The Play Trifles Essay

The two other women in the play are the most intelligent in the entire play. Their husbands give them freedoms and believe that they could do no evil. Mrs.Hale and Mrs.Peters show that not all women are suppressed by men and society. While that is true, they are never referred by their first names. They are are called by their husbands titles.

The men were in command over the total life experience, until the man or husband cared for his children. The author gracefully applies the same characteristics to the key role characters during this time. The basic meaning of the following play is men strongly opposing the women. Being both knowledgeable (on figuring out the mystery of the murder) and authority wise (by the men searching in all places besides the cooking area- where the women mainly are). During this extent in time, the man of the house (or all men in general) considered themselves as educated in a higher manner during their efforts to determine the murder. SITE. In addition to this point in time, it’s made known that majority of the women have (or in this case will) spend their time in

County attorney is trying to extract information from the women but is quick to disregard Mrs. Hale’s statements. An example of this is seen when the county attorney asks if they didn’t get along very well. Mrs. Hale replies (no I don’t mean anything. But I don’t think a place’d be any cheer fuller for john wright’s being in it…(4) The county attorney replies “I’d like to talk more of that a little later. I want to get the lay of things upstairs now. (4) Women are narrow minded. Seen through some sarcastic comments made by the men several times throughout the play. One example is when sheriff comments about how “they wonder if she was going to quilt it or just knot it” (6) and the men openly laugh at the women. Another thing the mean are weary about the female are that they men want to see what the women are taking out of the house to bring to Mrs. Wright to double check that they are not removing anything that could possibly used as evidence doubting the women’s judgment on what should be left alone. An Example of this is when the Sheriff says. “I suppose Anything Mrs. Peters does’ll be alright. She was to take in some Clothes for her, you know, and a

The gender differences in the play are obvious and important to the story. The men in this play exhibit some traditional stereotypes of men during the time period, such that they were aggressive and self-centered. The women seem to be more cautious, intuitive and sensitive. These traits allow the women to come a lot closer to figuring out the murder than the men do. At one point in the play the women find a quilt that Mrs. Wright had been working on. Mrs. Hale asks Mrs. Peters, “I wonder if she was goin’ to quilt it or just knot it?” (658). Just then the sheriff comes down the stairs and once again ridicules the women for worrying about such little things. “They wonder if she was going to quilt it or just knot it!” (658), he exclaims. This is actually an important piece of evidence in the story, as the ladies find out later. They realize that she was extremely nervous about something while she was sewing, because she usually sews “so nice and even” (658), but the piece she had been working on was “all over the place” (658).

The sexism of this setting and time period of this story is showed even at the very beginning of the story. Mrs. Hale must follow the men’s instructions to come along on the trip, even though she was busy and hade more important things to do she left her house half a mess and left. Since she did not make a fuss about it in front of the men it shows this is routine that she doesn’t have much say on what she can and can not do, even at her own home she still has to get up and go at the call of a man.

Sexism, an issue that plagued women during the tenth century, affects the leading ladies in Trifles, face no different. At the beginning of the play, readers can already see the divide between Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, who townspeople from the Sheriff Mr. Peter and the County Attorney Mr. .This is done simply by the women waiting together outside the house in the cold, before being welcome in by their male counterparts. Once in the house reader find they are looking through the murder scene of Mr. Wright, with all parties helping. Yet, the Sheriff and the County Attorney barely take anything that the women found seriously, as Hale even says, “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles” (Glaspell 61). Nevertheless, this is amusing because, that is what the women use to discover the keys to the mystery of who murdered Mr. Wright. Although, the systemic sexism in Trifles doesn't end there. In the play the men believe that the reason the house was gloomy was because Mrs. Wright wasn't capable homemaking instinct. Altogether, despite the men disrespect for the women's finding about the murder, it ended up helping them in protecting Mrs. Wright.

Though Mrs. Hale never acted out of the norm, she clearly had thoughts that were not appropriate. In addition, she not only thought about the wrongs that were being said but also challenged them: “Mrs. Hale: Those towels get dirty awful quick. Men's hands aren't always as clean as they might be. County Attorney: Ah, loyal to your sex, I see” (Glaspell 982). Even so, she does not allow herself to lose control, as she still remains subtle in order to not cause trouble.

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

A play can be analyzed in multiple ways. One of these ways is through the play’s theme. The theme of a work is often a statement about life and the human condition. In the play Trifles by Susan Glaspell, the theme noticing the little things can make a difference can be explained through plot, character, and setting.

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

Women have always been able to see things men cannot. They pay more attention to detail and see the small things that men overlook. That is exactly the case in the play “Trifles”, where women find the small details that men did not quite understand. The story takes place in a time where women were discriminated and always looked down on, they were beat, and forced to do things they did not want to do. When being discriminated over a long span of time people might snap and act without thinking.

Susan Glaspell’s most memorable one-act play, Trifles (1916) was based on murder trial case that happened in the 1900’s. Glaspell worked as a reporter, where she appointed a report of a murder case. It was about a farmer, John Hossack who was killed while he was asleep in bed one night. His wife claimed that she was asleep next to him when the attack occurred. No one believed in her statement, she was arrested and was charged on first degree murder.

When reading the play Trifles which was written in 1916, by Susan Glaspell, I found that the play is about the murder of John Wright by his wife Minnie Wright. There were two different perspectives of how three male characters, Sheriff Henry Peters, County Attorney George Henderson and a neighbor, Lewis Hale, investigate the crime versus the two women in the play who are Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters the wives of the neighbor and the sheriff. (Kirszner & Mandell, 2012). When focusing on the males way of solving the crime, it reminds me of the old cop drama Dragnet which was on TV back when we had black and white televisions. The detectives would always say during the investigation “Just the facts” when interviewing people about the incidents.

By using a play by play of the scenes in the play, the article pays close attention to the “trifles” the women paid close attention to while the men ridiculed them for it. The article also mentions how, “women’s responsibilities and concerns tend to remain somewhat distinct from men’s.” Because of this

Women, in the other hand, had always been treated harshly, been put down and even being under the dominance of men. In the short story, the theme is the subjugation of women which occurs throughout the story. At the beginning, Martha Hale is dragged out of the house without even finishing her chores that she so desires to finish because she doesn't like leaving them like that to go to a crime scene. Later on, the men criticized Mrs. Wright for not cleaning the towels and leaving trash and other