Trifles By Susan Glaspell Essay

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.

In Susan Glaspell's “Trifles”, the male characters are depicted as being more sensible, logical and all-knowing gender. It is the men in the play who hold the most noteworthy positions, for example, the county attorney and sheriff. They esteem finding the quickest response to Mr. Wright's murder. They would prefer not to squander in attempt to find the mystery, thus they neglect critical subtle elements, for example, the messy kitchen. They expect that it is more critical to assess the room where Mr. Wright was murdered than to break down how Mrs. Wright kept her home or the couple's relationship. In the earliest reference point of the play, the County Attorney

the men and the women. Glaspell portrays that women weren’t looked upon the same as the men. Most women were highly looked down upon by their job in society which, was mostly housekeeping and taking care of their kids. The men in Trifles have this belief as the Country Attorney indicates: “Dirty Towels, not much a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?” (187). Upon most conversations between the men and women, the men tend to mock the women. These quotes, also, demonstrate how the men feel about the overall kitchen, which is consider a “woman’s territory”. What went on in the kitchen and everything inside of it was trivial to the men and thus didn’t want anything to do with

The county attorney does not give a second thought about how John may have treated his wife. Instead, he’s focusing on Mr. Hale’s testimony regarding the alleged “scared” look on John’s face. The men’s bias is often and openly expressed to the women verbally. In accordance to the dialog of the play, the men show they don’t consider what women say vital or pertinent. The Sheriff fires back, identifying with his partners, “Well, can you beat the woman! Held for murder and worryin’ about her preserves.” (Glaspell 1412). The men agree in general about the sheriff’s remark. Mr. Hale comes along and says, “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles.” (Glaspell 1412). The dialog of the play demonstrates the obliviousness and general absence of appreciation given to women’s comments. Even the sheriff addresses his wife openly as if a woman’s role in the home was insignificant. The prejudice from the men is evident and once a reader or audience starts inquiring about how the men treat women, a pattern is seen regarding the men’s standards. The court attorney kicks his foot against the pots and pans below the sink in the wake of discovering no clean towels, telling the ladies “Not

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.

Therefore, Mrs. Wright murdered her husband simply because he murdered her pet bird, and she did so the same way he murdered the bird, making the motive is unethical. Mrs. Hale finds a dead bird with a broken neck inside of Mrs. Wright’s sewing box wrapped in a cloth. Obviously as lonely as Mrs. Wright was the death of her bird would have been catastrophic for her. This is evidence of a motive proving Mrs. Wright killed her husband out of sheer revenge of the death of her bird, it was the last thing he was ever going to take away from her. Along with the broken cage Mrs. Peters states, “Why, look at this door. It’s broke. One hinge is pulled apart” (8). Then Mrs. Hale comments, “Looks like someone must have been rough with it” (8). This is how it happened, Mr. Wright came home from work in

Peter and Mrs. Hale try to help Mrs. Wright by hiding the evidence of the killing of her husband. The two women felt sorry for Mrs. Wright because they understood the pain she went through. While the women were searching the through the home, they noticed an empty bird cage. The women end up finding the dead bird in a box that was put in Mrs. Wright’s sewing basket while they were searching through the sewing basket trying to find tools for the half-finished quilt they discovered. Even though Mrs. Wright was such a happy person, John hated seeing her always happy, so he also hated her bird too. The canary was a symbol of Mrs. Wright and how she was fighting for her freedom. Mrs. Wright was characterized by the bird, so when John kills the canary, this causes Mrs. Wright to break down and become broken, so a part of her dies as well. As a result of John killing the only thing that meant the most to Mrs. Wright, she decides to kill him. The many years of abuse by John and the loss of identity by Mrs. Wright caused her to snap. Just as the canary was broken, Mrs. Wright due ,to the abuse, fought back by killing her husband, thus freeing herself. Just as her friends identified with her unhappiness, they collected items that would prevent her from being found

Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale clearly sympathize with Minnie, knowing that her husband was a difficult and controlling man who completely reformed his wife to meet his quiet lifestyle. However, one of these two women are not a suspect to the observant critic. Mrs. Hale wants to help Minnie in any way she can, because she feels a sense of responsibility for the prime suspect reaching her boiling point, but Mrs. Hale is innocent of this murder. Mrs. Peters, however, has questions to answer to the attentive reader. After finding the dead canary and suspicions of the Wrights’ cat killing it, Mrs. Peters asserts: “No, she didn’t have a cat.

The women empower themselves through silence, particularly in the kitchen communicating and reflecting upon things around them in the limited space they were given. The men dismiss the kitchen finding nothing that is relevant to the murder case. The men keep crisscrossing through the kitchen, ignoring and not realizing they could find the vital evidence through trivial details. Even though they were having difficulty in finding clues that lead to the murder. While the women were alone looking through Minnie’s kitchen they found the most valuable evidence the “missing piece to men’s puzzle” (Holstein 283). Mrs. Hale found the dead bird strangled in the sewing box telling “Mrs. Peters-look at it! Its neck! Look at its neck!” (782). Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters recognize the bird was strangled brutally “their eyes meet. A look of growing comprehension, of horror” (Glaspell 782). Both of them realized the bird was killed the same way as Mr. Wright with the rope around their neck. The strangled bird represents Minnie Foster how her freedom and joy was strangled to death. When the men came in the kitchen, the county attorney noticed the bird cage, wondering if the bird flew away, but Mrs. Hale lied and said “we think the- cat got it” ( Glaspell 782). The county attorney seek only visible evidence for murder he was wasn’t thinking critically what it may mean. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters covered the evidence keeping it between themselves for their own knowledge. They

The men joke about how the women just care about things that do not really matter. For example, the county attorney makes fun of how the only thing that the “only” women found out that was whether Mrs. Wright was going to quilt it or not it (Glaspell, 642). Then the men laugh at the silliness of the situation. Everything that the women did, it was laughed at by the men. Along with the sexism, the classic stereotyping on women’s way of life.

(Glaspell 1073). The men in this play tend to neglect the women’s input and say things that degrade the female gender as a whole. “Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?” (Glaspell 1071) said the County Attorney as he kicked the pans under the sink out of frustration because he did not have a clean towel to wipe his

In “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell, Mrs. Wright kills her husbands in his sleep. While murder is usually the wrong thing to do, there are some exceptions in this case. Through the conversation of the other characters, it becomes known that Mr. Wright was abusive to his wife. In 1916 when this story takes place, if family’s had any difficulties, the government or police never intervened. So with this in mind, when the reader finds out that Mr. Wright was abusive, it is understandable why Mrs. Wright felt the need to kill him. If she would not have taken his life, then he would have continued to be abusive to her because no one else would help.

The climax of the play unfolds as the women find an empty birdcage with a broken hinge. As the two women speculate why it was empty, Mrs. Hale describes Mrs. Wright to Mrs. Peters as she knew her when they were single women. The suspect's maiden name was Minnie Foster. She was a beautiful songstress. A voice that was muted when she became Mrs. Wright.

     Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale find their next clue, a dead canary, when they are looking for more sewing materials. The lifeless bird is found in a sewing basket wrapped in a piece of silk, and it looks as if someone choked the life out of the poor creature. The men then interrupt the women, and speak to them mockingly once again. The men notice the bird cage, but fail to take a closer look at

Sexism is categorized by extreme cases, but when in reality, both female and male parties execute sexism everyday even in the simplest forms. Though women tend to receive more grieve when it comes to sexist acts or sexist slurs made by men, the level of sexist disputes has decreases drastically with time. The play “Trifles” displays the major difference is the mindset of the split sexes. The setting presents a time when women were belittled and not taken seriously. Susan Glaspell’s play is evidence on the progress our society has made concerning sexism, never less the ever-existing conflict still takes its toll in our everyday life.