What exactly does it mean to “stay in a woman's place”? This is a common phrase that has been tossed around by men for decades. You have to wonder what would the world be like if women never decided to step outside of this place that men confined them to. Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles hit the stage in 1916, a time where women didn’t even have the right to vote in this country because they were thought to not have the mental capacity to handle such a task. It was a trying time for women, which is what makes this play way ahead of its time. Women that stuck up to men and casted off male oppression was the theme and focal point of this play. In the early twentieth century, women were still very much subservient to men and Glaspell’s writing highlighted
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In this play, it wasn’t the men that stole the show; it was the women. Mrs. Hale, Mrs. Wright and Mrs. Peters were the ones who decided to challenge the idea that women were not capable to not only outthink men but also escape the confinements of male oppression. The same women who were underestimated by the men were the same ones that outsmarted them in the end. In Trifles, the play starts with Mrs. Wright being accused with the murder of her husband Mr. Wright. The men in the play struggle to connect to clues to solve the murder of Mr. Wright but the women were the ones who collected evidence that showed that Mrs. Wright was actually the victim in this case. Although Mrs. Wright does not appear in the play, her character was a representation of all women that may have been oppressed or mistreated by men in one way or another. Mrs. Wright was tired of being mistreated and suppressed by her husband so she decided to take matters into her own hands which was not typical of women back then. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale also took matters into their own hands in their own way, the women who were once seen as a joke and considered to be not valuable to society were the same ones who ended up solving this murder mystery that the men were no where close to solving. Although they all played very different parts in the play, they all had one thing in common. They all rebelled against the men in some way shape or form; it was an act of women empowerment and escaping women’s
In this play, it wasn’t the men that stole the show; it was the women. Mrs. Hale, Mrs. Wright and Mrs. Peters were the ones who decided to challenge the idea that women were not capable to not only outthink men but also escape the confinements of male oppression. The same women who were underestimated by the men were the same ones that outsmarted them in the end. In Trifles, the play starts with Mrs. Wright being accused with the murder of her husband Mr. Wright. The men in the play struggle to connect to clues to solve the murder of Mr. Wright but the women were the ones who collected evidence that showed that Mrs. Wright was actually the victim in this case. Although Mrs. Wright does not appear in the play, her character was a representation of all women that may have been oppressed or mistreated by men in one way or another. Mrs. Wright was tired of being mistreated and suppressed by her husband so she decided to take matters into her own hands which was not typical of women back then. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale also took matters into their own hands in their own way, the women who were once seen as a joke and considered to be not valuable to society were the same ones who ended up solving this murder mystery that the men were no where close to solving. Although they all played very different parts in the play, they all had one thing in common. They all rebelled against the men in some way shape or form; it was an act of women empowerment and escaping women’s