Trifles by Susan Glaspell

The play Trifles by Susan Glaspell talks about a murder. John Wright is killed in his sleep through struggling. Sherriff Peters, county lawman, Mr. Hale a farm man and George Henderson, the county attorney go to his house to investigate the crime. They look around for evidence of a crime, as the main suspect is the victim’s wife Mrs. Minnie Wright.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Trifles by Susan Glaspell specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Two women also join the men in Mrs. Wright’s kitchen- Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters. The characters look at the murder differently and this discussion will focus on the development in terms of roundness and flatness of the characters and the degree to which the characters are stereotypes. Mrs. Wright the protagonist that we do not meet on stage but learn about from other characters because she is in custody for suspicion of her husband’s murder is a round charact er. Prior to her marrying her late husband, she was a cheerful young woman. She even wore colorful clothes because she enjoyed life and was a bubbly young woman. In addition, she enjoyed singing and once sang in a choir, this kept her cheerful. However, after marriage she changed and become another person. Mrs. Hale noticed her personality change because she remembered her as a sweet woman and very beautiful. This contrasts with the bitter woman she came to be that murdered her husband in cold blood. She was also a timid woman according to Mrs. Hale yet the woman we see when Mr. Henderson stopped by to speak to Mr. Wright was not timid because she stood there unmoved and in a composed manner told him, he could not speak to Mr. Wright because he was dead. Mrs. Hale appears to be timid when we meet her at first. However as the play progresses we see a woman who is empathetic and even agrees to commit a crime by concealing the evidence they find in Mrs. Wright’s kitchen from the men investigating the crime. She is a remorseful person because she regrets not having come more often to visit Mrs. Wright because she knew of her loneliness. She manages to talk Mrs. Peters into the conspiracy of silence regarding the motive and evidence of Mr. Wright’s murder. Her understanding of the suffering of her fellow woman makes her frustrated with the men’s attitude towards women and thus chooses to protect one of her own. Mrs. Peters is a round character. When we meet her at first she is of the opinion that the perpetrator of the crime should be apprehended for the crime. She knows murder is a crime and a punishment is order. However, after a conversation with Mrs. Hale after they discover the strangled bird she changes her mind about Mrs. Wright.Advertising Looking for essay on american literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More They think she might have committed the crime out of frustration and anger of her environment, which they say was lonely and depressing. Mrs. Wright was a lonely woman with no child and her only company was her bird that most probably was killed by her husband. Thus, she killed him in retaliation and Mrs. Peters identifies with her situation as she says how lonely she felt when her two-year-old child died and protects hides the evidence in her coat pocket. The two women describe Mr. Wright as a good man. This means that he had a dual character because to the outsiders he appeared as a quiet good husband. Yet Mrs. Hale says that he was a hard man and not pleasant to live with and that is why Mrs. Wright must had bought a bird to keep her company. Even though Mr. Wright did not take alcohol and always kept his word, he was not kind to his wife and did not try to make her life cheerful as he was always out working and mean when at home. His character led Mrs. Wright to loneliness and eventual murder. This character remains flat because his character doe s not change for the better as Mrs. Wright became lonely and her troubles started soon after she married him. He remained detached from his wife, did not understand her feelings, and killed the one thing that give her company and at least made her cheerful. He also made her withdraw from the society and become lonely. The other three men, the Sheriff, the County and Mr. Hale do not change their character. These men have a low opinion about women and their thoughts about women only being concerned with trifles remain constant throughout the play. They belittle Mrs. Wright and the women at large with their condescending attitude. For example we see them criticizing Mrs. Wright’s housekeeping skills. At the close of the play, the men miss an important piece of evidence that might have helped to convict Mrs. Wright due to their lack of keenness in the trifles unlike the two women who see and come up with a motive for the murder, which they conceal. The characters in the play have some degree of stereotype. The men represent the stereotype that the society has towards women that women cannot handle big things and only good for housekeeping and dealing with little things. Their trifles are not considered harmful and this explains why the men overlook the little things that would have led them to the motive of the crime and hence the perpetrator. On the other hand, the women represent the stereotype that women that they are only good for housekeeping. For instance, Mrs. Wrights abandons her own life such as singing in the choir or joining other women because she has married. She represents women who stop living their lives once they get married, become lost in their new married live, and eventually become frustrated. To sum up the way men and women view each in the society ought to change, both are equally capable. The men ought to treat women as equals because they too are also capable of understanding ‘big’ things as the two women show by unrave ling the murder motive.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Trifles by Susan Glaspell specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This essay on Trifles by Susan Glaspell was written and submitted by user Bryson Ellis to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here. Trifles by Susan Glaspell Contemporarily, people are equal regardless of their gender courtesy of the different constitutions across the world. This perception did not exist earlier, especially at the start of the 20th century and earlier centuries. In the past, the society was mainly male-dominated and women were treated with little importance.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Trifles by Susan Glaspell specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More For instance, the woman’s place was in the kitchen and she played the role of a good mother to her children while at the same time taking care of her husband. Literature materials published before late 20th century mainly deal with roles based on the gender of an individual. The 19th century was characterized by the emergence of female literary figures and writers who wrote exemplary works on inequality on both sexes, while paying attention to women’s inability to be independent and their overr eliance on men. Several female literal writers paved the way for other female writers in the 20th century. Susan Glaspell was one of the 20th century writers and she came up with literal works that addressed various issues in the society. One of the most outstanding literal works by Glaspell is Trifles. In the play, Trifles, Glaspell shows a reflection of gender and sex roles bound on cultural notions with greater emphasis on women. Women were treated with lesser dignity as compared to men and to the society; they were of little or no importance, as they presumably contributed very little to important issues within the society. In her play, Trifles, Glaspell uses two parts of the play, one distinctive narrative on men and the other on women, in order to trigger the reader into evaluating the value of both genders to the society. In this piece of literature, Glaspell not only demonstrates the role of women, but also depicts knowledge and valuation or devaluation of perspectives on w omen within various contexts. This paper aims at discussing conveyance of the feminist perspective as depicted in Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles. Trifles is a feminist play where feminism means the act of agitating for women rights by any means. Glaspell goes into details to show how Mrs. Wright is an object of abuse to her husband and thus arouse sympathy from readers who would in turn support the feminism agenda of liberating women, which started in the late 19th Century. Mr. and Mrs. Wright, the two main characters in the play Trifles, bring out the challenges faced by women as at that time. For instance, Mrs. Wright is subjected to mental suffering as a result of endless abuses from her husband, who also imposes quite a number of restrictions to her; hence, limited access to the outside world. The play presents men as uncouth creatures who never want peace in the house. Mrs. Wright spends a considerable amount of time in the kitchen, which is a symbolic representation of marriages where most women of the time spent a significant portion of their lives.Advertising Looking for essay on art and design? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In addition, Glaspell incorporates five people in the play, two of whom are women, a symbolic representation of women as a minority. The timing of this play is not coincidental. Glaspell did not just choose to address women plight and probably suggest ways of how to overcome men dominance at a time when feminism was being rooted in the society. Glaspell simply embraced the opportunity presented by the writing space to propagate feminism because she could reach a wider audience via writing. Mrs. Wright’s intentions to kill her husband depict women oppression by men in society. The play takes place in a cold gloomy house representing the cruelty of Mr. Wright who is adamant in his pursuits and thus a nuisance to those who do not like his way of life. As the play begins, all characters enter the farmhouse, but women distance themselves from men, thus showing the rift that exists between the two sexes in the society. The two women in the play are aware of their disregard in the community, a fact that strengthens the bond between them. Through this bond, they gain power that assists them to protect Mrs. Wright who is accused of trying to murder her husband. Through staying together, as illustrated in the play, women can achieve indomitable power. However, this power comes with the assumption that women live as individuals and it is only through bonding that they can gain power, strength, and success. Through this argument, Glaspell seeks to give women tips on how to overcome chauvinism and tame men through the power of staying together. According to the play Trifles, in a society dominated by male chauvinism, women take advantage of their lack of recognition to destroy the power of law coupled with influencing and effecting justice. Within th e play, power of women is illustrated indirectly; for instance, Glaspell uses bonding to show that women have a higher level of power than they know. In addition, once a woman gains access to knowledge, she implements the knowledge in making significant decisions in life. For instance, Mrs. Peter and Mrs. Hanes research on ways to relieve Mrs. Wright of her abusive marriage, rather than paying attention to the violent and abusive moments she faces in the marriage. Instead of letting their emotions and sympathy dictate their course of action, they become proactive and come up with ways of freeing their friend for once and for all. Knowledge is also one of the ways that people can achieve power. Together with their bonding, women in the play use knowledge to come up with ways that see the murder case against Mrs. Wright dropped. Women also tend to come together and form alliances since they are highly sidelined in the society. Clearly, by writing this play sometimes before August 1916 (when it premiered), Glaspell was simply promoting the feminism agenda, which was launched in the Seneca Falls Convention on July 19, 1848 where western women right’s champions met for the first time ever to push for equal rights.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Trifles by Susan Glaspell specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Trifles is a feminist play as explored in this paper. Women live in gender discrimination in the society where males dominate and control almost all sectors of society. However, in a feministic move, Glaspell illustrates how women can come together to help one another and achieve power in unity. For instance, Mrs. Peter and Mrs. Hanes form an indomitable force through which they manage to free Mrs. Wright from the claws of life imprisonment due to murder charges. Even though the play fails to call for entitlement of equal rights to men and women openly, from a critical point of view, it i s agitating for the same rights. Therefore, Glaspell simply uses the writing space to promote feminism as shown in this feministic play. This essay on Trifles by Susan Glaspell was written and submitted by user Tristen Porter to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here. Trifles by Susan Glaspell