Trifles By Susan Glaspell Analysis

In Trifles, Susan Glaspell debates the roles between men and women during a period where a debate was not widely conducted. Glaspell wrote Trifles in the early 1900s—a time when feminism was just getting started. In this play, Glaspell shows us her perspective on the roles of men and women and how she believes the situation would play out. Trifles seems like another murder mystery on the surface, but the play has a much more profound meaning behind it. Glaspell presents the idea that men and women analyze situations differently, and how these situations are resolved based on how we interpret them. Research shows that women’s brains “may be optimized for combining analytical and intuitive thinking.” On the other hand, male brains are predominately “optimized for motor skills and actions” (Lewis). In the play, this research shows true when the women, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, analyze details rather than looking at the apparent, physical evidence, and they find out the motive of the murder. The men, on the other hand, look at broader evidence that does not lead to any substantial conclusion. When Glaspell was writing this play, she wanted the women to be the real instigators, the ones that would end up solving the mystery. While the men in the story laugh at the ‘trifles’ that women worry about, these details mean a great deal in Glaspell’s eyes. Glaspell presents the idea what men and women are different in the way they live their lives through detail.

Trifles was written in the early 1900's by Susan Glaspell. This occurred far before the women's movement. Women were generally looked upon as possessions to their husbands. Their children, all wages, and belongings were property of their husbands. In Glaspell's story it is easily depicted as to what role the men and women portrayed in society at this time.

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.

However, Susan Glaspell uses the kitchen in the plot as another theatrical metaphor for a domain of gender identification because it is a women’s domestic territory where women’s life is revealed through common kitchen items. Throughout the play, we can distinguish the roles given to women in that era. In this era, women’s roles were generally reproductive, so they have been relegated to the home with less interaction with the outside world. Because kitchens have often served as work spaces, women have found a sense of empowerment through domestic tasks such as cooking, food knowledge, and efficiency of the kitchen. These conditions reveal the state of mind of women in the play. Minnie Wright’s “gloomy kitchen” (Glaspell 443) is “left without having been put in order—unwashed pans under the sink, a loaf of bread outside the breadbox, a dish towel on the table—other signs of incompleted work” (Glaspell 443). She lost her motivation to do housework chores, which represents that her mind is battered and leads to Mr. Wright’s murder—he has distorted her life.

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.

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 plot of both Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles” and Henrik Ibsen’s “A Doll House” provides scope for a few scenes that lack the presence of all or any men. These scenes, consisting of communication between the female characters, assist in developing the theme of women openly defying the fact that the society they live in is primarily run by men. All the power and authority in their society, no matter the situation, belongs to the men while the women are simply excluded. The women in these plays defy the norms set by society and manage to evade the expectations of their patriarchal societies.

Trifles by Susan Glaspell is a tragic mysterious drama that has to deal with a murderous wife, and a couple of friends who cover up her tracks. Throughout the story Glaspell gives clues to the reader to help him or her figure out what will happen in the end. Glaspell Wrote Trifles in 1916, according to the year it is safe to assume that this mysterious short story was placed in a time around the 1910’s setting. The clues she leaves, such as the quilting square, the bird, the reflections in the setting helps the reader imagine what is really going on in the background.

The reactions in Trifles reveal to the reader how heavily defined gender roles were in the early twentieth century. The two genders quickly form separate bonds with one another in this play. The men of this time dominate every aspect of this story. They make sarcastic jokes at the women when they start to show concern about things that appeared out of the norm in Mrs. Wright’s house. The first thing they noticed is the broken can goods when the Sheriff says, “Well, you can beat the women! Held for murder and worryin’ about her preserves” (Glaspell 1245). This tone of voice reveals how the men did not take the women seriously. They laugh at the women’s idea of trifles but as Phyllis writes, it is “their attentiveness to the "trifles" in her life, the kitchen things considered insignificant by the men, the two women piece together, like patches in a quilt, the

Music is a short poem or other set of words set to music or meant to be sung. Music can also be interpreted in so many ways which is why it is a symbolic thing. When I read the play “Trifles” written by Susan Glaspell, many songs came into my head in relation to the play. There are many songs I believe that can relate to this story because there is so much emotion involved. Minnie Foster is whom the story is actually based around, even though she's not in any of the scenes. She was a happy outgoing person who loved to sing, dress nice, and be around people in general, but once she married her freedom was taken from her. Her husband did not show her affection and he didn't even want to have kids, so she was extremely lonely. She did have a pet bird that she felt a deep connection with because she too felt caged and wanted to be free. In this essay I will be talking about some songs that I felt represents the lack of women respect during that time period, as well as focusing on Minnie as a person prior to her marriage and her relationship with her husband.

In Trifles, the play takes place at an abandon house at a farm where John Wright and his wife, Minnie Wright lived. John was killed with a rope around his neck while his wife was asleep. The neighbor, county attorney and sheriff came to the crime scene for investigation. Along with them

The play Trifles takes place in a rural area and centers around a woman, Mrs. Wright, who has been accused of killing her husband by strangling him. The act starts off in Mr. and Mrs. Wright’s home on a cold, winter morning the day after Mr. Wright’s body was discovered by the neighbor; the county attorney, the sheriff and his wife and the neighboring farmer and his wife are all inside the

During the time the play was written, women had no equal rights with men, for instance the right to vote or sit in juries. Men dominated all aspects of life in the society at this time, with women’s work being housekeeping. However, as the playwright intelligently spells out, women have the ability to solve the murders, which is ironically done by men in women’s domain – the kitchen. The men however, do not ask for the women’s ideas with regard to the investigation and dismisses the women

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

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