Critical Analysis Of Trifles

Wright to the murder of her husband. At the beginning of the play Mr. Hale acknowledges the males attitudes toward women without knowing. For example he states, “….I didn’t know as what his wife wanted made much difference to John.” (1001). This clearly signifies the male’s insensitivity to women. This statement that Mr. Hale made referring to John and how he does not care what his wife wanted or did not want does not even trigger the question, how was Mrs. Wright treated by her husband? Women were clearly not has important as the men. The men disregard women’s opinions and don’t give a thought to women’s needs or wants. Mr. Hale was speaking of John, Mrs. Wright’s dead husband in the above example; however Mr. Hale also expresses his insensitivity and arrogant attitude toward women. Mr. Hale states, “Well women are used to worrying over trifles.” (1003). Trifles something that is small, of no consequence, this is how Mr. Hale thinks of women. The things women are concerned with are of no importance, they are petty. This is an obvious illustration of the men’s arrogant and insensitive attitudes toward women.

All the men notice is clutter. The men do not look deeper behind the meanings of this disarray. However, the women do. The women understand that the reason that things such as the towels are not clean is because she more than likely was busy doing her many other chores of the household. They also considered how much trouble Mrs. Wright went to fix the preserves. The women reason that the uncaring concern John had for Minnie and the attention he paid to the house perhaps forced Minnie to resort to killing. Even the County Attorney, Sheriff, and Mr. Hale could not understand all the difficulties women go through. They criticize Mrs. Wright as well as insult all women. Mr. Hale says, "Well, women are used to worrying over trifles." The actions of just these men show how women were taken for granted in this era. Inevitably, the men are unable to prove that Mrs. Wright murdered her husband but are going to convict her anyway. However, the women have solved the case. They come to the conclusion that Mrs. Wright was not treated very well by her husband and was not able to withstand the mistreatment anymore. They could tell the lack of attention he paid to his wife. The men still have a hard time accepting this concept because they do not believe that men treat women badly.

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.

The county attorney does not give a second thought about how John may have treated his wife. Instead, he’s focusing on Mr. Hale’s testimony regarding the alleged “scared” look on John’s face. The men’s bias is often and openly expressed to the women verbally. In accordance to the dialog of the play, the men show they don’t consider what women say vital or pertinent. The Sheriff fires back, identifying with his partners, “Well, can you beat the woman! Held for murder and worryin’ about her preserves.” (Glaspell 1412). The men agree in general about the sheriff’s remark. Mr. Hale comes along and says, “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles.” (Glaspell 1412). The dialog of the play demonstrates the obliviousness and general absence of appreciation given to women’s comments. Even the sheriff addresses his wife openly as if a woman’s role in the home was insignificant. The prejudice from the men is evident and once a reader or audience starts inquiring about how the men treat women, a pattern is seen regarding the men’s standards. The court attorney kicks his foot against the pots and pans below the sink in the wake of discovering no clean towels, telling the ladies “Not

In today’s society, we generally view upon everyone as equal; however this view did not exist for decades. Throughout history, there were many instances showing that men dominated women and women were often seen as left with less important or treated as an inferior being. Women were often expected to be good mothers to their children as well as caretakers to their husband. After reading the play “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell, I was able to grasp the important facts about social views of women and their domestic roles. Glaspell’s play depicts the gender inequality which exists in the society, drawing significant attention to the societal values of women at that time. Although women’s roles are treated as unimportant, she depicts women’s

An initial reading of A Jury of Her Peers suggests that the author focuses on the common stereotypes of women in the 1800s; however, a close reading reveals that the text also examines the idea that they are more capable than men may think. The fact that Mrs. Wright was able to pull off killing her husband by herself and without the men finding out proves that she is very capable and did not need the help of men to pull it off. The men at the time believed that women were incapable of doing things by themselves and thought that they should just stay in the kitchen, cook, and clean. They thought that they could not manage to do things that men could and did not trust them with a man's job.

In the kitchen, the dishes are dirty, bread is sitting out on the counter, and everything is in disarray. The County Attorney is disturbed, because the kitchen is not clean. The men assume that Mrs. Wright must have not been a very tidy person. In this time era, men expected women to keep the house tidy and clean, cheerful, and decorated according to the County Attorney in Trifles; he states, “It’s not cheerful. I shouldn’t say she had the homemaking instinct” (1031). Men during this era think that women should only be in the house worrying about what the inside of a house should look. In the County Attorney’s mind, the house should have been warm, clean, organized, and presenting a happy feeling. This is a demonstration of how hard a woman’s life is when she is expected to be when a man’s views think of how a woman should be in the household, for example a slave to cooking, cleaning, and sewing. As shown in the beginning of the play, the men leave the women in the kitchen to gather some of Mrs. Wright’s items she requested as if this is where these women belong. The men go upstairs and out to the farmhouse to investigate for clues for a motive to prove that Mrs. Wright is guilty of the murder of her husband. The men never investigate the kitchen for any clues since they feel there is no significance in the kitchen. The kitchen is an area for women to do cooking and cleaning, which makes them feel there is nothing important in this area. Men

The play ?Trifles?, by Susan Glaspell , is an examination of the different levels of early 1900?s mid-western farming society?s attitudes towards women and equality. The obvious theme in this story is men discounting women?s intelligence and their ability to play a man?s role, as detectives, in the story. A less apparent theme is the empathy the women in the plot find for each other. Looking at the play from this perspective we see a distinct set of characters, a plot, and a final act of sacrifice.

The sheriff and his wife, Mrs. Gorman, as well as Martha Hale and her husband, had all rode over to the Wrights place, to investigate, the death, - or was this murder? - of Mrs. Wright's husband. When the subject was brought up, it did not seem as if the death of Mr. Wright, even fazed his wife. When Mr. Hale, walked into their house, and asked to see John Wright, Mrs. Wright “laughed” and said no, “‘Cause he’s dead,” as she continued pleating her apron, not getting the least bit excited. The man went on to further investigate as the woman began to look around and talk. They started talking about the way, Mrs. Hale wished she had come to see Minnie (Foster) right, “‘ I could’ve come...I wish I had come over sometimes when she was here. I wish- I had.’” (Glaspell, 677) , although she had reason for not wanting to come, “‘ It never seemed a very cheerful place.’” (Glaspell, 672). This was the way the Wrights lived, and that was that. But was there something more to it? With the murder of Mr. John Wright, and the reactions of Mrs. Minnie Wright are very contradicting. In a marriage, two people are supposed to love one another, but after finding all the clues to the investigation, it lead to question whether Minnie actually loved her husband or

The men?s prejudice is blatant and although it was easy for Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters to pick up on it, they react to it in a variety of ways. Defensively, Mrs. Hale, replies rigidly to the County Attorney?s remark by stating that "there?s a great deal of work to be done on a farm," (958) offering an excuse for Minnie?s lapse in cleaning. Later, he brushes her off when she explains that John Wright was a grim man. To the County Attorney, the women are just there to collect personal items for Minnie, they are not going to give him any valuable insight into the murder. To their credit, the women do not force their thoughts or feelings on the men when biased statements are made in their direction. They hold back and discuss the remarks later after the men go upstairs. Mrs. Peters observes that "Mr. Henderson is awful sarcastic in a speech and he?ll make fun of her sayin? she didn?t wake up" (960). The fact that she believes the men would laugh if they heard the two women discussing the dead canary reveals how sure she is that the men think of them as concerned with the

Wright by seizing the box after the attorney discovered it. While the two may “scheme” and be completely straightforward when they are alone, their speech and way of acting differs significantly around the men. The way they speak and act around the men, where they are quiet and do not offer much to the conversation, differs simply due to the fact that it’s how the men perceive them to be. Throughout the play, the women are met with quips such as “They wonder if she was going to quilt it or just knot it!” (Glaspell), which shows that the men thought the women to be ignorant and preoccupied with female apparatuses, such as “kitchen things”. Overall, due to their place in society at the time, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters most likely chose to act and speak the way they did around the men in order to avoid being belittled and told they had no right to interfere with “men’s business”. This is why the relationship between the two only deepens when they are alone and able to speak freely, becoming accomplices as they slowly piece together the crime that took

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

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.

Trifles, by Susan K. Glaspell, is a play written in 1917 when the need for women's rights was sought. Throughout the years, many productions of the play have taken place, as the story is famous for it’s strong opinion on the treatment of women, however many directors take what they can from the story to give their interpretation of the characters, setting, and the plot. A video production of A Jury of Her Peers, directed by Sally Heckel, will be different than an audio production of the same play, directed Martin Jenkins, even if they stick to the same dialogue. For example, the bird scene, although with the same lines and characters, can have different undertones depending on how the characters stress their words, the pauses between sentences, their subtlety or their blatantly when in action, and even the emotion expressed on the characters face. However, how can you see these emotions through just an audio of the play? How can you feel the tension in the air, the pained expression on the character's face, or their tight-lipped remarks?