Can A Woman Be Saved In Susan Glaspell's Play Trifles?

Decent Essays
Susan Glaspell’s play “Trifles” is about an abused woman who is saved by the thoughtfulness of other women, this story this story symbolized the struggles for women in early America. Miss wright had a bird a pretty songbird that lived in its cage not flying or singing. Miss wright was the same as the bird, because her husband didn’t let her sing like she did when she was young. Also he didn’t allow her to leave just like the bird locked in its cage. But when her husband broke her bird Miss Wright also met her breaking point killing her husband out of common decency for a happy life rather then bloodlust. When one woman in the story decide to help Miss Wright she convinces the others by saying “we all go through the same thing just a different

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Throughout history, society has changed over the years, but there’s one factor that has always stayed constant. The one factor that always managed to stay constant in society is gender roles. In the past and even today; society views men as being the breadwinner and wise. While a woman is viewed as only being put on this earth to be a housewife and do what she told to do by her husband. In Susan Glaspell’s play “Trifles” is a social satire that criticizes the role of women in a male dominated society.…

    • 1884 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale discover the evidence of the dead bird and solve the mystery with hushed breath. They know the truth about Mrs. Wright and protecting her shows strength for all females. Steven Kale’s Judgement is a good representation of modernizing dated media. He remains mostly faithful to Glaspell’s original works, Trifles/A Jury of Her Peers, but depicts clever ways to keep his audience interested.…

    • 1281 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    “Trifles”, by Susan Glaspell, demonstrates how the female characters feel suffocated by the male characters carrying out their suppressive gender stereotypes. Glaspell uses latent symbolism as well as extensive character development to help the reader visualize and interpret the divide between the genders. The play is set in the early nineteen hundreds around a time when women were still not equal to men, which is why the main character, Minnie Wright, is idolized by the other women in the play even though she is never directly present. Throughout the entirety of the play the men and the women were never together, they always divide themselves by gender while looking for clues.…

    • 1175 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It is a known fact that both men and women had different tasks in society. In both plays “A Doll’s House” and “Trifles”, it is obvious how women are not treated as equals by the men. The play “A Doll’s House”, which takes place in a small town in Norway, tells the “happy” life of Nora and her husband, Trovald. Then the other play “Trifles”, which takes place in Nebraska, USA, tells how the men, and the women accompanying them react differently to the life the murder suspect lived. Even though these two plays are in different continents, it is easily noticeable how men look down on women.…

    • 1194 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The story could be considered as having began the day prior when Mr. Wright was killed or many years before that when Mrs. Wright married him and changed so much. “Trifles” has a climactic structure as is evidenced by restricted characters, locale, and scenes as well as a plot that starts very late in the story. Protagonist “Trifles” is different from many other plays in the fact that the main character of the play, is never actually seen. Mrs. Minnie Wright is the main character.…

    • 921 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Theme Of Gender In Trifles

    • 1032 Words
    • 5 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited

    What is a "trifle"? The question is, are the things women worry over really trifles or, rather, relevant and important information? In this play, the "trifles" are the most important keys to finding the clues to solve this mystery. In short, these women are put down for their attention to detail and their insight into the minds and feelings of others. Glaspell makes it clear that the men and women in this play not only present "action vs. emotion" views to solving this mystery, they also identify with the suspect differently and side with their respective sexes.…

    • 1032 Words
    • 5 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Analysis of “Trifles” In the single act play Trifles, written by Susan Glaspell, a foil exists between two female characters Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters. Glaspell allows these characters to act as foils to one another in order to highlight the contrary qualities and characteristics that are present throughout the play. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are foils to one another on the grounds that they differ from each other on their ideals of nineteenth-century feminine roles, opposition to the law, and societal restrictions on women.…

    • 1072 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The setting of the kitchen within “Trifles” serves as a representation of the important feminist subject that women are oppressed by men; they are looked down upon when they have an opinion and are especially looked down upon for their female abilities that are made to be inferior compared to the opposite sex. Mr. Hale, a neighboring farmer, and his wife Mrs. Hale; the town sheriff, Henry Peters and his wife Mrs. Peters accompanied by the county attorney George Henderson had all made their way into the Wright’s home to look for evidence that could lead them to John Wright’s murder being solved. Throughout the play Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale had taken the time to psychologically analyze Mrs. Wright’s home and her actions she undertook before she was detained by police all while in the midst of trying to figure out what exactly had happened to her husband. However, the men: Mr. Henderson, Mr. Peters, and Mr. Hale were in search of evidence that was tangible rather than psychological. All three men insisted on criticizing the women for worrying about unimportant things when in fact these “unimportant things” led to both women solving the case.…

    • 838 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Trifles gives a perfect example of a classical linear plot with exposition, an inciting incident, rising action, climax, and finally falling action. Although, most of the play takes place in the rising action the inciting incident and climax and climax are arguable the most important aspects of a play. In Trifles specifically where the inciting incident that spurs the action throughout the rest of the play has been up for interpretation since the play was written. I personally think that the inciting incident is when we realize that Mr. Wright is dead. This occurs on the top of the second page of the play when Mr. Hale is describing the events the prior morning.…

    • 281 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The play is about a murder which is most certainly not a trifle but throughout the play the men refer to the women as having trifles “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles” (Hale 1262). The entire time the men are looking for some type of evidence to support their theory that Mrs. Wright had murdered her husband while the women and their “trifles” essentially lead them to the evidence that could convict Mrs. Wright. The women discover a quilt, an empty birdcage and eventually find the dead bird in a box in Mrs. Wright's sewing basket. The bird has been strangled in the same manner as John…

    • 535 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The treatment of women in Susan Glaspell “Trifles” evidently shows that Mrs. Wright killed her husband and Glaspell uses symbolism, setting and irony to convey the readers of this. The setting of the play was mainly in the kitchen of Mr. and Mrs. Wright farmhouse…

    • 787 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The play Trifles written by Susan Glaspell takes place in the turn of the twentieth century in America when women were socially oppressed by men. The characters are introduced into the play as they enter into the unkempt house of John Wright, who had recently been murdered. In the play, there are three men: Sheriff Peters, County Attorney Henderson, and Hale, the man who discovered that John had been killed. Along with the three men, there were two women: Mrs. Peters, the wife of the Sheriff, and Mrs. Henderson, the wife of the county attorney. The three men were at the house to look for evidence to convict Minnie Wright, the wife of John, as the killer.…

    • 928 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the play Trifles by Susan Glaspell, the men are portrayed as condescending towards women. The play centers on the murder of John Wright who died in his bed by strangulation. His wife Minnie has been charged with the crime. When the play begins, the County Attorney, the neighbors Mr. and Mrs. Hale, and the Sheriff and his wife have come to collect things to take to Minnie in jail. In addition, the men want to look around the murder scene upstairs clues.…

    • 1548 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I wish I had come over to see Minnie Foster sometimes. I can see now-,” (1611) stated Mrs. Hale. Mrs. Hale knew what a horrible man Mr. Wright was and how he oppressed his wife. She knew how Mrs. Wright was once a cheerful woman when she would sing on the choir; however, her husband had isolated her from the world and she did not have the freedom to explore her hobbies. While referring back to her observance of the bird, Mrs. Hale was able to sympathize with Mrs. Wright although she had not experienced anything so drastic.…

    • 1173 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Feminist Analysis of “Trifles” Set around the scene of a murder, Susan Glaspell’s twentieth century play “Trifles” is an early feminist drama that explores the gender roles set in place by society, especially in the time period written. The plot revolves around the case of a women, Mrs. Wright, who has killed her husband, John Wright. While male characters are trying to find motive behind the murder, it is actually their wives, who are belittled throughout the play, that solve the case but ultimately keep the truth to themselves. Although undermined and oppressed by the male characters and society, these women managed to solve the case while their male counterparts were unsuccessful. Feminist criticism is a literary approach that applies…

    • 1554 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays