Susan Glaspell 's ' Trifles '

At the beginning of the short drama, “Trifles,” Mrs. Peters, the sheriff’s wife, is painted as timid and submissive wife. She willingly submits herself to the responsibilities she has as a wife. As the play unfolds, Mrs. Peter’s submissiveness begins to diminish. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale work together to uncover the murder of Minnie Wright’s husband. When the women find the evidence, they refuse to share it with the men. Mrs. Peter’s character transforms into a more confident individual over the course of the play.

In the early 1900’s, both males and females were perceived as complete opposites of eachother. Women were considered physically weaker and morally superior to men. The gender roles during this time period were clearly demonstrated in the play “Trifles”, by Susan Glaspell. At a first glance it may seem like the play is only about the death of Mr. Wright. The play could simply be interpreted that the characters all work together to determine the murderer of Mr. Wright. The initial perception overlooks how the women were treated during this time period. The men conclude that the women are incapable of finding the murderer of Mr. Wright only because they are female. Similarly, Mr. Wright does not think twice about how poorly he treats his wife

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.

One critic, Leonard Mustazza, argues that Mrs. Hale recruits Mrs. Peters “as a fellow ‘juror’ in the case, moving the sheriff’s wife away from her sympathy for her husband’s position and towards identification with the accused woman” (494). Though this is true, Mrs. Peters also comes to her own understanding. What she sees in the kitchen led her to understand Minnie’s lonely plight as the wife of an abusive farmer. The first evidence Mrs. Peters reaches understanding on her own surfaces in the following passage: “The sheriff’s wife had looked from the stove to the sink to the pail of water which had been

"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

In a time when women were thought of as airheaded and unconcerned with matters of importance by men, a woman’s compassion and intuition can hold incredible power. “In a Jury of Her Peers”, Minnie Wright is judged by her peers, and by their knowledge of her prior life, her current circumstances, and forced destitution, she is found innocent. In the story, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters accompany their husbands to the Wright home in a quest to find evidence implicating Minnie Wright in the murder of her husband. From the moment they enter the home, Mrs. Hale is sympathetic to Minnie Wright. When the county attorney looks over Minnie Wrights kitchen and states, “Not much of a housekeeper, would you say ladies?” Mrs. Hale’s stiff reply is, “There’s a great deal of work to be done on a farm.” Although Mrs. Peters begins the story with a firm stance of support for her husband saying, “Of course it’s no more than their duty,” in response to Mrs. Hales comment about the men snooping. However; as the story progresses, Mrs. Peters views begin to match with Mrs. Hale.

Even with only assumptions, the “comprehension” of Wrights treatment of Minnie “makes the murder totally understandable”, meaning that without any true evidence, the audience and characters find Minnie guilty of and justified in committing murder (Alkalay-Gut 6).

Susan Glaspell’s Trifles is a play about the effect of gender differences on perceptions of duty, law, and justice. The early 1900’s is the setting, arriving at the Wright farmhouse on a crisp, cold morning. Mr. Hale, a neighbor, found John Wright murdered the morning before. Hale has brought his wife, the county attorney, the sheriff and his wife to the home so the men can investigate Wright’s death. With Mrs. Wright as the primary suspect, Henderson, the county attorney, is looking for her motive. While the sheriff and the county attorney are busy looking at the mess left in the kitchen, the women are noticing some of the smaller things, the "trifles" according to Mr. Hale. The men go upstairs, and that is when Mrs. Hale

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.

Suzy Clarkson Holstein the author of “Silent Justice In a Different Key: Susan Glaspell’s ‘Trifles’” writes about the men in the play looking for reasons why Minnie would kill her husband at a very legal standpoint. By looking through the scene of the crime, searching for obvious clues to why Minnie would murder her husband. The woman Sympathize with Minnie, they look at her house, and the little things around them: her kitchen, her quilt. They realize that her life doesn’t reflect her personality . “The mundane details of Minnie's life lead Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters to comprehend what their husbands do not: the motive for the murder” (Holstein 283-284). They go through the parts of Minnie’s life that were deemed unimportant by their husbands

The men, though, laugh at the women's wonderings about the quilt. To them it is of little importance. Likewise, the bird and its cage are easily dismissed. In fact, the men just as easily believe a lie about this bird and cage. When the cage is noticed, its broken door overlooked, the county attorney asks, "Has the bird flown?'" Mrs. Peters replies that the "'cat got it'" (360). There is actually no such cat, but the men do not know that and never question the existence of it. The bird, however, is vital to the case. Mr. Wright killed the bird, Minnie's bird, which may have provoked her to then kill him. In addition, the strangling of Mr. Wright, a form of murder which perplexes all when a gun was handy, is reminiscent of the strangling of that bird. It is another answer to the men's questions, but an answer they never find. The women, on the other hand, take note of all they see. They notice not only the bird, the cage, and the quilt but other things that the men call "trifles," like Minnie's frozen preserves and her request for her apron and shawl. These women are united; it seems, not only as country wives or as neighbors but on the basic level of womanhood. This is apparent from the start of the play. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters "stand close together near the door," emotionally bonded throughout the play and, here, physically, in a way, too. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters also have a kinship to Minnie, just as to each other. They respect her work as a homemaker. Mrs.

Mr. Hale remarks, "Well, women are used to worrying over trifles" (1174), and Sheriff Peters assumes the insignificance of "kitchen things" (1174). Hence, women are forced into a domestic, secondary role, like it or not, and are not even respected for that. Mr. Hale, Sheriff Peters, and the county attorney all dismiss the dialogue between Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale as feminine chitchat. Further, the county attorney allows the women to leave the Wrights' house unsupervised because he sees Mrs. Peters as merely extension of her husband.