Response To Trifles By Susan Glaspell

“Trifles” Reading Response Essay In Susan Glaspell’s play, “Trifles”, there are many social concepts that the author asks her audience to understand and consider. Elements that were considered while reading and analyzing the play were symbolism, the men’s social and psychological detachment towards womanhood, the deficiency of equality towards women and also the lack of proper and necessary communication between the characters in the play. All of these concepts connect to human experience because inequality between men and women is something we still see today, even if it is something as simple as men getting paid more than women, even if they have the same job. The symbolism, setting of the play, and the character’s behavior develop the …show more content…
The strangled songbird that the women in the play discover explains the ambition behind Mrs. Wright’s crime, but also symbolizes Mr. Wright’s treatment towards his wife. Minnie is connected to Mrs. Hale’s memory of her as a young, unmarried woman who liked to sing. Like the dead bird, Minnie was once extremely intelligent and held so much life within her, but this spark and life was strangled out of her life with Mr. Wright, by her married life caught in a patriarchal society living with man like Mr. Wright. The bird also symbolizes Minnie’s need for companionship, friendship and the feeling of fellowship in her home, and the death of the bird showed that Mr. Wright not only did not acknowledge this need but also stripped away her remaining source of happiness in a cruel, brutal and unfair …show more content…
Their contributions were to the house, their husbands and their families. Their input or happiness was not of any of the men’s concern in that time era. No where, is this thought, more powerful and lucid, when the men are gathered in the kitchen. To the men it is clear that the kitchen is the woman’s area of expertise, therefore unimportant. “You’re convinced that there was nothing of important… have nothing that would point to any motive… nothing here but the kitchen things” (Glaspell 981). In regards to a woman’s input, the men make it very clear that a woman’s opinion is not important at all. In the play, Glaspell also tries to get across the lack of important communication to her readers, which is also plays a dominant part in her story. Between Mr. and Mrs. Wright, there seemed to be little if not any communication between the two of