Essay on Trifling Justice

When Henderson's criticism of Minnie's domestic skills rouses a defense from Mrs. Hale about the incredible demands of farm work, the young attorney patronizes her with, "Ah, loyal to your sex, I see" (1392). As the men finally leave the kitchen,

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.

So, Mr. Wright busted the cage door and strangled the bird. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters decided not tell the men about their discovery. The play ends with the characters exiting the kitchen and the women announcing that they have determined Mrs. Wright’s quilt making style. She “knots it” instead of “quilts it”. I think with women were referring to the fact that Mrs. Wright killed her husband, knotting the rope around his neck. But saying it in such a way that the men will continue thinking that they pay attention to ‘trifle’ matters. In trifles, the title is ironic as the reader sees what is silly and "trifle" to men, is the key to solving the murder. The title, the characters, the role of women and they all work together to paint not only a picture of Minnie’s life with John but by adding the lives of all women who live abuse under male domination. In Trifles, the male characters are regarded as intellectually superior to their wives, who are treated as rather childish for their concern in domestic details. But, in fact, the author makes a feminist glory as she describes her female characters with such a witty way to secretly win over male

From a reader’s standpoint, how a character develops throughout a story is one of the most intriguing parts of reading. In Susan Glaspell's A Jury of her Peers, the narrator, Mrs. Hale, obsesses over how Minnie Wright changes since she was a girl. Similarly, in Everyday Use by Alice Walker, the narrator awaits her daughter’s arrival, to find that she is radically different from before. One of the core reasons for these changes in the characters are the relationships they are a part of. The two characters’ significant others each have a unique influence on the returning characters (Wangero and Minnie).

The two women were left in the kitchen and they discovered clues for why Minnie was motivated to murder Mr. Wright. Martha Hale and Mrs. Peters noticed details in the kitchen that the men sought it as normal. Glaspell points out the men’s opinion of

The men talk with a rough familiarity born working together and knowing one another. The women seem less acquainted and don't ever call each other by their first names. But at the men's first disparaging remarks about Minnie's housekeeping and women 'worrying over trifles,' the women move closer together" (Smith 177). This is what set up the women to try and find the evidence that they need to protect Minnie Wright from being charged with her husband's murder.

Mrs. Hale begins the play with a greater suspicion of the designs of the men in their investigation of Mrs. Wright's crime. However, not until she compares the state of the Wright kitchen to her memory of Minnie Foster does she articulate that "we all go through the same things--it's all just a different kind of the same thing," and she comes to accept her portion of blame for not alleviating Minnie Wright's loneliness (Glaspell pg. 1046). On the other hand, Mrs. Peters commences with the assumption that because she is married to the sheriff, she must uphold male definitions of duty and law. By the end of the play, she protects Minnie because she has chosen to empathize with someone who reflects her own needs rather than with the identity imposed

"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

The men believe if someone commits a crime then that person should have to pay for the crime they’ve committed. However, Mrs. Hale concludes women "all go through the same things--it's all just a different kind of the same thing" (Glaspell) and she proceeded to convince Mrs. Peters that the true crime was committed by everyone who deserted and isolated Minnie Wright. The women felt because Minnie’s husband John Wright was a hard man who did not provide Minnie with companionship and instead he caged his wife’s spirit that the community should have reached out to Minnie. Consequently, the women felt the community’s lack of assistance to Minnie Wright was also a crime that equally justified them being just as much at fault for the murder of John Wright as Minnie Wright was. Accordingly, Mrs. Hale believed true justice would be served by punishing the individuals who neglected Minnie Wright and everything Mrs. Wright had been going through while married to John Wright.

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.

From this play, I can predict on the Minnie’s tragic life during her marriage with John Wright, until she took a crazy decision by killing him. According to Mrs. Hale’s point of view that Minnie such a cheer and happy girls during her teen years, it makes the readers realized that John Wright is not a good husband, as he tortured her life throughout their marriage. I found that this story from the play still exists in this modern era, and Susan Glaspell have done the great work by published this play to give big awareness to people. For my part, I think if I were Minnie in this story, I would ask John Wright for a divorce instead of killing him, even though women did not have any rights to make any decision during that period and divorce considered to be as a bad thing, but maybe that it is the only right thing to do as I, Minnie, was already bear the pain for too long until I could no longer see any solution to settle down the issue. Hence, every woman deserves to be happy and have rights on making choices. Thus, Minnie would not kill him, her husband, if she has chances on getting a

When Mrs. Hale finds a dead bird in Mrs. Wright's sewing box, she soon recognizes the obvious reason why John Wright was murdered. The audience sees character motivation in Mrs. Wright. Mr. Wright was a man who used silence and coldness to control and mold his wife into someone he thought she ought to be. He killed the singing bird, which was a symbol for Mrs. Wright as Minnie Foster. In an indirect way, he killed her joy of singing, her spirit, keeping her in her own "cage" which she can not escape from. Unless she "got rid of" what (or who) was holding her prisoner.

In Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles a man has been murdered by his wife, but the men of the town who are in charge of investigating the crime are unable solve the murder mystery through logic and standard criminal procedures. Instead, two women (Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters) who visit the home are able to read a series of clues that the men cannot see because all of the clues are embedded in domestic items that are specific to women. The play at first it seems to be about mystery, but it abruptly grows into a feminist perspective. The play Trifles written by Susan Glaspell can be considered a revolutionary writing in it its advocacy of the feminist movement.

Susan Glaspell's Trifles explores the classical male stereotype of women by declaring that women frequently worry about matters of little, or no importance. This stereotype makes the assumption that only males are concerned with important issues, issues that females would never discuss or confront. The characters spend the entirety of the play searching for clues to solve a murder case. Ironically, the female characters, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, uncover crucial evidence and solve the murder case, not the male characters. The men in the play, the Sheriff, County Attorney, and Hale, search the scene of the crime for evidence on their own, and mock the women's discussions. The women's interest in the quilt,