Trifles Essay

In this deeper look into 'Trifles,' Karen goes through the plot and discusses what you should pay more attention too. She describes the symbolism in some of the objects as well as explain the scenes and their little details. Karen finds the difference between male and female perceptions of judgment to be central to the play. She explains that you need to follow the storyline of the women to help solve the case and discusses the differences between a man and a womans world in this time period. Karen shares that she believes the women are going about the case better than the men and she

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.

The title, Trifles, as well as the examples all represent how men view women. A "trifle" is something

Trifles, written in the early 1900’s by Susan Glaspell, is a one-act play illustrating how women can overreact to their own emotions, allowing these emotions to cloud their judgment. This is shown by describing the feelings of two women who are willing to defend a suspect, blame the victim, and go so far as to hide evidence, to protect another woman from being charged with murdering her husband. Mrs. Wright is the suspect in the murder of her husband, who was strangled in his sleep, found with the rope still around his neck. The sheriff and an attorney are examining Mrs. Wrights home for evidence. Mr. Henderson, the attorney, speaking of Mrs. Wright says, “Here’s a nice mess, ..Dirty towels! Not much of a housekeeper,

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 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

“Trifles” by Susan Glaspell is a play that is largely based on stereotypes. The most prevalent one is the inferiority of women over men, though the play also explores the differences between genders in general.

The title, Trifles, suggests that the story is mainly focused on insignificant events or conversations. As the play proceeds, one can be amused by the satirical unfolding of events. Trifles a short story about the murder of Minnie Wright’s husband,

"Trifles," a one-act play written by Susan Glaspell, is a cleverly written story about a murder and more importantly, it effectively describes the treatment of women during the early 1900s. In the opening scene, we learn a great deal of information about the people of the play and of their opinions. We know that there are five main characters, three men and two women. The weather outside is frighteningly cold, and yet the men enter the warm farmhouse first. The women stand together away from the men, which immediately puts the men against the women. Mrs. Hale?s and Mrs. Peters?s treatment from the men in the play is reflective of the beliefs of that time. These women, aware of

I believe Susan Glaspell’s title Trifles refers to the scant attention or importance placed on the thoughts of the female characters, by the male characters, as well as to the inadequate deliberation with which the men attend to the trifles that are actually of import. Not only does Mr. Hale plainly state, “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles” (1283) as the men belittle the thoughtfulness and consideration of Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale in regards to Mrs. Wright worrying about her stored jars, but Sheriff Peters clearly sees just “kitchen things” (1283), while the women begin to see missing pieces of the murder motive in the everyday items. Similarly, Mr. Henderson sees “a nice mess” (1283) in the kitchen, while the women begin to recognize

The men in this story are mocking the women, because they do not expect the women to know anything of importance, and to only know their “womanly” duties, which are deemed unimportant. Another similarity between the two works are the changes that the women undergo towards the end of the plays. In “Trifles”, the women, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, are stuck with the choice of aiding a murderer that was in an abusive relationship, or to tell their husbands what they have found:

Trifles the play is about a world dominated by men. It was a time when men are large and in charge. Women were expected to: stay home, behave a certain way, respect their husband and care for the family. They have little freedom and are oppressed by their husbands. The bird to the story provides Minnie a motive for killing her husband, but it also shows the other women that Minnie husband was cruel and oppressive. He killed her only escape from loneliness and in essence strangling Minnie herself. The others see the dead bird and because they also have faced the same mistreatment they come to her aid. The women took the law into their own hands when they tampered with the evidence. I believe they felt that Minnie would not

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

In the play Trifles by Susan Glaspell she have a married couple and their last name is Mr. and Mrs. Wright. This last of Mr. and Mrs. Sounds like right but they are not right for each other. Their personalities are like water and oil, they do not go and should not be together because of their differences. Although they are fine with each other, things between them begin to get complicated, then one day Mr. Wright is dead.

The world of this play is the basic history of women and men. Men were viewed as superior and are usually sexist, the women were ignored and belittled. Even the title of the story showed how men felt throughout the story. In a feminist analysis of “Trifles” it states, ”In trifles, the title is ironic as the reader sees what is silly and "trifle" to men, is the key for solving the murder”(Khalaf Pg 1) the men were so stuck in there own little worlds to find the real evidence needed to solve the murder. This to me really shows how little a man pays attention to a women and doesn’t realize how important women