Understanding Feminism in Susan Glaspell's Trifles

    As a strong feminist, Susan Glaspell wrote “Trifles” and then translated it to a story called “A Jury of Her Peers.”  These works express Glaspell’s view of the way women were treated at the turn of the century.  Even though Glaspell is an acclaimed feminist, her story does not contain the traditional feminist views of equal rights for both sexes.

In the early nineteen century the society was male dominated society. Susan Glaspell was writing the story ‘Trifles’, her one act play. At that time any of the women did not have any professional right such as vote and had limited opportunities in the professional job in many places. They were expected to remain their everyday house works, subservient to their husbands, and bearing their children. In many ways at that time, men viewed women as objects with no personal goals, interests, original thoughts or intellectual freedom. The author Susan Glaspell In 1916, chose to publish a debatable play authorized Trifles. The play of the story investigates the death of a man with the main suspect being his wife. This piece of literature, like others

Since the beginning of time, men had always been on the top while degrading the women and telling them they only serve as maids in the house. In the case of the Wrights, the author makes the reader wonder what it would have been like to live with Mr. Wright and how Mrs. Wright felt about living in poor conditions because both of them do not appear in the story. It is through Mrs. Hale that the reader gets a sense of before and after life of Mrs. Wright. Mrs. Hale used to be friends with Minnie Foster, who was always cheering and happy around people. She explained that after the marriage, she never went to visit because she hated the house and the owner, blaming him for not giving Minnie the respect she deserved. The three men that were inspecting the house for clues to incriminate Minnie Foster were blinded by ridiculing the ‘womanly’ things that Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters were talking and doing while waiting. Because of this, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters quickly uncover the truth by telling each other their backstories. Mrs. Peters also mentions that a person gets discourage and loses heart. The men misunderstood the act as some kind of ‘mental’ issue or problem but in truth, Minnie Foster did such horrendous act as killing her husband is somehow justified by the author. Minnie Foster managed to put up with John Wright’s harsh treatment and poor conditions that she had to live in.

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.

Wright's life in their hands to do with what they will.  Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale find the evidence needed to convict Minnie Wright and they suppress it.  They were women who understood the plight of loneliness and the death of a beloved pet.  Mrs. Hale understood that Mr. Wright was a hard man to live with and she knew that he had not only killed Mrs. Wright's bird but he had also killed the real Minnie Foster, the girl she had been.  The men in the story, Sheriff Peters, Mr. Hale, and the young unmarried County Attorney, see only surface things.  They believe that the motive for John's murder lies in the bedroom or in the barn.  The men flounder around ignorantly searching for something they will never find because they can not think as Minnie Wright did.  If the women had told them about the discovery of the dead bird, they would probably laugh and say that the women needed to go back to their quilting and their jellies.  The ragged and uneven sewing that suggests a misplaced state of mind in Minnie Wright would also have been laughed at.  The men wanted to find something concrete that would easily convince an all male jury but they never would.  To men, dead canaries are dead canaries, they would never read into it what Mrs. Hale, Mrs. Peters, and Mrs. Wright did.

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

Though she was married, her life was never complete as she did not fit the description of the stereotypical woman in the 1900s. Minnie did not have any children, resulting in more loneliness. Quilts are also a symbol of warmth and comfort which Minnie lacked from Mr. Wright as he was the complete opposite. Minnie had no one except for the bird, so when Mr. Wright killed the bird, he also shattered the final piece of her personality that Minnie had. Consequently, she was furious, confused and simply “didn’t know what she was about [anymore]” (Glaspell 163). For that reason, she decided to murder her husband, which is a piece of evidence the men failed to discover because they did not worry about the “trifles”. Moreover, when the woman found the quilt, Mrs. Hale wonders whether Minnie had intentions to “quilt or just knot it” (Glaspell 163) The men overhear the conversation Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters have, and mock their concerns because they think the woman are worrying about useless “trifles” when they should be investigating a murder. Little did the men know that the decision whether Minnie was going to quilt or knot it, indeed was another piece of evidence that Minnie was the murderer. Minnie having to decide whether she was going to quilt or not it, was a decision of whether she was going to withstand the abuse from her husband or make a change in her life as it was “not it”. Unfortunately, Minnie could

Before she married John, she used to sing in the choir, she was always very active in her community. After she got married, she never interacted with her community; she was always “lonely”. Minnie was a housewife alone all day while John was away at work. Minnie and John never had any children, "Not having children makes less work—but it makes a quiet house" (Susan Glaspell, 21). Mrs. Hale says, “Just to pass the time of day with him [John]… [Was] Like a raw wind that gets to the bone." (Susan Glaspell, 22). Minnie must have been miserable living with John, so she took up the bird. She possibly treated the bird as her child, singing to it and caring for it. She was devastated to have seen the birds’ neck wrung the way it was. She must have mourned the death of the bird the same as the death of a child. Mrs. Hale describes Minnie Foster as, “kind of like a bird herself -- real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and – fluttery”(Susan Glaspell, 22). When Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters find Minnie's birdcage in the cupboard, they do not realize the importance of it until they find the dead bird with its neck “wrung” (Susan Glaspell, 23). Mrs. Hale says to Mrs. Peters, “No, Wright wouldn't like the bird -- a thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that, too” (Glaspell, 25). Mr. Wright’s presumed killing is a “symbolic attack” (Brian Sutton, 172) on his wife, and

In 1882, Susan Glaspell was born in Davenport, Iowa. She graduated from Drake University in 1899 and later worked as a reporter, then a freelance writer, composing several pieces (Kirsner and Mandell 1124). Later Glaspell and her husband, Cram Cook, founded the Provincetown Players for which Glaspell wrote plays (1124). Many of her works conveyed the problems early-twentieth-century women encountered in society. She wrote the play Trifles based on a murder trial she covered as a courthouse reporter (1124). “Glaspell later rewrote Trifles as a short story called ‘A Jury of Her Peer’” (1125). This piece introduces sisterhood between characters and retaliates against the superiority of the male. In “A Jury of Her Peers,” Glaspell uses setting, symbols, and irony to support the theme of gender roles.

In Susan Glaspell’s Trifles, the theme of contrasting roles between men and women is magnified by the setting of a lonely, Midwestern farm isolated from the public. This play demonstrates how different the roles between men and women were, and how women were treated. Trifles, also illustrates the changing times in the late 19th century to early 20th century. During this time period, women become more independent and wanted to be equal to men instead of inferior to them.

Susan Glaspell uses a variety of symbols in her play to demonstrate the stereotypical view and treatment of women by men during the start of the twentieth century. She intricately portrays the female characters in her story as intelligent, but passive due to the fact that males dismiss their ideas and conversations as unimportant. The play, Trifles, uses multiple symbols to show how men fail to recognize the intelligence of women, and oppress the feminists’ way of thinking throughout society.

Susan Keating Glaspell was an American playwright, novelist, journalist and actress. She was born July 1, 1876, in Davenport, Iowa. To most readers Susan Glaspell (1876-1948) is still known primarily as the author of Trifles, the frequently anthologized, classic feminist play about two women’s secret discovery of a wife’s murder of her husband, or the short-story “A Jury of Her Peers,” a re-writing of that piece. “Trifles” and “A Jury of Her Peers” are extremely similar to one another in almost every respect. Much of the dialogue is lifted directly from the play and placed into the short story. Additionally, all of the plot points are the same, with some insignificant differences. An

The audience and characters assume that Minnie is guilty, but with due motivation. “Two housewives, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, accompanying their husbands who are investigating the murder of a man by his wife, discover in the kitchen the clues which indicate the motive of the murderess” (Alkalay-Gut 1). The audience assumes that Minnie’s solitude, imposed on her by her husband, has lead her to be depressed. “Alienated from her husband, powerless and silenced by the circumstances of her marriage, and isolated from her neighbors, Minnie is an unseen woman long before she murders John Wright” (Noe 16). What if Minnie’s solitude was self-inflicted? Just as Mrs. Hale could have visited Minnie, Minnie could have visited Mrs. Hale and other women in the area, but chose not to. The audience assumes that John Wright treats Minnie coldly or harshly. Mrs Hale says, “No, Wright wouldn’t like the bird—a thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that, too.” (Glaspell 1391). “Her life has been made miserable by an individual who has complete control of her” (Alkalay-Gut 3). What

Trifles During the time of the early twentieth century women in society were seen as objects that could be manipulated into being submissive partners to their husbands. This gender inequality was a tremendous problem in American society and many women were calling for a change. Susan Glaspell was one of these women who took a stand to this obstacle and started writing works of fiction challenging the social norm. Glaspell’s most famous writings was a play called Trifles which called attention to the unjust balance between men and women not only in society but in the household as well.

The feminist theory is always adapting to new cultural and always changing. What stems from the feminism theory is feminist literary criticism “feminist criticism examines the ways in which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforces or undermines the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women” (Critical Theory Today, 4 Feminist Criticism, pg. 79 Tyson, Louis). This theory shows us how patriarchal our society is and that’s how Susan Glaspell’s shows her work in her life time where women only had a few roles. They were to have house chores done, cook, and reproduce. Women in the early twentieth century felt it is time to stand up against patriarchal oppressions and which is why Glaspell’s work critiques the society we live in for restricting women. One of her most famous dramas, “Trifles”, Glaspell showed the females capability to stand up for one another. Gender issues play a role in everyday society, oppressing women economically, politically, socially, and psychologically. Glaspell tries to even explain through the title the feminism analyst as you read through her drama.