Symbols are important, especially in literature. They have been known to inspire hope and life, in turn inspiring some of the most profound actions in the history of the world. Yet, humanity’s statement to symbols goes beyond us finding meaning in innominate or non-human objects. People assign humanity into objects, almost a part of themselves. This concept is clearly demonstrated in Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles. The work contains many element of symbolism that make important and relieving comments on the characters of the play and the themes of the story.
One of the first symbols introduced in the work, Mrs. Wright’s apron is deeply symbolic of her personal struggle in her home and marriage. Physically, the apron is a feminine piece of
…show more content…
Throughout the drama, Mrs. Wright and the canary share many similarities. For example, Mrs. Hale, the wife of Mr. Hale, describes that Mrs. Wright “was kind of like a bird herself—sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and—fluttery” (185). Overall, the quotation describes Mrs. Wright as a gentle and submissive woman, the type of woman society expected her to be. In addition, although Mrs. Hale compares her to a bird in a favorable manner, she also defines Mrs. Wright as a woman that is fragile and uncappable of providing for herself, another social stereotype that women were subject to. Ultimately, however, the rigid social expectations for women served to reiterate their role in the home and to further confine them to the homestead itself, especially as society typically objectified and trivialized women, celebrating the conforming wife while condemning women to have their wings clipped by society’s standards. In this way, beyond her personality, Mrs. Wright becomes even more synonymous with the canary, an estranged creature confined behind bars as an aesthetic spectacle that is unable to sing an independent song.
Lastly, Mrs., Wright’s quilt is directly symbolic of the empathetic relationship that all three of the women, Mrs. Hale, Mrs. Peters, and Mrs. Wright, share throughout the work.In many ways, the
Mrs. Wright eventually deteriorated just has her environment, her rocking chair, and the canary. In “Jury of Her Peers” Minnie Wright’s situation illustrates many women of the world. In the story and in our society many woman are stereotyped in the marriage to complete all home duties and take of care the children while consumed in pleasing their husband. While doing so we lose ourselves. While reading the store I also realized how blessed I am to be symbolized as a modern
The archetype in this story which appears to hold the most symbolic value is the quilts that were sewn by her late mother. The struggle the character has in the story is that she holds culturally symbolic value with the quilts her mother sewed and sees that their use was representative to the lifestyle of the post American Slavery culture she and all of her ancestors were apart of and accustomed to. However, her daughter Dee seems to have an extreme level of narcissism towards these
As the ladies examine the house, while the men are other places, picking clothes and an apron up for Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Hale gains sympathy for her until finally she starts to take action. When they find the block of quilting that has stitching askew, she starts to fix it, perhaps to cover for Mrs. Wright?s distraught state of mind. While Mrs. Hale is finding sympathy for Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Peters offers a counterpoint that tries to justifies the men?s viewpoints and actions. Her comments to Mrs. Hale?s resentful musings on Mrs. Wright?s unhappy life and on the actions of men in regards to women in general all seem to be rote answers programmed into her by society and a desire not to cause any trouble. This all changes as soon as Mrs. Peters finds the bird.
As the women walk through the house, they begin to get a feel for what Mrs. Wright’s life is like. They notice things like the limited kitchen space, the broken stove, and the broken jars of fruit and begin to realize the day-to-day struggles that Mrs. Wright endured. The entire house has a solemn, depressing atmosphere. Mrs. Hale regretfully comments that, for this reason and the fact that Mr. Wright is a difficult man to be around, she never came to visit her old friend, Mrs. Wright.
In the poem “The Century Quilt” by Marilyn Nelson Waniek the speaker uses symbolism and tone to convey a deeper meaning behind the quilt. The speaker’s symbolism displays the diversity in the speaker’s family. The speaker’s tone conveys pride in their family. Each square of the quilt represents a different section of the speaker’s family, and past occurrences.
Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles, shows the importance of staging, gestures, and props to create the proper atmosphere of a play. Without the development of the proper atmosphere through directions from the author, the whole point of the play may be missed. Words definitely do not tell the whole story in Trifles - the dialog only complements the unspoken.
In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use” the author uses symbolic objects to represent something larger than what it may seem which becomes a shortcut to the overall theme of the story. Both the daughters and mama each have different views on what the symbolic meaning is. The narrator who is also known as Mama tells the story which has to do with the identity and ancestry. The symbolic item in this story are the hand-stitched quilts, and the story takes off when the daughter, Dee, sees the hand-stitched quilts to be something that is fashionable and not as something that should be seen as very valuable. The quilts are known to be very unique and seen as authentic art. Many critics have analyzed the story focusing on different areas of
In any form of writing, various literary elements come together to compose a thorough and multifaceted work of literature. All the elements serve a distinct purpose; symbolism, for one, is imperative in a literary work because it aids the reader in the overall comprehension of the particular theme or multiple themes that a story is trying to convey. In Susan Glaspell 's, Trifles, she meticulously incorporates significant symbols that help the reader recognize and construe the depth of the significance of the jar of fruit preserves, quilt, bird, and the bird cage. Things are not always as insignificant as they appear to be, and Glaspell 's play is a prime example of how important it is to read between the lines.
Throughout Trifles, symbolism is used to develop the theme of gender differences. In the play, the women are referred to only by their married names. Dramas for Students explains,
Also when they made the connection with a singing canary and Minnie Wright who didn’t sing anymore. The symbol of the quilt came to me when one of the women starts fixing it, because she cared about the quilts. That made me realize that it must have been odd for her quilt to become so sloppy. This showed larger importance when the men kept making fun of the quilt, which made me think more about what the quilt meant. This also shows how the men were so clueless about what the quilt meant.
Written by Susan Glaspell, Trifles is a play with a main theme that distinguishes men versus women and a secondary theme about isolation. One of the characters,
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.
Susan Glaspell’s one-act play “Trifles” was written in 1916. It was written based on real events. When Glaspell was a reporter, she covered a murder case in a small town in Iowa. Later, she wrote this short play which was inspired by her investigation and what she observed. Glaspell used irony, symbolism, and setting in her creation of the authentic American drama, “Trifles”, to express life for women in a male-dominated society in the early nineteen hundreds.
Mrs. Hale, however, does ultimately understand what Mrs. Wright is about. She comprehends the desperation, loneliness, and pain that