Susan Glaspell

Symbolism in Trifles Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles occurs during the investigation of John Wright’s murder. The primary suspect of the murder is John Wright’s wife, Minnie. The County Attorney and the Sheriff, Mr. Peters, work to find a motive for the murder in the Wright’s house. Neighbors of the Wright’s, Mr. and Mrs. Hale also help with the investigation. While the men look through the house for any sign of a motive, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale conduct their own investigation in the…

Susan Glaspell Wrote Trifles to open a controversial subject that was over looked by society during the 1900s; the repression of women, which is depicted throughout the play. Glaspell use of stereotypes, and symbols to distinguish the roles of genders during the period the play was written in. The female characters in the Trifles are the main victims to stereotypical implication of how society viewed women. The drama shows that women were seen as inferior and even a 2nd class citizens compared…

Peace and Quit The play Trifles, written by Susan Glaspell is based off a true murder that happened in 1900 in Warren county, Iowa. The true cold case, just like the play, used symbolism to reveal the motive and killer. Throughout, three specific characteristics within the house uncover the truth behind Mr. Wright’s death. The symbolism that Glaspell used creates a mystery that can only be solved if every line is read. Mrs. Wrights quilt, dirty kitchen, and dead song bird all guide the reader…

While reading Susan Glaspell’s A Jury of Her Peers I have discovered many symbolic meanings behind the novel, the themes and how I can relate to the novel, in terms of women being subjugated by men. Susan Glaspell completed a novel that is still relevant to today’s times. It was in the early 1900’s when this novel came out and by reading it today I have realized the behavior of men towards women remains the same, but this does not go for all men. The setting takes place at a farmhouse where a…

The Assassination of Mr. Wright This thrilling play, “Trifles” formerly known as A Jury of Her Peers, Susan Glaspell uses this play as a feminist outlook in the 1920’s to make a statement to her peers. This play first takes place in the out of order kitchen of an abandoned farmhouse. Five people enter the house two women and three men; George Henderson the County Attorney, Henry Peters the Sheriff, Lewis Hale the neighboring farmer who found the body, Mrs. Peters the Sheriff’s wife, and…

Susan Glaspell's "A Jury of Her Peers,” published in 1917, is a short story. That story focuses on women standing up for each other no matter the predicament. The conflicts of the story surround Minnie Wright, who is in jail on suspicion that she murdered her husband by strangling him. The story is told discursively through Martha Hale whose husband discovered the body of John Wright, Minnie Wright’s husband. In the story, readers are given background information about Minnie, but the story also…

The story “Jury of Her Peers” and the play “Trifles” both by Susan Glaspell are two great pieces of literature. They have 2 significant differences and many similarities in each. They both share the same plot but are just explained in different ways. The three significant differences they have are point of view and the amount of detail one uses versus the other. Even though the pieces of literature written by Susan Glaspell share many similarities in many ways, they have differences the reader…

sex” (Glaspell), to protect those that one relates to the most. In Susan Glaspell’s short story, A Jury of Her Peers, the characters personify that exact constant by protecting their peers, respectively, as a result of the historical gender segregation. To begin, the women in the short story are not friends, with the narrator of the story stating “She [Martha Hale] had met Mrs. Peters the year before at the county fair… she remembered… that she did not seem like a sheriff’s wife,” (Glaspell)…

Susan Glaspell's Trifles is a play about the effect of gender differences on perceptions of duty, law, and justice. Trifles was a play that took place in the 1900’s written by Susan Glaspell (1876-1948). Glaspell attended Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa where she then graduated with a Ph. D. in philosophy. She became a journalist at the Des Moines Daily News where she reported the murder case of John Hossack, a man who was murdered and his wife was committed. Glaspell then turned the play…

animal with a trunk but a woman is a human being with no trunk. Susan Glaspell’s use of the word Trifles as a metaphor contributes to and illustrates theme, tone and characterization in the play in the approach described below. 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…