Essay On Trifles

Essay On Trifles
Trifles is a play about the death of a woman's spirit. She is overpowered by her dominating husband
and in the end, kills him for suffocating her spirit. The setting of the play is in a kitchen, the sphere,
and everything surrounding shows the women's lives. It shows the writers being preoccupied with
the culture, which is bound by the sex and gender roles. As it has been explained in the title, Trifles
mean something of little or no importance. The women in this society are seen as the trifles, which
has no importance. Only found only in the kitchen. Glaspell characterizes male characters differently
than females. The men of this play act towards their wives like any man would in 1916. The men
are dominating and have very little real...show more content...
The power and authority of men are questioned when they kept crises crossing each other in the
house with their actions leading to nowhere it showed their incompetence and ineffectuality.
The women are there to get the preparation of personal effect that they need to carry to Mrs.
Wright, who is imprisoned. The way women and the men view the crime is very different. The
women know who the killer from the evidence they saw in the kitchen, but due to them going
through similar abuse in the society decides to cover up for their friend. It gives us knowledge that
the women way of getting to know about the evidence gave them knowledge and the decision on
how to act on that particular findings or the knowledge. The women instantly learned about the life
Mrs. Wright has been living, not only the research on a murder case. Mrs. Wright was staying or
living in the kitchen, unlike other people who live in the living room. As this is this way of getting
some facts from the woman, the women have the ability to gain power for low status and can keep
them quiet at the end of it.
The Sheriff and the County Attorney seem to have a jaded view of women and their importance to
society. They push the women aside and disregard their value in this investigation. Glaspell was
ahead of her time by showing how these men were smothering their wives, just as Mr. Wright did.
Mrs. Wright was an outgoing woman
Get more content on HelpWriting.net

Essay On Trifles
Throughout time, history has shown that women have always faced a minority in society. In early
years of the 20th century women have encountered huge obstacles due to a male–dominated society
where they have been assigned involuntarily life rolls like stay at home wives where most of them
are forced to live a joy restricted and isolated existence. Trifles is a one–act play that takes place in
early 1900's in the abandoned and gloomy farmhouse of John and Minnie Wright where George
Henderson the county attorney, Henry Peters a local sheriff and neighboring farmer Lewis Hale
accompanied by the wives of two of the men, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale with business of finding
evidence of the death and suspicious murder of John Wright suspecting Minnie as the murderer.
...show more content...
Since the very beginning where the men take an investigation in place inside the farm house
leaving the two wives in the disarrayed kitchen being treated as trifles with very little attention
due to their place in society. While the men are searching for evidence that could lead them to a
motive for the murder around the farmhouse to plead Ms. Wright guilty they fail try to understand
her senses and emotions due to interior and exterior factors such as loneliness, monotony and
emotional abuse. While the play develops you may see Mrs. Hale's act of empathy toward Ms.
Wright due to the fact that she knew her and knew how hard It was to be a stay at home wife and
how hard it was to run a farmhouse. In a moment where Mr. Henderson inside is sexist mind judges
Mrs. Wright as to failing in her performance to keep a clean and good working farmhouse, Mrs. Hale
defends Minnie against his judgment demonstrating how women are united by common experiences
and men fail to understand their

Critical Analysis Of Trifles
"Trifles" a play by Susan Glaspell, emphasizes the thought that women were kept in their homes
and their contributions to the home and family went unappreciated and unnoticed. The play gives
readers a view of how women were view and treated during the 1900's. As a female analyzing the
play, Mrs. Wright's motive for killing Mr. Wright was quite clear. Susan Glaspell gives her readers a
feminist approach, to demonstrate how Mrs. Wright's murdering of her husband is justified.
If I were to ask you if killing someone is justifiable, some will answer with a strong no and others
like me might say it depends on what they did. However, that is a job for the police to investigate
and figure out. No human being kills another without some sort of...show more content...
Hale her neighbor says that the only time Minnie wright seemed happy was when she was not
married. Mrs. Hale says, "I heard that she used to wear pretty clothes and be lively, when she was
Minnie foster. But with thirty years of marriage, Mrs. Wright is now worried about her canned
preserves freezing, and not having her apron whilst she is in jail. Mrs. Peters, the sheriff's wife
suggested that Mrs. Wright wanted her apron so that she can "feel more natural"; because that is
what she is use to.
While the men in the story where playing Sherlock Holmes looking for evidence that Mrs. Wright
killed her husband, they missed the bad fruit and the bread left out of the bow, a quilt that was
not finished and had a few bad stiches, an unclean table and a birdcage that was empty. They were
so determined to find specific clues of the murder, that they missed the clues of the emotional
abuse that Mrs. Wright was subjected to from her husband. They were also so busy criticizing
everything that Mrs. Wright did or did not do, that they missed everything that was right in front of
their eyes. They even slipped with some sexist remarks Mr. Hale says 'Well, women are used to
worrying over trifles', not realizing that the women were in the room.
The men in the play showed lack of respect and concern for how difficult it was for women to keep
the house clean and running smoothly. During the play the men did nothing but criticized everything
the women said about Mrs. Wright, they would

Trifles Essay
Catherine A. Boateng
Prof. Dr. Lucy McNair
ENG 102
November 20th, 2017
Essay 3 Draft I, II & II
World of play in "Trifles" "Trifle" happens in the rural part of Iowa during the winter month in
1900's, an era where women possessed little voice in the affairs of men. The play took place in an
interior of the Wright's kitchen, which is a confined private space. The landscape of a rundown
farmhouse owned by the victim of an illusive strangulation. The mood is dark, deadness and
depressing whereas the only music is a canary song, mysterious and silence. The figures and
arrangements are in a gender form, the male enter first then their wives follow, the men heading
upstairs to investigate the crime scene and the women remain in the kitchen....show more content...
Few work, or activities were available to women due to the legal institution of coverture. The
"History of women in the United States" states that "Under coverture, a woman had no legal identity"
(Revolvy) when married and everything she did was under a woman's father or husband's authority.
This meant that the available occupations for women were limited thus taking care of the children,
cleaning the house and taking care of your husband. The essential character in the play Trifles by
Susan Glaspell remains unnoticed for the entire piece. This main character is Mrs. Wright whose
actions are to be understood, the audience never sees or hears her throughout the piece, and therefore
cannot develop an accurate opinion of the outcome of the play. The action of the story takes place
after strangulation death of Minnie. In examining the actions of Mrs. Wright, she cannot be verified
without closer inspection of Minnie's personality and experiences. The spousal abuse or pattern of
emotional abuse (husband to wife), isolation, the transformation of her life and entrapment. Tradition
has it that in marriage the two shall become one and everything that belongs to the man would be for
the woman so is his name. R.R.S. Stewart who is a columnist at the Minnesota Daily at the
University of Minnesota and the author of "whose last name should have married couple choose?"
stated

Gender Inequality In Trifles
We all know that in today's world, women still struggle for equality in a world dominated by men.
During the time of Susan Glaspell, inequality was more apparent than ever, a time of the industrial
revolution boom. The play "Trifles" by Susan Glaspell, is one of underlining tones and meanings,
that directly speak on the issue of women's rights in the early 20th century. In America, as
elsewhere in the world, women commonly were regarded as inferior beings. Their children,
property, and earnings belonged by law solely to their husbands, and various legal and social barriers
made divorce almost unthinkable. American women were legally on par with criminals, the insane,
and slaves, and Susan Glaspell was able to bring attention to these conditions with her play "Trifles."
Of course women...show more content...
Peters and Mrs. Hale realize that Mrs. Wright had in fact killed her husband, but they don't want to
break their pact with Mrs. Wright and turn her into the Sheriff. Both women can't believe what they
discovered from looking at the tiny details. Mrs. Wright was one of the towns most respected
women and she had in fact killed Mr. Wright. In the end, simply because both women looed at all of
the little details, they were able identify things that the men would never would have found. Both
Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters have solved the murder of Mr. Wright by themselves. While the men are
still trying to figure out what happened, they ignored all of the small things that made this
unsolvable murder mystery, a solvable one. Together Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, both outsmarted the
police, the men that were in positions of authority and even their husbands because they had the
foresight to take notice of all the small details that men could not perceive. In the end, the women
whose opinion didn't matter, simply because they were women, were the ones that figured it all out.
Even though in the end sex doesn't matter, but one's ability to think logically and

Essay on Observations of Women in "Trifles"
Whose side are you on? The men's? Or the women's? In "Trifles" by Susan Glaspell,
the women are more observant than the men. The women in the play discover Mrs.
Wright's motives for the murder of her husband. The sexist and rude men are
preoccupied by the bigger problem when they should be looking for small details that
lead to the bigger problem.
The women in the play are observant. For example when the men are looking for
evidence in the kitchen the women take notice of a quilt that is not finished, "She was
piecing a quilt. I wonder if she was going to quilt it or knot it? They wonder if she was
going to quilt it or knot it!(The men laugh...)"(263) When they find the quilt, it is the
first step...show more content...
Later the reader realizes that the sewing gets messy because Mr.
Wright kills Mrs. Wright's bird right in front of her. It was the trifles the women noticed
that led to the bigger problem.
The women in "Trifles" are observant which leads them to know the motives for the killing of John
Wright. For example, after they find the bird they realize, "Somebody–
wrung–its–neck. (Their eyes meet. A look of growing comprehension, of horror.)" (268)
This shows that the women discover the dead canary. They start to put all the small
details together and discover that the bird was strangled just like Mr. Wright.
Furthermore the men are at the stove when they realize the birdcage, "(Seeing the
birdcage.) Has the bird flown?"(268) The men are still clueless and do not see what the
women have discovered. The men are ignorant towards the bird cage with no bird in it.

Another example is, "Well, Henry, at least we found out that she was going to– what is it
you call it, ladies? We call it– knot it Mr. Henderson."(IR.271) This shows how the men
are once again making fun of the women. The men don't realize that when Mrs. Hale
says "We knot it" she is referring to the way Mr. Wright was killed, by Mrs. Wright, with
a rope knotted around his neck. The women took notice of the small things that led to the
motives of John Wright's murder.
Because the women looked at all the

Trifles Analysis
"Well, women are used to worrying over trifles" one of the husbands in Susan Glaspell's play
Trifles states when the women try to give their interpretation of a crime scene. This is just one
example of how women tend to be respected much less than their male counterparts in a
male–dominated society. Althoughthe play Trifles was written in the year 1916, many of the
feminist themes found in this play can be found in today's society still. Michael Hollinger wrote
the play Naked Lunch in the year 2003, and the female role is still written as the weaker more
vulnerable character. Just as they were then, women are often portrayed as victims and do not
receive the same respect that men do in our male–dominated world. In the play Naked Lunch by
Michael Hollinger, the audience sees a very controlling and abusive relationship between two
ex–lovers being portrayed, with the male character Vernon acting very aggressive towards the
female character Lucy. The two's lunch starts off fine enough, but it becomes increasingly tense
after Lucy admits she is now a vegetarian. It is made blatantly obvious from Vernon that he thinks
this choice is ridiculous, even though he has no right to control her. He cannot seem to accept
this fact about her new life, and even goes one step further as he pokes fun at the matter, saying
"your soul said to you 'no more meat'" (989). Using context clues from the sexual undertones of
this play, one can conclude that Vernon may be more upset at her not wanting to eat a different
kind of meat per se. Throughout the lunch, Vernon tries to pressure her into eat the meat and
enjoy the meal, stating he "figure I'll open a bottle of wine, apologize . . . maybe we'll get naked,
be like old times," (991). Lucy doesn't seem to be keen on this idea at all, yet Vernon keeps
pushing her to eat the meat until he is screaming "EAT THE MEAT!" while standing in front of her
phase (991). This can be interpreted as Vernon sexually abusing Lucy, who obviously did not want to
be intimate with him in any regard, and who said no multiple times. Lucy was most definitely the
victim in this situation as even when she was in an uncomfortable situation, Vernon was relentless
and forced her to do something she did not

Essay on Trifles
Trifles
Trifles, written in the early 1900's by Susan Glaspell, is a one–act play illustrating how women can
overreact to their own emotions, allowing these emotions to cloud their judgment. This is shown by
describing the feelings of two women who are willing to defend a suspect, blame the victim, and go
so far as to hide evidence, to protect another woman from being charged with murdering her husband.
Mrs. Wright is the suspect in the murder of her husband, who was strangled in his sleep, found with
the rope still around his neck. The sheriff and an attorney are examining Mrs. Wrights home for
evidence. Mr. Henderson, the attorney, speaking of Mrs. Wright says, "Here's a nicemess, ..Dirty
towels! Not much of a housekeeper,...show more content...
Wright as if he were a cruel man, "he was a hard man, ..like a raw wind that gets to the
bone."(1171) After hearing this, Mrs. Peters compares how Mrs. Wright must have felt with a
memory of her own past. "I know what stillness is. When we homesteaded in Dakota, and my first
baby died – after he was two years old, and me with no other then – I know what stillness is." (1173)
There is a sense of pity for the suspect, anger toward the victim, as if he must have deserved to die.
While talking, the women find a fancy box belonging Mrs. Wright. Inside the box, is what they
believe to be Mrs. Wright's dead pet bird. They realize that "somebody – wrung – its – neck" (1172)
Remembering a similar incident in her life, Mrs. Peters says, "When I was a girl – my kitten –there
was a boy took a hatchet, and before my eyes, ..If they hadn't held me back I would have hurt him."
(1172) They place the dead bird back in the box, and then, surprisingly, they hide the box. You can
almost see what's going on in the mind of these two women as they must be imagining poor Mrs.
Wright, horrified that her awful husband killed her bird, then she must have snapped and strangled
him to end her own suffering.
The men come back in, not yet finding a motive, Mr. Henderson says, "it's all perfectly clear except
a reason for doing it, ..

Essay On Trifles
The story of An Hour by Kate Chopin focuses on the main character, Mrs. Mallard, a young
woman with a heart problem. On the arrival of the bad news concerning the death of her husband,
Richard, her husband's friend and her sister, Josephine, have to break the news with great care
because of Mrs. Mallard's health situation. However, it is ironical how Mrs. Mallard reacts to this
horrifying news, she is excited and feels free from the chains of her marriage. At the end of the story,
Mr. Mallard appears and on seeing her husband, Mrs. Mallard dies of a heart attack. Similarly,
Trifles by Susan Glaspell is a murder mystery story, which examines gender relationships and how
women and men share power. Therefore, the paper explores women's social...show more content...
In the Trifles, Susan Glaspell exposes how the society looks down upon women, and in marriage, a
woman becomes a man's property. Moreover, since the 1900s, women have struggled to break
away from abusive marriages. Therefore, Susan Glaspell clearly argues that the society does not
even appreciate women's efforts, such as pain in child bearing, household, and farm chores. Susan
Glaspell present women as second–class citizen supposed to perform household chores (Hilton 146).
While, on the other hand, men have the right to perform most important jobs, as women, such as
Mrs. Wright have a fixed daily routine. In the same way,Kate Chopin argues that women are not
happy in their marriages because they have no freedom. For example, Mrs. Mallard feels caged
by her marriage and even feels relieved upon the death of her husband. However, finally, the story
ends sadly upon the appearance of Mr. Mallard, making Mrs. Mallard sudden disappearance of her
happiness and freedom (Berenji 88). In fact, Mrs. Mallard cannot come to reality of the shock and
she dies from a heart attack. Thus, both stories, give a detailed description of how the society
perceived women and their treatment at their respective

Essay on Trifles by Susan Glaspell
Trifles was written in the early 1900's by Susan Glaspell. This occurred far before the women's
movement. Women were generally looked upon as possessions to their husbands. Their children, all
wages, and belongings were property of their husbands. In Glaspell's story it is easily depicted as to
what role the men and women portrayed in society at this time.
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, theSheriff, 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...show more content...
All the men notice is clutter. The men do not look deeper behind the meanings of this disarray.
However, the women do. The women understand that the reason that things such as the towels are
not clean is because she more than likely was busy doing her many other chores of the household.
They also considered how much trouble Mrs. Wright went to fix the preserves. The women reason
that the uncaring concern John had for Minnie and the attention he paid to the house perhaps forced
Minnie to resort to killing. Even the County Attorney, Sheriff, and Mr. Hale could not understand all
the difficulties women go through. They criticize Mrs. Wright as well as insult all women. Mr. Hale
says, "Well, women are used to worrying over trifles." The actions of just these men
show how women were taken for granted in this era. Inevitably, the men are unable to prove that
Mrs. Wright murdered her husband but are going to convict her anyway. However, the women have
solved the case. They come to the conclusion that Mrs. Wright was not treated very well by her
husband and was not able to withstand the mistreatment anymore. They could tell the lack of
attention he paid to his wife. The men still have a hard time accepting this concept because they do
not believe that men treat women badly.
The title, Trifles, as well as the examples all represent how men view women. A "trifle"
is something

Research Paper On Trifles
The unknown author of "Overview: Trifles" focuses on the background Susan Glaspell's and how
she came up with the idea of writing "Trifles". The play "Trifles" was inspired from a true event
happened in Iowa and Glaspell was the reporter for the case and later she wrote the play.
Additionally, the main point of this article is to go on details from the setting of "Trifles" to all the
way to explaining the characters' characteristics. Furthermore, this source is valuable because this
source only give me the information on the plot and the characters. This is reliable because it
doesn't give any biased information. The goal for this article is to give little details about "Trifles"
that no other source will give. Moreover, this source is beneficial

Trifles by Susan Glaspell Essay
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. In Trifles, the play takes place
at an abandon house at a farm where John Wright and his wife, Minnie Wright lived. John was
killed with a rope around his neck while his wife was asleep. The neighbor, county attorney and
sheriff came to the crime scene for investigation. Along with them...show more content...
The women empower themselves through silence, particularly in the kitchen communicating and
reflecting upon things around them in the limited space they were given. The men dismiss the
kitchen finding nothing that is relevant to the murder case. The men keep crisscrossing through the
kitchen, ignoring and not realizing they could find the vital evidence through trivial details. Even
though they were having difficulty in finding clues that lead to the murder. While the women were
alone looking through Minnie's kitchen they found the most valuable evidence the "missing piece to
men's puzzle" (Holstein 283). Mrs. Hale found the dead bird strangled in the sewing box telling
"Mrs. Peters–look at it! Its neck! Look at its neck!" (782). Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters recognize the
bird was strangled brutally "their eyes meet. A look of growing comprehension, of horror"
(Glaspell 782). Both of them realized the bird was killed the same way as Mr. Wright with the rope
around their neck. The strangled bird represents Minnie Foster how her freedom and joy was
strangled to death. When the men came in the kitchen, the county attorney noticed the bird cage,
wondering if the bird flew away, but Mrs. Hale lied and said "we think the– cat got it" ( Glaspell
782). The county attorney seek only visible evidence for murder he was wasn't thinking critically
what it may mean. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters covered the evidence keeping it between themselves
for their own knowledge. They

Trifles Analysis
In Trifles, Susan Glaspell debates the roles between men and women during a period where a
debate was not widely conducted. Glaspell wrote Trifles in the early 1900s–a time when feminism
was just getting started. In this play, Glaspell shows us her perspective on the roles of men and
women and how she believes the situation would play out. Trifles seems like another murder mystery
on the surface, but the play has a much more profound meaning behind it. Glaspell presents the idea
that men and women analyze situations differently, and how these situations are resolved based on
how we interpret them. Research shows that women's brains "may be optimized for combining
analytical and intuitive thinking." On the other hand, male brains are predominately "optimized for
motor skills and actions" (Lewis). In the play, this research shows true when the women, Mrs. Hale
and Mrs. Peters, analyze details rather than looking at the apparent, physical evidence, and they find
out the motive of the murder. The men, on the other hand, look at broader evidence that does not
lead to any substantial conclusion. When Glaspell was writing this play, she wanted the women to
be the real instigators, the ones that would end up solving the mystery. While the men in the story
laugh at the 'trifles' that women worry about, these details mean a great deal in Glaspell's eyes.
Glaspell presents the idea what men and women are different in the way they live their lives through
detail.
Susan Glaspell

Drama Essay "Trifles"
Angel Parrett
Professor Muller
English 106/ Drama Essay
15 May 2006
Drama Essay
Trifles
Trifles, Susan Glaspell's play written in 1916, reveal concerns of women living in a male
dominated society. Glaspell communicates the role that women were expected to play in late 19th
century society and the harm that can come of it to women, as well as men. The feminist agenda
of Trifles was made obvious, in order to portray the lives of all women who live oppressed under
male domination. John and Minnie Wright are two main characters who are never seen; however
provide the incident for the play. In this play women are against men, Minnie against her husband,
Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters against their husband's, as well as men in general....show more content...
Wright to the murder of her husband. At the beginning of the play Mr. Hale acknowledges the males
attitudes toward women without knowing. For example he states, "....I didn't know as what his wife
wanted made much difference to John." (1001). This clearly signifies the male's insensitivity to
women. This statement that Mr. Hale made referring to John and how he does not care what his
wife wanted or did not want does not even trigger the question, how was Mrs. Wright treated by
her husband? Women were clearly not has important as the men. The men disregard women's
opinions and don't give a thought to women's needs or wants. Mr. Hale was speaking of John, Mrs.
Wright's dead husband in the above example; however Mr. Hale also expresses his insensitivity and
arrogant attitude toward women. Mr. Hale states, "Well women are used to worrying over trifles."
(1003). Trifles something that is small, of no consequence, this is how Mr. Hale thinks of women.
The things women are concerned with are of no importance, they are petty. This is an obvious
illustration of the men's arrogant and insensitive attitudes toward women. Mr. Hale was not the only
male character who demonstrated arrogance and insensitivity toward women. The Sheriff who was
investigating Mr. Wright's murder also demonstrated arrogance and insensitivity, hindering his
ability to tie Mrs. Wright to

Trifles Essay
Trifles, written by Susan Glaspell, is a real life murder case that uses symbolism to help solve a
mystery. Glaspell's use of dialect, set on a midwestern farm, emphasizes the town's gender–separated
society. Isolationism, a quilt, and incomplete house work are the three key symbols in the play the
help the reader figure out who murdered Mrs. Wright's husband.
First of all, isolationism is an important clue in the murder case. Mrs. Wright's farmhouse is
located in a hollow, down in the woods, which puts her in a secluded place. Mr. Hale, a friend,
came to talk to Mr. Wright about a party telephone, but he said, "He put me off, saying folks
talked too much anyway . . . " (59). This is an example of how Mr. Wright did not want...show
more content...
Later, they find the bird in Mrs. Wright's sewing box, and Mrs. Peters states that " Somebody –
wrung – its – neck" (65). We can assume from this that her husband was tired of hearing the
bird sing and he was the one to wring to bird's neck. But, to Mrs. Wright the bird was important to
her. It was the only normality to the outside world she had, and Mr. Wright had taken that away from
her.
A quilt that Mrs. Wright was working on is also an importantsymbol in the play. Mrs. Hale and Mrs.
Peters find the quilt Mrs. Wright had been working on. Mrs. Hale says, referring to the sewing,
"Why, it looks as if she didn't know what she was about" (63). Mrs. Wright was nervous
when she was sewing the quilt and had knotted it. Knotting the quilt would symbolize knotting her
husband's noose. It is evident that she is upset about the bird, and her mind was not on quilting, but
plotting her husband's death.
Finally, incomplete housework is the third important use of symbolism. When the sheriff and the
attorney arrive at the scene, they notice unwashed pans, bread outside the bread box and a dish
towel on the table. The shefiff makes the comment, "Not much of a housekeeper, would you
say, ladies" (61)? Women the time of Trifles always kept up the house work, and it was
unusual for things to be out of place. We can ssume that incomplete house work symbolizes trouble
in Mrs. Wright's marriage and that her mind was on other things.
In conclusion,

Essay On Trifles

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

More from Paper Writing Service College

More from Paper Writing Service College (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Essay On Trifles