Susan Glaspell's Trifles

The play written by Susan Glaspell in 1916 is based on the murder of John Wright where the prime suspect is his spouse; Minnie Foster. “Trifles” is fixated on the investigation of the social division realized by the strict gender roles that enable the two men and women to have contending points of view on practically every issue. This is found in the way the men view the kitchen as they consider it as not having anything of significant worth. From the earliest starting point, the two women and men possess distinctive positions. For instance, the women are unimportant guests to Minnie Foster's home while the men have desired authority obligation.

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.

Symbols are important, especially in literature. They have been known to inspire hope and life, in turn inspiring some of the most profound actions in the history of the world. Yet, humanity’s statement to symbols goes beyond us finding meaning in innominate or non-human objects. People assign humanity into objects, almost a part of themselves. This concept is clearly demonstrated in Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles. The work contains many element of symbolism that make important and relieving comments on the characters of the play and the themes of the story.

There are some other clues symbols that relate to Minnie Wright's feeling, emotional like the jar of cherries on the shelf. One critic named Linda Ben-Zvi says, "Minnie herself stayed on the shelf, alone and unbefriended on the farm, until the coldness of her marriage, her life in

“Trifles” a play by Susan Glaspell, emphasizes the thought that women were kept in their homes and their contributions to the home and family went unappreciated and unnoticed. The play gives readers a view of how women were view and treated during the 1900’s. As a female analyzing the play, Mrs. Wright’s motive for killing Mr. Wright was quite clear. Susan Glaspell gives her readers a feminist approach, to demonstrate how Mrs. Wright’s murdering of her husband is justified.

“Trifles” is a one act play written by Susan Glaspell in 1916, which was first performed on August 8th by the Provincetown Players in Provincetown, Massachusetts at the Wharf Theater. The author, Susan Glaspell, was born on July 1, 1876 in Davenport, Iowa. Over her lifetime she had become proficient in many different professions: Playwright, Actress, Novelist, and Journalist. For her works, she won an American Pulitzer Prize in 1931. The Provincetown Players was founded by Susan Glaspell and her husband, George Cram Cook. This was the first modern American theater company. Most of her works centered on current issues at the time such at gender roles between males and females. Susan Glaspell was not the typical woman of her time, she decided to go to school and get herself an education and find herself a her own career instead of waiting around for a husband. In 1899, Glaspell graduated from Drake University in Iowa and found herself a job as a journalist for the Des Monies Daily newspaper. The play Trifles was based upon a story that Glaspell reported on when she was a journalist.

In the play “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell was a very interesting and suspenseful play. This play is about a women being accused of killing her husband. The play takes place around the 1916 were they try to find out who killed Mrs. Wright husband John Wright. Hale, starts telling what happen that day when he went to the Wrights home. That afternoon Hale was going to ask John if he wanted to go put up a telephone.

The article had a deep analyzation of Trifles by Susan Glaspell. Alkalay-Gut focuses in on scenes that show the clear division amongst the men and the woman in the play. For various scenes, the article takes apart and truly explains the symbolism throughout the course of the play. Not only are the symbols explained and given high importance, but Alkalay-Gut mentions the main character would have never had a fair trial to begin with. This ties in with my theme focusing on the belittlement of women.

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.

Susan Glaspell provided Mrs. Wright her own uniqueness by giving her a maiden name, and having Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters refer to her as Minnie instead of Mrs. See that Glaspell doesn’t give us either of these women’s names, implying that they have lost their personal identities. Originally, the cold outside the farmhouse creates the lonely, reflective mood that overshadows much of the play. All the mean while it leads to a situation that physically and figuratively separates the women from the men. When Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters refuse to join the men and take their traditional post next to the kitchen. Finally, it reflects Minnie Wright's state of mind and the sense of loneliness that triggered her murder. Notably her jars of preserves break from the cold, just as she loses her ability to preserve her emotional health in her hopeless home.

In the play “Trifles” Susan Glaspell takes the audience on an investigation that involves a wife that has been arrested for the allegedly murdering her husband. The audience is introduced at the start of the investigation though the author never says so the audience can easily conclude that the marriage between Mr. and Mrs. Wright was not the best situation. There is evidence through the house of even possible abuse. Mrs. Wright for reasons not really know is driven into a life of solitude, for instance, she has not joined in any of the community events, like other women and she has not been seen outside of the home in at least a year. She does however get a canary from a traveling salesman of sorts to keep her company. The play does not mention

What is a trifle? A trifle is something that has little to no importance (dictionary.com). For instance, the color of your nails would be considered a trifle. In Trifles by Susan Glaspell, women are criticized and made fun of by men because of the little things they worry about, such as the color of their nails or their hair. This exhibits the gender role difference portrayed during the play’s time period. The central conflict is what the plot is centered around. In Trifles, the central conflict involves the investigation the Mr. Wright’s murder. As the story progresses, we learn that the women’s trifles would’ve helped the men solve the murder, which is ironic. Numerous accounts of symbolism, relating Mrs.Wright to the bird, is also found

Susan Glaspell's Trifles explores the classical male stereotype of women by declaring that women frequently worry about matters of little, or no importance. This stereotype makes the assumption that only males are concerned with important issues, issues that females would never discuss or confront. The characters spend the entirety of the play searching for clues to solve a murder case. Ironically, the female characters, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, uncover crucial evidence and solve the murder case, not the male characters. The men in the play, the Sheriff, County Attorney, and Hale, search the scene of the crime for evidence on their own, and mock the women's discussions. The women's interest in the quilt,

The women described Mrs. Wright as someone who used to be more outgoing, upbeat and/or lively. Her neighbor, Mrs. Hale, comments that the last time Mrs. Wright appeared happy and vivacious was before she was married, or more importantly, when she was Minnie Foster and not Mrs. Wright. Mrs. Hale says, "I heard she used to wear pretty clothes and be lively when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls singing in the choir" (). But after thirty years of marriage, Mrs. Wright is now worried about her canned preserves freezing and being without an apron while she is in jail. This subservient image for women was so accepted in society that Mrs. Peters (sheriff's wife) speculates that Mrs. Wright must want her apron because she wants to "feel more natural" (). Any other roles would be considered uncharacteristic.