An Analysis Of Susan Glaspell 's ' A Heavy Conscience ' Essay

Trifles, Susan Glaspell’s play written in 1916, reveal concerns of women living in a male dominated society. Glaspell communicates the role that women were expected to play in late 19th century society and the harm that can come of it to women, as well as men. The feminist agenda of Trifles was made obvious, in order to portray the lives of all women who live oppressed under male domination. John and Minnie Wright are two main characters who are never seen; however provide the incident for the play. In this play women are against men, Minnie against her husband, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters against their husband’s, as well as men in general.

The play Trifles by Susan Glaspell is an interesting story about a woman named Mrs.Minnie Wright. Mrs. Minnie wright does not actually take part in the scene but is actually the main character throughout the play. The focus of the play is about whether or not Minnie Wright did in fact murder her husband, John Wright or did he commit suicide. Throughout the scene, they bring in people to look over or find evidence that can be used to give testimony at her trial. Mrs. Minnie wright should be found innocent of her husband's death, It does not matter if she had a part in his death or not. The fact that she was not happy because of her husband's attitude towards her tells the audience that she was not happy and was a captive in what was supposed to be her home.

Susan Glaspell’s one-act play “Trifles” was written in 1916. It was written based on real events. When Glaspell was a reporter, she covered a murder case in a small town in Iowa. Later, she wrote this short play which was inspired by her investigation and what she observed. Glaspell used irony, symbolism, and setting in her creation of the authentic American drama, “Trifles”, to express life for women in a male-dominated society in the early nineteen hundreds.

Throughout history, sexism has been an ongoing conflict for women and still occurs even today. Constant fights over equal pay, the right to vote, and the right to work has become a major issue for women all over the years. In Susan Glaspell’s one-act play, Trifles, she explores the stereotypes and differences between the genders. The play was written and takes place in 19th century during the time where women were not treated the same as men. Written during that period, Trifles, deals with the rights of women and assumptions about women in society during that time. This feminist drama surrounds the murder of, John wright, who was found strangled in his house. Throughout the play, the audience recognizes that the women solve the murder mystery of Mr. Wright. While the men are oblivious to the truth because of their assumptions. Glaspell not only questions the women’s roles in society, but the knowledge and aspect that are valued within the specific contexts. Trifles utilizes irony to present the life problems faced by women during that time.

The play “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell is type of murder mystery that takes place in the early 1900’s. The play begins when the sheriff Mr. Peters and county attorney Mr. Henderson come to attempt to piece together what had happen on the day that Mr. Wright was murder. While investigating the seen of the murder, they are accompanied by the Mr. Hale, Mrs. Hale and Mr. Peters. Mr. Hale had told that Mrs. Wright was acting strange when he found her in the kitchen. After taking information from Mr. Hale, the men leave the women in the kitchen and go upstairs at seen of the murder. The men don’t realize the plot of the murder took place in the kitchen.

When the two women come across the empty, broken bird-cage, they ponder the reason for the broken door and the fate of the canary who occupied it. Later they discover the dead bird wrapped in silk with its neck broken, presumably by the hands of Mr. Wright. The bird symbolizes Minnie Foster, the young choir girl. The dead bird symbolizes Minnie after marriage, when she loses her spirit, and the cage symbolizes her husband who mistreats and isolates her. While describing Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Hale compares her to the bird when she says to Mrs. Peters, " She used to sing real pretty herself”. ( 576) Literary critic Janet Stobbs Wright states," Only as a picture emerges of the way in which Minnie Foster has been changed by her marriage to John Wright, is a process of identification between the two women initiated".

Susan Glaspell's play Trifles explores male-female relationships through the murder investigation of the character of Mr. Wright. It also talks about the stereotypes that women faced. The play takes place in Wright's country farmhouse as the men of the play, the county attorney, the sheriff, and Mr. Hale, search for evidence as to the identity and, most importantly, the motive of the murderer. The attorney, with the intensions of proving that Mrs. Wright choked the husband to death, was interviewing Mr. Hale on what he saw when he came in to the house. The women, on the other hand, were just there to get some clothing for the wife who was in jail for suspected murder of her husband. However, the clues which would lead them to the answer

One critic, Leonard Mustazza, argues that Mrs. Hale recruits Mrs. Peters “as a fellow ‘juror’ in the case, moving the sheriff’s wife away from her sympathy for her husband’s position and towards identification with the accused woman” (494). Though this is true, Mrs. Peters also comes to her own understanding. What she sees in the kitchen led her to understand Minnie’s lonely plight as the wife of an abusive farmer. The first evidence Mrs. Peters reaches understanding on her own surfaces in the following passage: “The sheriff’s wife had looked from the stove to the sink to the pail of water which had been

Hale to tell his story of how he went over to the Wright’s house on the previous day. Mr. hale then nervously began to tell his story while his wife Mrs. Hale hoped he wouldn’t mix the story up like he usually does with other stories. He explains how he was driving past the Wright’s and he wanted them to install a party line telephone for their houses so it would be cheaper in price for him. When Mr. Hale entered the house, Minnie Wright was in her rocking chair and asked if he could speak to her husband John. She replied to Mr. Hale by saying he was there, but he could not speak with John because he was dead. Mr. Hale went to their bedroom to find John Wright there dead, he was strangled to death. Minnie claims she was asleep while the murder took

Suzy Clarkson Holstein the author of “Silent Justice In a Different Key: Susan Glaspell’s ‘Trifles’” writes about the men in the play looking for reasons why Minnie would kill her husband at a very legal standpoint. By looking through the scene of the crime, searching for obvious clues to why Minnie would murder her husband. The woman Sympathize with Minnie, they look at her house, and the little things around them: her kitchen, her quilt. They realize that her life doesn’t reflect her personality . “The mundane details of Minnie's life lead Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters to comprehend what their husbands do not: the motive for the murder” (Holstein 283-284). They go through the parts of Minnie’s life that were deemed unimportant by their husbands

The story kicks-off with Martha Hale departing her kitchen while her husband Lewis hale, is rushing her out of the house. She joins George Henderson the court attorney, Henry Peters the sheriff, Sheriff Peters’ wife Mrs. Peters, and her Husband Mr. Hale on their way over to the Wright’s farmhouse. When they arrive they go to the kitchen and Mrs. Hale ponders that she should have checked up on John and Minnie Wright. She had been too busy with her own life that she did not make any type of effort to see Minnie Wright. Mrs. Hale still refers to Minnie Wright as Minnie Foster before she married John twenty years ago.

The feeling of anger can also resulted from the appearance and the reality of the human being .the appearance of man is always contrast with his reality ,everyone owns ugly, real face hide behind his fake and smile face . One can find both smiles of Mrs. Wright throughout the play. As Mrs. Hale indicates that people says about him that he is a good man "he didn't drink and kept his words as well as most, I guess, and paid his debt" (Glaspell, 82). She also indicates that "he was a hard man just to pass time of day with him" (82). It is clear throughout the play that Minnie suffers from the hard ugly side of Mr. Wright .Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peter's speech signifies that Mrs. Wight's husband is like a cat. They completely understand that men like cats who steal the life of innocent girls.

The play Trifles is a world-famous production written by Susan Glaspell in 1916 during the women’s suffrage movement. The women’s suffrage movement was a point in U.S. history when rights for women, like voting and gender equality, were greatly stressed to be enforced. Glaspell’s involvement in the movement did not go unnoticed. Today Glaspell’s plays are famous worldwide for her feministic and socialistic views on legal reform, and involvement in the women’s suffrage movement. However, the play Trifles stands out amongst her others due to it being based on a true murder story she covered as a reporter. The play is about a man named Mr. Wright who is discovered by his neighbor, Mr. Hale, with rope around his neck murdered. Upon discovering Mr. wright, the county attorney and sheriff get involved, along with Mr. Hales wife, Mrs. Hale, and the sheriff’s wife, Mrs. Peters. Throughout the investigation at the Wright residence, the women are not asked for help, and are looked down upon by the men. While the men seldom ask the women for their opinion on the murder, the case unfolds right in front of the two wives’ eyes. Like the women in the play, Glaspell was unable to play a significant role in the murder case she was involved in, and her observations over small and minor details she thought may be of importance went unnoticed by the men. Throughout the play, Trifles, Glaspell symbolizes the conflict of men versus women seen during this period through recognition, the

The play Trifles takes place in a rural area and centers around a woman, Mrs. Wright, who has been accused of killing her husband by strangling him. The act starts off in Mr. and Mrs. Wright’s home on a cold, winter morning the day after Mr. Wright’s body was discovered by the neighbor; the county attorney, the sheriff and his wife and the neighboring farmer and his wife are all inside the

A trifle is something that has little value or importance, and there are many seeming "trifles" in Susan Glaspell's one-act play "Trifles." The irony is that these "trifles" carry more weight and significance than first seems to be the case. Just as Glaspell's play ultimately reveals a sympathetic nature in Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, the evidence that the men investigators fail to observe, because they are blind to the things that have importance to a woman, reveals the identity of the murderer and are, therefore, not really "trifles," after all. Thus, the title of the play has a double-meaning: it refers, satirically, to the way "trifling" way some men perceive women, and it also acts as an ironic gesture to the fact that women are not as "trifling" as these men make them out to be. This paper will analyze setting, characters, plot, stage directions, symbolism, themes and genre to show how Glaspell's "Trifles" is an ironic indictment not of a murderess but rather of the men who push women to such acts.