Gender In Susan Glaspell's Trifles

Published in 1916, Susan Glaspell’s one-act play, Trifles, describes the investigation of Mrs. Wright, a farmer’s wife who is in jail because she was accused of murdering her husband, but had no apparent motive for murder. While searching for evidence at her house, three men look for obvious facts and motives, but are unsuccessful. On the other hand, two women, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, pay close attention to trifles and reveal many secrets about the Wright family, but decide to keep them a secret. As they sympathize with Mrs. Wright, they are also able to describe her character only from looking at the way things are arranged around the house and from what she asked them to bring her to jail. Mrs. Wright asked for her apron, which is a quite …show more content…
The first distinction between genders is their role in the society. Unlike women, men are the leaders and the representatives of the community (Trifles). This is visible from the fact that the men are in the Wright’s house as the investigators, which is an important role in the society, while the women are only there to bring Mrs. Wright things she asked for or maybe just to serve the author for the representation of the gender differences. Furthermore, there seems to be a distracting dispute between the genders. For instance, when Mrs. Hale blames the dirty kitchen towel on the men’s dirty hands, the County Attorney calls her “loyal to her sex” (Glaspell, 747). Later in the play, the men make fun of the women’s debate over whether Mrs. Wright was going to quilt or knot the quilt from the cupboard (753). As community leaders, the men in the play tend to be more analytical and self-centered (Trifles), so they are not paying attention to details and are not trying to get into Mrs. Wright’s head by picturing what her life might have looked like. On the other hand, not having a significant role in the community, the women pay close attention to the insignificant details (Trifles). This leads them to realize that Mrs. Wright had a hard life as a farmer’s wife. Even though the women provide the audience with more details than men, Glaspell makes it clear that the women’s perspective is not ideal either as they tend to be too sensitive and sympathize with Mrs. Wright to the point that they even justify the fact that she committed a murder. Nevertheless, neither women nor men explain the meaning of the apron in this one-act play, so the interpretation of that trifle is left to the