Trifles By Susan Glaspell Essay

Therefore, Mrs. Wright murdered her husband simply because he murdered her pet bird, and she did so the same way he murdered the bird, making the motive is unethical. Mrs. Hale finds a dead bird with a broken neck inside of Mrs. Wright’s sewing box wrapped in a cloth. Obviously as lonely as Mrs. Wright was the death of her bird would have been catastrophic for her. This is evidence of a motive proving Mrs. Wright killed her husband out of sheer revenge of the death of her bird, it was the last thing he was ever going to take away from her. Along with the broken cage Mrs. Peters states, “Why, look at this door. It’s broke. One hinge is pulled apart” (8). Then Mrs. Hale comments, “Looks like someone must have been rough with it” (8). This is how it happened, Mr. Wright came home from work in

The county attorney does not give a second thought about how John may have treated his wife. Instead, he’s focusing on Mr. Hale’s testimony regarding the alleged “scared” look on John’s face. The men’s bias is often and openly expressed to the women verbally. In accordance to the dialog of the play, the men show they don’t consider what women say vital or pertinent. The Sheriff fires back, identifying with his partners, “Well, can you beat the woman! Held for murder and worryin’ about her preserves.” (Glaspell 1412). The men agree in general about the sheriff’s remark. Mr. Hale comes along and says, “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles.” (Glaspell 1412). The dialog of the play demonstrates the obliviousness and general absence of appreciation given to women’s comments. Even the sheriff addresses his wife openly as if a woman’s role in the home was insignificant. The prejudice from the men is evident and once a reader or audience starts inquiring about how the men treat women, a pattern is seen regarding the men’s standards. The court attorney kicks his foot against the pots and pans below the sink in the wake of discovering no clean towels, telling the ladies “Not

In Trifles, by Susan Glaspell, readers are led to feel sympathy for Mrs. Wright. At the end of the play, this is demonstrated through Mrs. Hale comparing her to a bird, the two women realizing the pain she endured, and the description of who Mrs. Wright was before her husband. Mrs. Hale’s symbolic comparison of Mrs. Wright to a bird

From the beginning of the play, the division between the male and female characters are seemingly evident. The play begins with the sheriff, Mr. Peters, the County Attorney, Mr. Hale and their wives Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale entering the house of John Wright, who was recently hanged, to find evidence. As the investigation begins, the disarray of the kitchen is immediately drawn to the attention of the audience. Regardless, that the men neglect the kitchen as a location of interest, since they believe that the kitchen

Glaspell proves her point by a conversation between two women in this story. The women, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, are at the scene of the murder of John Wright. The women accompanied the County Attorney, the Sheriff, and Mr. Hale to the house. Mr. Hale describes everything that he saw the morning he discovered Mr. Wright's body. The men have come to the house looking for evidence to

Susan Glaspell’s most memorable one-act play, Trifles (1916) was based on murder trial case that happened in the 1900’s. Glaspell worked as a reporter, where she appointed a report of a murder case. It was about a farmer, John Hossack who was killed while he was asleep in bed one night. His wife claimed that she was asleep next to him when the attack occurred. No one believed in her statement, she was arrested and was charged on first degree murder.

The men were still looking for evidence, but women are replaying the scene of murder in there minds. They conclude that Mrs. Wright was sewing in kitchen, when Mr. Wright came into the kitchen and saw the bird. This explains why Mrs. Wright was sewing nervously. I assumed that Mr. Wright didn’t like birds, because they are very noisy referring to conversation with Mr. Hale about the joining party phone line. Mr. Wright must have seen the birdcage with the bird. He must have broken the birdcage and broke the bird’s neck. This was enough of a motive need for Mrs. Wright to kill her husband. The

There is a harsh reality that many individuals tend to ignore. In these modern times most women don't realize the struggle women before them had to undergo. In the late 19th century women weren't important, respected, or anywhere near equal to men. It was common for women to be misunderstood and or assumed by men to be uncivil. Trifles by Susan Glaspell shows the depiction of women towards the end of the 1800s. Men weren't as kind or laid back when it came to running the household and handling every day matters as a family. Men were dominant. It was the patriarchal ignorance of the late 19th century that bred isolation within women and lead to their loss of identity and mental instability.

Beginning in childhood, there are boundaries that separate people economically, racially, and especially sexually. These are walls that society puts up before children even have the opportunity to think for themselves and reverse the effects. People become completely divided, and arguments, even war, ensue between the separate divisions based on the imbalance of power in each. In Susan Glaspell’s Trifles, she tells not the story of a murder case, but an example of war from one of these divisions in the late 1900s--the gender division. Within the text, the author uses the characterization of the men, symbolism of the bird cage, and denouement of the plot to explain the gender conflict that ensues from the walls that were built to divide men and women.

Sound “I sleep sound” (Glaspell 619). Those are the words of a woman defending herself against a horrific crime. Sound: it is a word that strikes us as something that might keep us up at night. In the correct context, it obviously implies noise. ‘That is an annoying sound,’ or ‘that sound is deafening.’

In her play, “Trifles,” Glaspell writes about a murder committed in a farmhouse on a cold winter day. This mystery includes two women from different backgrounds that work together to solve the mystery of Mr. Wrights death. The obstacles they face along the way teach many valuable lessons. The relationship between Mrs. Peter and Mrs. Hale helps explain the overall theme of the gender divide occurring in 1916. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale come from different backgrounds.

“Trifles” is a one act play written by Susan Glaspell in 1916, which was first performed on August 8th by the Provincetown Players in Provincetown, Massachusetts at the Wharf Theater. The author, Susan Glaspell, was born on July 1, 1876 in Davenport, Iowa. Over her lifetime she had become proficient in many different professions: Playwright, Actress, Novelist, and Journalist. For her works, she won an American Pulitzer Prize in 1931. The Provincetown Players was founded by Susan Glaspell and her husband, George Cram Cook. This was the first modern American theater company. Most of her works centered on current issues at the time such at gender roles between males and females. Susan Glaspell was not the typical woman of her time, she decided to go to school and get herself an education and find herself a her own career instead of waiting around for a husband. In 1899, Glaspell graduated from Drake University in Iowa and found herself a job as a journalist for the Des Monies Daily newspaper. The play Trifles was based upon a story that Glaspell reported on when she was a journalist.

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.

The broken birdcage can also be seen as a symbolic item within the story. The birdcage represents how women were oppressed, or “caged in” by men during this time in history. The bird, which symbolizes Mrs. Wright in the story, is not mentioned by the men when they notice the birdcage. This is because Glaspell wanted to emphasize that most men during this time were focused on what women were limited to doing, not who they were as a person. As the men overlook yet another important detail, the women realize that the door to the birdcage is broken. This symbolizes Mrs. Wright breaking away from the chains of oppression put on her by her husband.

"Trifles" is a play with a unified plot. Although there are verbal flashbacks to the events of the day of the murder of John Wright, the play's entire plot begins and ends in a span of one day. The author also extends the unified plot to create a single setting (the farmhouse kitchen). The plot centers on John Wright's murder. Mrs. Wright is the main suspect; an investigation is taking place as to the motive or reason for the crime.