Trifles Essay, Research Paper
In Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles (1163), she tells a story of mystery
and intrigue, surrounding an apparent murder. The setting is in the early
twentieth century and it appears to be cold, maybe late fall or the dead
of winter. Either way the mood is chilling; cold like the death that has
set the tone of the play. Although a death or a murder had taken place,
Glaspell was not trying to make it the main theme. The main point she
was leading to was the plight that so many women faced during this time
in history. Glaspell illustrates how in the early twentieth century
women were second class and some time were treated as such even by the
men they were married to.
Women in the early to mid twentieth century were mainly relegated to
the house. The upkeep of the house and maintenance of their husbands
was or the most part their only job. Their job was thankless and that
sometimes-bordered on slavery. Mrs. Wright was lively and happy before her
marriage. The two female characters in the play even talk about the beauty
of her voice before marriage, and how she used to sing in the church
choir. Over the years her husband Mr. Wright seemed to break her down and
transformed her into somebody to meet his own needs. The only thing that
seemed to make her happy was a bird, a sweet singing canary that may have
turned out to be a breaking point in Mrs. Wright. When Mrs. Wright found
the bird dead, she snapped and killed her husband. Mrs. Wright found
a way to free herself from the prison that Mr. Wright had kept her in,
through murder she escaped.
Mrs. Wright was not the only one Glaspell was trying to make a point
for the suffrage that women endured in the early twentieth century. She
cleverly makes her point through the other two female characters in
the play, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale. In the beginning of the play the
men make comments on the cleanliness of the house, Court Attorney: ?not
much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?(1166, 31). This statement
demonstrates the sentiment that men had for women, whose responsibility
for the upkeep of the house was the women’s. The ladies are quick to come
back, Mrs. Hale: Theres a great deal of work to be done on a farm.”(1166,
32). “Stiffly”(1166) was used to describe the mood the actress needed
to represent to the audience. Glaspell uses this tone to represent that
these women knew how tough life could be for a woman on a farm or in
any household.
Mrs. Wright was driven to murder her husband by the systematic breakdown
of her lively spirit that existed before she got married. By the end
of the play, it is the women who concluded to what had happened in the
Wrights household. And it is these very women who decide not to share
this information with the men. Men who would not understand, or take
into consideration the events that led up to the murder. Glaspell shares
with the audience what time was like for women in the early twentieth
century, a point in time that was hard, thankless, and sometime life
changing experience for women. At the time Glaspell wrote the play,
maybe this was the only way to bring light to what was maybe going on
in her own life, and in the world.
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