuckold their husbands are often used to define all women

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The setting takes place the majority of the time in the kitchen of Mrs. Wrights home which is described as “dirty” and “gloomy”. The men see the dirty and gloomy kitchen as a sign that Mrs. Wright wq as a bad housekeeper, which in their mind translates to her being a bad woman in general. “Dirty towels! Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies? There’s a great deal of work to be done on a farm…

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Throughout the play Triffles, The men were the ones who were searching the house looking for clues or evidence of motives for the murder of Mr.Wright allegedly killed by Mrs. Wright. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters were preset during the investigation but were not supposed to be a part of it. They just came along to be observer. This was because men were suppose to be the superior gender that handled everything in life. Even though the women were just suppose to be observers, they changed from the character of just observing and began to fiddle through some items and took notice of some small details in the house.

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Elizabeth Cary’s The Tragedy of Mariam makes many valid points about women’s identities in marriage. Mariam’s choices throughout the play reflect her understanding of the fact that in the world she lives there is no space for a chaste, honest, independent woman. The standards that a woman of the time are impossible and Mariam’s attempts to grapple with them are doomed to fail. After experiencing the freedom of self expression afforded to her after she believes her husband has died she is unwilling to re-enter the position of a subordinate.

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Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen was highly criticized for undeniably demonstrating woman’s issues in the 19th century. While the play doesn’t change setting much at all, Ibsen clearly focuses in on the characterization of three insightful characters: Mrs. Linde, Nora, and Helmer. Mrs. Linde is a minor character; however, that doesn’t alter her effect on the play. She provides the mold for the perfect, idealized wife. Nora, the main character, develops rapidly in the play, and her character is a stark contrast to Mrs. Linde.

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The county attorney’s opening line of the play indicates that women once considered frail, weak, and simple minded, by needing an invite to the warmth of the fire. After finding the mess of fruit in the cupboard, the conversation, by the men, regarding what women worry about and the comment about Mrs. Wright not being a housekeeper demonstrates the role of women as only homemakers. Further, into the story, the men laughing at the sheriff’s comment about the finishing of the quilt reinforce the men’s attitude about the role women played. These are examples of how the men overlooked minor details of Mrs. Wright’s life that would have assisted them in

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Nevertheless, while using the play’s setting to first project the notion that men are superior to women in the society, the actual murder investigations depicted by the play goes to underline that indeed women are not inferior to men. Therefore, while placing the women’s intelligence over that of men, Trifles challenges the typical male-dominated detective story by deviating from the norm of men being superior, women only being good for the kitchen, and women paying attention to unimportant things like a jar of preserves busted. Although the men in the play, Trifles, are depicted most determined to resolve the murder by combing throughout the entire house to discover the clues related to the murder and the motive of the murder, women are keener in observing the small spaces they have been allowed to access. In the

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