Changing The World : One Play At A Time

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.

Feminist critical lens examines certain texts with a primary focus on both gender’s relationship with each other and how such relationships demonstrate effects towards beliefs, behaviors, and values. This critical lens also examines a patriarchal-centered society and how such society define and interact with women with an emphasis on stereotypes of both genders that are present and evident in the text being analyzed. William Shakespeare’s Othello can be scrutinized through the feminist critical lens. A deep analysis focused on feminism of the play Othello paves way for the judgement of different societal status of women in the period when the play took place, the Elizabethan society. Othello is a best fit that demonstrates how men were

Hale, and Mrs. Peters. Mr. Hale was the first one to visit the Wright home after the murder, so the sheriff immediately questions him. Because this is a play the actors have to talk to each other, so the audience knows what’s going on. Another way that the play goes into an action way is the aloofness of Mrs. Wright. Whenever Mr. Hale was being questioned he mentioned his encounter with Mrs. Wright saying that he would ask where her husband was, and she wouldn’t respond and just sit there in her chair and knit. The men then go on to criticize Mrs. Wright’s housekeeping, after the men leave the women say, “I’d hate to have men coming into my kitchen, snooping around and criticizing” (561). The short story has the same sentence except the short story surrounds that statement with an explanation of some of Mrs. Hale’s thoughts. For example, Mrs. Hale is described as having felt a strange feeling “then, as if releasing something strange, Mrs. Hale began to rearrange the dirt pans under the sink” (573). The play cannot provide description of emotions but shows them through action. “A Jury of her

In “A Doll’s House” play people can see how authority can destroy a happy marriage. This play is about a husband (Helmer) who imposes his authority over his wife (Nora). At the beginning of the play this couple seems to be a perfect couple, a lovely and caring husband and lovely, loyal and caring wife and mother, but inside their customs is just an unhappy couple. Nora doesn’t have her owns opinion or thoughts she must leave behind her husband decisions and beliefs. Everything begins to fail when she decides to do something without her husband knowing, Helmer get sick and Nora trying to save his life borrows money from Krogstad. When everything comes out to light, Nora meets the real Helmer the one who’s cruel, deaf, and insensitive.

In Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House, pointedly captures the reality of the Victorian Era within the play. Nora Helmer, the protagonist of the story, represents the typical women in society during that era. The audience’s first impression of Nora is a money obsessed, childish, obedient house wife to her husband, Torvald Helmer. However, as the play progresses one can see that Nora is far from being that typical ideal trophy wife, she is an impulsive liar who goes against society’s norm to be whom and what she wants. Her husband is illustrated as the stereotypical man during the 19th century, as he is the dominate breadwinner of the family, who too deserts his position as the play reaches its end. A key theme that is brought to light in A

Both Mrs Hale’s and Mrs. Peters’ sympathy becomes their key to solving why Mrs. Wright had murdered her

Throughout many pays and novels, women have had important roles of helping form the main characters, in the way they think, move or change the story. Women have always been subordinate to men all through history, but in plays, novels, short stories, etc, they have been given large enforcing roles, showing the power within women. William Shakespeare and Sophocles use guilt, pride, and influence to demonstrate the importance of the women’s role to support the main characters in both the plays of Macbeth and Antigone.

“Here I have been your doll wife, just as at-home I used to be papa’s doll child.” states Nora Helmer (A Doll House, Act 3 pg. 114). The play A Doll House was composed by Henrik Ibsen and is written in first person. It takes place in Norway in the late 1800s. A Doll house focuses on a woman name Nora Helmer who is married with children. After eight years of being married, she decides to end it. Nora ends her relationship to start a new life and discover herself. However; she does commit a selfish act by leaving her children behind with the father. Literary elements such as, plot ,setting, and theme enrich the play and the experience of the reader.

Trifles Gender roles for women back in the 19th century were unimportant and still this day lacks in minor roles. Men overruled women when it came to doing work such as solving a crime scene, being a police officer, and even an investigator. In the play “Trifles” written by Susan Glaspell in 1916, she illustrates a major point that deals with men and women in society back then. A “Trifle” is defined as something that is unimportant. This means Glaspell’s message to her intended audience was to explain how men don’t pay attention to women because they believe that they are not needed for certain types of work skills.

In the 20th century men were thought to be the supreme over women. Over the course of years the sexual differences were changed and gradually got better, but there were still many bias accusations. The theory that men had to provide and women had to stay at home to do housework was a key turning point in this play. Using the actions, dialogues, and events of this play Susan Glaspell shows the ideology of sexism in this time period.

My first impression after reading the play was that Mrs. Wright murdered her husband because he killed her canary. Mr. Henderson appeared like a lead detective on a case who wasn’t going to leave any stones unturned and Mr. Hale gave the impression of a hardworking and concerned neighbor. Mrs. Peters was very quiet, reserved and one who wouldn’t want any trouble unlike Mrs. Hale. Mrs. Hale came across like she would tell you what was on her mind and didn’t care about the consequences. The setting of the play was very cold, dark, and lonely which helps you understand the motive behind the killing. Mrs. Wright was confined to the house all day and night with only her canary and knitting to keep her company. The way the door was ripped off of

Everyone suspects his wife. The play shows the how the people of the town solve the murder of John Wright. In Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles, the author shows the differences between men and women, how each gender is loyal to their own gender, and how each gender still needs the other gender. Susan Glaspell showed the readers similarities in men and women.

Throughout the drama “A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen, Nora Helmer undergoes a significant transformation from a “doll” that is constantly showered with various nicknames into a strong independent woman that ultimately goes against the social constraints of the 1800s. Despite attempting to be a good wife, Nora was viewed as a miserable creature by her husband because she chose to forge her father’s signature in order to take Torvald to Italy in order to improve his health. As a result, Nora was plagued with a dishonorable secret that would eventually end her marriage because she had displayed that same dishonestly as both her own father and Krogstad. “I must stand quite alone if I am to understand myself and everything about me. It is for that

The climax of the play unfolds as the women find an empty birdcage with a broken hinge. As the two women speculate why it was empty, Mrs. Hale describes Mrs. Wright to Mrs. Peters as she knew her when they were single women. The suspect's maiden name was Minnie Foster. She was a beautiful songstress. A voice that was muted when she became Mrs. Wright.

The story centrally focus on what goes on in a marriage between Torvald Helmer, the husband and his wife Nora, in the Victorian Era Torvald. Helmer is a hard working husband, a lawyer, who treats his wife more like a child than a woman. His always calling her silly names like “little squirrel” and “little lark twittering”, but she seems to not mind it at all. Nora is a happy wife, or at least that’s what it seems like until her little secret is revealed. There’s a quote that I believe suit this situation quite well “Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many; the intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden.” (Phaedrus). Meaning appearance can be deceiving, because someone appear to be cheerful and normal does not necessarily means that they are. A doll’s house has several different themes, such as; marriage, men and masculinity, lies and deceit, love, and reputation