Gender Roles In Trifles

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.

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.

In the play, the setting takes place in an "abandoned" and "gloomy" farmhouse out in the country. Almost

Throughout history, and especially in the early 20th century, women were not in the same arena as men; they were not a man’s equal. The Mariam-Webster Online Dictionary, defines “trifle” as something of “little value, substance, or importance,” which is the way women are seen in both William Faulkner’s short story, “A Rose for Emily” and Susan Glaspell’s one-act play, Trifles. Both authors use of style and settings are different but their theme is the same. Faulkner and Glaspell were born and wrote in approximately the same era, America’s late 19th and early 20th centuries. Glaspell, the author of Trifles is from the northern United States and uses a lower class, uneducated vernacular of that area; whereas, “A Rose for Emily” is written in an eloquent upper-class English tone, by Faulkner who was from the south. Faulkner metaphorically and symbolically describes the personality, life, and death of the main character, Ms. Emily Grierson, and the murder- mystery surrounding her. Glaspell’s murder -mystery Trifles also surrounds the life and death of the main character, Mrs. Wright, and her husband. Both women, while representing opposite ends of the socio-economic class spectrum, are isolated and lonely,not only due to their social class but also due to a time in history when men were not kind to the “fairer sex.”

The play Trifles was written by Susan Glaspell, who is considered to be one of the first feminist writers in American literature. In the story there is an ongoing investigation to find out who killed Mr. Wright and all the evidence is pointing to Mrs. Wright. Two of Mrs. Wright’s neighbors are determined to find out what really happened. Trifles is a suspenseful story that holds many feminist viewpoints that collides with justice for women when it comes to domestic violence.

Oppressive gender roles are expressed first through the title Trifles itself. By definition, a trifle is a thing of little value or importance. Whenever the women were talking about Mrs. Wright’s preserves, Hale laughs, “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles” (Glaspell 598). Using the word trifles as the title indicates that the play contains a shallow, meaningless theme or concept, but the truths found in the theme of the title are actually very far from insignificant. The trifles, although perceived by the men as trivial,

The birdcage symbolizes the Wright’s marriage. It is breaking and past the point of recovery. “ Looks as if someone must have been rough with it” (Glaspell 875). Minnie Wright represents the bird, who is trapped. She is trapped in this marriage where she is mistreated. Though, Mrs.Wright is not killed, but her spirit is. Due to the isolation and neglect, Mrs.Wright’s spirit is killed. David Galens summarizes this drama in his article “Trifles.” He mentions “Neither woman can recall whether she actually had a bird, but Mrs. Hale remembers that Minnie did have a beautiful singing voice when she was younger” (Galens). Mrs.Peters and Mrs.Hale find the dead bird with silk around the neck. Mrs. Peters is in shock: “Somebody—wrung—its—neck” (Glaspell 115). Mrs.Hale does not know the Wright’s well, so she says “ I s’pose maybe the cat got it” (Glaspell 875). Mrs.Peters knows the Wright’s did not have a cat; therefore, the cat is a metaphor to John Wright. This bird is valuable to Mrs.Wright, because it was her only company throughout the long days when her husband works. The loneliness without the bird called for revenge. Minnie is tired of the emotionally abusive man she married. Mrs.Wright wrings John’s neck and kills him for all the things he does to slowly kill

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.

“Trifles” by Susan Glaspell is a play that is largely based on stereotypes. The most prevalent one is the inferiority of women over men, though the play also explores the differences between genders in general.

"Trifles," a one-act play written by Susan Glaspell, is a cleverly written story about a murder and more importantly, it effectively describes the treatment of women during the early 1900s. In the opening scene, we learn a great deal of information about the people of the play and of their opinions. We know that there are five main characters, three men and two women. The weather outside is frighteningly cold, and yet the men enter the warm farmhouse first. The women stand together away from the men, which immediately puts the men against the women. Mrs. Hale?s and Mrs. Peters?s treatment from the men in the play is reflective of the beliefs of that time. These women, aware of

The men in the play showed lack of respect and concern for how difficult it was for women to keep the house clean and running smoothly. During the play the men did nothing but criticized everything the women said about Mrs. Wright, they would

Life As We Knew It I have always heard people say "revenge is a dish best served cold. " I never really understood what this saying meant, so I had to look up it up on the internet. What I finally decided it meant was that after you are wronged by somebody, you should wait to retaliate for when your target is not expecting it.

Throughout American history, stereotypes about gender socialization and gender roles have existed in society. During the late 19th to the early 20th century, genders roles began to shift. This is mainly due to the shift as more women took on more professional roles. Because of this shift, women became less reliant on male financial support, allowing them to be socially equal in the eyes of men. Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles makes a moving statement how the gender roles were in the early 20th century and how women were treated. The play takes place on a midwestern farm inside a farmer's house during this period. After law enforcement was called to investigate a crime scene, Mr. Hale belittles his wife, which in turn angers her. At this point, her perception changes and forms a feminine bond between herself and the Sherriff's wife. As a result, they begin to take the matter into their own hands. In George's Singleton's collection of short stories, The Half-Mammals of Dixie, his story "Public Relations" shows how professions and gender roles correlate with each other that takes place in the early 21st century. In the short story, the narrator and his wife sit at a bar joined by his boss and his wife to lure in a female business client. After the narrator makes a case on how the American education system is failing students by putting women with lower IQs to become teachers, he loses his job. This cause the perception of gender role to

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

Foster Sue Kirkpatrick Professor Susan Smith English 101 9 March 2015 Title In the play "Trifles" Susan Glaspell demonstrates the male assumption that women are insignificant members in a male-dominated society. In the 1920’s women were looked down upon because their main role was to cook and clean, always remaining dependent on the men to do the hard labor outside on the fields thus the men had very little to no respect for their wives. Because the men underestimate them, the women are able to prove they are not insignificant, but only to the audience.