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Antigone Research Paper

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Maeshal Hijazi
ENG-116-030
08/11/2016
Research Paper
Feminism is defined as the belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes. Challenging the systemic inequalities women face on a daily basis is the goal of feminism. Antigone, a play by Sophocles, is a tragedy written in the year 441 BC or possibly prior to that. It is the third of the three Theban plays to have been produced. These plays followed the fall of the great king, Oedipus, and later the tragedies that his children suffered. Susan Glaspell’s trifles was ahead of its time “because it is one of the first examples of American feminist drama” (Web). It is one of the most anthologized plays because it is a prominent play, with regards to American feminist drama. This one-act play reaches a climax when two farmwives challenge a male-dominated society by concealing evidence that would have caused another farmwife, who strangled to death …show more content…

Like many American women in the nineteenth century and without claiming the same political rights as a man would, Antigone made political arguments as a woman. On the other hand, in Trifles, much like most married women living during that era, the three women, Mrs. Hale, Mrs. Peters, and Mrs. Wright, were only permitted to do certain activities - some of which were limited - within the houses of their husbands. Before getting married, Mrs. Wright lived happily and used to sing in the local choir, but after her marriage, her life changed completely, becoming forlorn and gloomy: her state of mind began to decay and depreciate and her musical outlet that she had was stripped away from her. Hence, she decided to purchase a singing bird, which her husband then killed a while later. Mrs. Wright then decided to kill her husband, as a means of revenge. These are great examples of the obligations and burdens placed on women during the most difficult phase in history, where they had no choice other than to obey these restrictions, instructions, and rules of

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