Trifles By Susan Glaspell Analysis

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.

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.

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.

Susan Glaspell’s one-act play, Trifles, weaves a tale of an intriguing murder investigation to determine who did it. Mrs. Wright is suspected of strangling her husband to death. During the investigation the sheriff and squad of detectives are clueless and unable to find any evidence or motive to directly tie Mrs. Wright to the murder. They are baffled as to how he was strangled by a rope while they were supposedly asleep side by side. Glaspell artfully explores gender differences between men and women and the roles they each fulfill in society by focusing on their physicality, their methods of communication and vital to the plot of the play, their powers of observation. In simple terms, the play suggests that men tend to be assertive,

Published in 1916, Susan Glaspell’s one-act play, “Trifles,” describes the investigation of Mrs. Wright, a farmer’s wife who is in jail because she was accused of murdering her husband, but had no apparent motive for murder. While searching for evidence at her house, three men look for obvious facts and motives, but are unsuccessful. On the other hand, two women, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, pay close attention to trifles and reveal many secrets about the Wright family, but decide to keep them a secret. As they sympathize with Mrs. Wright, they are also able to describe her character only from looking at the way things are arranged around the house and from what she asked them to bring her to jail. Mrs. Wright asked for her apron, which is a

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.

Trifles”: A Man’s Perception The theme of Susan Glaspell's play "Trifles" is that men and women have different perceptions, and this leads men to overlook "trifles. " There are three sets of images in the play that help communicate this theme. First, there is the kitchen.

“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.

What I liked about most about this article was the used of psychology to help the reader fully grasp the characterization in the play. With the use of Freud, Erickson, and Kohlberg’s work we are shown that throughout history women have never been fully understood; leading them to be categorized as “less” than a man. The article also goes over how different the developmental years for males and females are because of gender roles placed on them. This helps to understand the built up frustration the murderess and women in the story felt. The underestimation and the belittlement the women experience from the men, their own husbands, leads up to them keeping the evidence to themselves and leaving the murder case

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.

In the play Trifles, by Susan Glaspell, the plot develops through action. As soon as the play begins readers and viewers are introduced to the county attorney, the sheriff, and Mr. Hale. Due to the fact that these three men discuss the case and death of Mr. Wright quite a bit, the audience is made to believe that they are the main characters of the play. However; the true protagonists of the play are revealed as soon as the men departure from the kitchen and leave the characters Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hales to themselves. When left alone in the kitchen, the two women find bread that had not been baked, pans thrown under the sink, and a towel that is half clean and half messy. The women also find a quilt that Mrs. Wright was working on, one

Glaspell's play sets up its subjects in its opening minutes. The setting lures you into the play, the opening scene of John and Minnie Wright’s abandoned farmhouse. A chaotic kitchen, the kitchen is in disarray with unwashed dishes, a loaf of uncooked bread, and a dirty towel on the table. You can obviously tell someone left in a hurry or was taken unexpectedly out of the blue. The men repeatedly dismiss things as beneath their notice if they are things such as the canning jars of fruit that are, in their opinions, women’s concerns. Susan Glaspell’s play puts major emphasize on the men and how they never recognize that they have forced the women to be concerned about

Glaspell gives her to play an unexpected bend by giving the character's names that uncover their identity. Mr. Hale is sound and healthy; Mr. Peters, whose name means "rock," is a sheriff or an establishment of society. These names fit far less well for the ladies. Minnie Foster was out of place as a foster child, and, John Wright, the man she's married to, is not Mr. Right. Amid the play's peak, the ladies talk about how Mrs. Wright murdered her better half, yet the men accept the ladies are yet talking about housework. In the final stages of "trifles", this is how the play gets its ironic title. The play from the plot to the characters, and to the themes this play is an eye opener from the beginning to end. Trifles have surprisingly had many twists and turns of plot, characters and locations, and great stretches of time for the story to unfold in front of your eyes. The women, begin the play timorously, tolerating their husbands to blunder about the crime scene. The setting lures you right into the play, the opening scene of John and Minnie Wright's abandoned farmhouse. A chaotic kitchen, the kitchen is in disarray with unwashed dishes, a loaf of uncooked bread, and a dirty towel on the table. You can obviously tell someone left in a hurry or was taken unexpectedly out of the blue. The men repeatedly dismiss things as beneath their notice if they are things such as the canning jars of fruit that are, in their opinions, women's concerns. Susan Glaspell's play puts major