Cortney Laughlin Intro to Literature 3/6/15 Trifles Essay #3 The setting is important in Trifles because the issues taking place at the time the play was written are similar to the issues in the play. At this time, women didn’t even have the right to vote. Society was very male-dominated, and females were assigned to taking care of others and the home.…
Comparison And Contrast Between “ Trifles” And “ Poof” Feminism is a term that can be used for a cultural, economical or political movements which try to establish equalities between men and women. Striving to get equal rights and legal protection for women, many authors wrote books about political and sociological theories and philosophies concerned with issues of gender difference during the history. Among various literary works, we can mention numerous notable dramas such as “ Trifles” by Susan Glasspell and “ Poof” by Lynn Nottage which can be compared in several aspects. The first feature that can be discussed is the period of time in which they were written. Written by Susan Glasspell, TRIFLES performed in 1916 for the first time during the first wave of feminism, which refers to women’s suffrage movements of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, mainly concerned with women’s right to vote while POOF by Lynn Nottage was first performed in 1993 during the third wave of feminism, which was the continuation of the second-wave feminism that refers to the ideas and…
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.…
Playwrights have the ability to control the way the reader directionally and physically visualize their work. Susan Glaspell, the playwright of Trifles, uses the elements of drama to aid the creation of a stimulating mystery. In Trifles, Glaspell tells the tale of a murder needing to be solved through two different perspectives represented by the two different sexes. A group of men and women enter the Wright’s farmhouse to find evidence and investigate the crime scene of Mr. Wright’s murder. In order to create her play, Glaspell employs the elements of setting and language to unravel her play both directly and indirectly.…
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.…
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.…
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.…
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…
The death of it was very similar to how John Wright was killed, with a rope around his neck in bed. Their husbands search through out the Wright household to figure out more about the death of Mr. Wright. The trifle, an object with very little value, held all the evidence that the males needed for conviction, but they never expected their housewives to be the ones to find it. In this story, the women hold the power…
Two important works that are good examples of traditional gender roles are Susan Glaspell ’s play Trifles and Lynn Nottage’s play Poof. On the surface, these plays don’t seem to have very much in common; a closer look, however, reveals that both plays show similar themes and issues. The issues highlighted in both plays are suppression of women and ramifications of society.…
Both one-act plays Antigone and Trifles are centralized by the themes of femininity and law vs. moral rights and beliefs. Antigone is a strong hard headed woman who stands up for what she believes is right, just as Mrs. Hale does in Trifles. The two woman protagonists share many character traits as they each overcome conflicts of male vs. female and law vs. moral rights and beliefs. Because Antigone was written in the ancient Greek era, I feel the influence it has on Susan Glaspell’s early 20th-century play, Trifles is more impactful than realized. The influence Antigone has on Trifles is shown through each play’s plot, characterization, shared theme, and symbolism.…
A “trifle” is defined as “A matter of little value or importance; ‘a thing of no moment’ (Johnson); a trivial, paltry, or insignificant affair” (OED). Shakespeare uses “trifle” in Iago’s dialogue to show that the handkerchief is really nothing more than just an object. It is a weightless, insignificant item that he is going to use to ruin Othello’s life. This creates dramatic irony among the audience because it forces the audience to see how feeble the handkerchief is. It is silly that an inanimate object has the ability to ruin a person’s life.…
The word Trifles is a metaphor used as the title of the play by Susan Glaspell to show the insignificant role played by women in the early twentieth century. “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles” (Glaspell 982). This…
Women in the 1900s were treated unequally by men, especially their husbands. More specifically, wives were expected to remain home and tend to household duties. The play, Trifles, by Susan Glaspell, highlights some of the preeminent inequalities between husbands and wives. According to the Merriam-Webster website, the definition of a “trifle” is, “something that does not have much value or importance.” Furthermore, the title allows us to infer that the play is going to deal with women being seen as frivolous and irrelevant.…
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…