Susan Glaspell's Trifles

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.

Mr. Wright is not frightened by the consequences of his actions towards Mrs. Wright and her belongings. The County Attorney thoroughly examines the relationship between Mrs. Wright and Mrs. Hale. Mrs. Hale explains how she has “ . . . not seen much of [Mrs. Wright] of late years” (Glaspell 4) which reveals how isolated Mrs. Wright is. Mr. Wright does not think twice about keeping his wife secluded from everyone because he thinks Mrs. Wright is incompetent in expressing her feelings towards him. The dead canary is found by the women and they debate whether Mr. Wright was a factor in the death of the bird. Mrs. Hale replies to Mrs. Peters that “ . . . Wright wouldn’t like the bird--a thing that sang. [Mrs. Wright] used to sing. He killed that too” (Glaspell 9). Despite his wife’s feelings, Mr. Wright believes that he can get rid of anything to satisfy his happiness.

Between December 1st and 2nd 1900, John Hossack (a farmer from Warren County, Iowa) was murdered with an ax by his wife while in bed. Inspired by the true story of Margaret Hossack, an Indianola, Iowa farm wife who was charged with the murder of her husband John. One of the reporters, Susan Glaspell, decided to write a literary version of this investigation and “Trifles” came to be. Susan Glaspell is a feminist writer from Davenport, Iowa who started off writing for a newspaper called Des Moines Daily News. Later on her literary career she left the journalism industry and founded a theatrical organization called ‘Provincetown Players’ on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In Trifles, Glaspell covers issues regarding female oppression and patriarchal domination. Susan Glaspell’s one-act play still exists as a fascinating hybrid of murder mystery and social commentary on the oppression of women. When Margaret Hossack was charged with the murder of her sixty year old husband John, the man she had been married to for thirty three years, Indianola, Iowa. Killed by two blows to his head with an ax, John Hossack was thought to be a cold mannered and difficult man to be married to, but he didn’t deserve his death. In a cultural that denied women the right to vote or the ability to serve on juries, the community in which the Hossacks resided was not terribly different from the rest of the country. A women’s role was defined as more domestic than

In Trifles, the differences in evidence that the men and woman notice, led men to failure in the investigation of Mr. Wright’s death, because men and women shared different perspectives in the same setting. Hence, even though all the items in the home of the Wright family, held significance and meaning to the death of Mr. Wright, the male characters dismissed these elements as they were more interested in forensic evidence. Whereas the women, on the contrary, caught on to these clues and recognized the relevance, as it revealed the bleakness of Mrs. Wright’s life. The quilt, kitchen and canary/cage are just a few of the many symbols in the play that the men treated as mere trifles which the women weighed important.

Susan Glaspell’s story “Trifles” is based on a true story many decades ago when women were treated as second class citizens. This story focuses on two women in the shadows of men who see their sex as superior and in doing so, miss the most important parts of their investigation. Glaspell uses space to show the bond that is slowly created between these two women that allow them to justify not reporting the evidence to the sexist males who essentially drop the ball because of their lack of empathy.

While searching a cupboard for some sewing supplies to fix a poorly sewn quilt, Mrs. Hale finds a bird cage tucked away inside of it. The bird cage that Mrs. Hale finds is the most symbolic object that reveals the motive for the crime. A bird cage is a symbol of confinement or imprisonment. Mrs. Hale says, “No, Wright wouldn’t like the bird—a thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that, too” (781). Mrs. Hale makes a comparison between Mrs. Wright’s singing of a bird in the sense that birds sing, but Mr. Wright does not want her to do so. The bird cage is the symbol of Mrs. Wrights feeling of imprisonment in the house with her husband. She feels as though her husband is keeping her confined and this is the motive. Mrs. Wright enjoyed singing at one point in her life and her husband did not want her singing, so “he killed that, too” (781). Although, he could have emotionally wounded her or physically, it is not clear what he does to prevent his wife from singing; but it is clear that he put a stop to her doing it somehow.

Susan Glaspell’s one act play “Trifles” is based on an actual murder court trial that she remembered covering from her days as a newspaper reporter in Iowa. She wrote at a time when women were supposed to be submissive to men and especially to their husbands. This play takes a look at a common social problem during the early 1900s when Americans wanted to keep all of their relationship problems private. Many married couples would do anything to keep their lives free from scandal, and this murder mystery examines the necessity of appearances and reputation of having the perfect marriage that was typical during that time. This was done to protect the married couple from being scorned by family, friends and community if their secrets were ever turned into a scandal. It is an incredible play that may be better understood by those who have experienced the same situation at some time in their lives. This play/production is a good definition/example of a problem play because it aims to draw attention to a /the social problem, such as of emotional abuse.

The bird, in itself, is a symbol of Mrs. Wright’s life and her happiness. The event of the bird’s death shows how Mrs. Wright’s husband killed what she loved and how he was oppressive to her. He took away everything that was valuable to her like her bird, and her love for singing. “No, Wright wouldn't like the bird," she said after that--"a thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that too.” Mrs. Hale even admits that he “killed” Mrs. Wright’s singing (Glaspell 12). “The women reason that the strangled bird

To make it simple, a stereotype is a preconception someone makes based on gender, race, or religion that in this case is by gender, and affects women based on their expected gender roles. Women endlessly have expectations that go along with being a wife, mother, or simply a female. In Trifles by Susan Glaspell, 1955 by Alice Walker, and Girl by Jamaica Kincaid women are stereotyped by men and told to follow unwritten but expected roles such as being seen and not heard. As well as how they present themselves, their behavior, and tasks they need to perform.

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

After reading the play Trifles by Susan Glaspell, I have several assertions. My assertion is that Mrs.Wright felt controlled by Mr. Wright, so she killed him. My supporting assertions are that Mr. Wright was killed by Mrs. Wright, Mr. Wright was controlling of Mrs. Wright and, Mr Wright’s killing of her bird is what caused her to kill him. Mrs. Wright killed Mr. Wright.

“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.

What is a trifle? A trifle is something that has little to no importance (dictionary.com). For instance, the color of your nails would be considered a trifle. In Trifles by Susan Glaspell, women are criticized and made fun of by men because of the little things they worry about, such as the color of their nails or their hair. This exhibits the gender role difference portrayed during the play’s time period. The central conflict is what the plot is centered around. In Trifles, the central conflict involves the investigation the Mr. Wright’s murder. As the story progresses, we learn that the women’s trifles would’ve helped the men solve the murder, which is ironic. Numerous accounts of symbolism, relating Mrs.Wright to the bird, is also found

In the play trifles, the symbolism really takes part in this perspective of humanity. The “kitchen things” as the men say, represent Mrs. Wright’s inner life. According to the women's beliefs, they can tell that bread not in it’s box, somewhat of a clean table, and broken fruit preserves shows that Mrs. Wright was not stable (Sofea). Another symbol the women observed was the quilt (Sofea). From their experience, a messy quilt would be made based on how they felt at the time. If they were depressed, bored, or not paying attention their quilt would not be made properly. In this, we conclude again that Mrs. Wright was not stable. Another symbol is the empty bird cage along with the bird having a broken neck (Sofea). The bird not only is a piece of evidence and a motive to the case thee men need but, also represents