Glaspell, Susan. Trifles, A Play In One Act. Baker's Plays, 1951. Print.
In Susan Glaspell’s play, “Trifles,” is a feminist drama that primarily takes place on a farmhouse, which is the scene of a murder, and dialogues keep shifting from one character to another. Henry Peters, the sheriff and Lewis Hale, a neighboring farmer arrive at the Wright farmhouse with their wives and George Henderson, the county attorney to investigate the murder of Mr. John Wright. Lewis Hale retells Mrs. Minnie Wright’s story, who claimed that her she was asleep when Mr. Wright was murdered, and was behaving oddly. Even though there had been a gun in the house, the murderer had used a rope to horribly strangle Mr. Wright. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale accompany their husbands in order to collect to collect some of Mrs. Wright’s belongings, who is held in custody. The women, who seemingly go about their business, are constantly belittled and depreciated for worrying about trifling matters. While the men investigate upstairs, Mrs. Hale expresses her regret over not visiting Mrs. Wright, who was leading a lonesome and unhappy life, and reminisces how she had been before she got married. The women find a quilt while looking around the room that they decide to bring with them and are taunted by the men for worrying about the quilt, who proceed to investigate in the barn. While searching, the women first find an empty birdcage and then a box that contains the dead bird. They discover that the bird has been strangled just like Mr. Wright was. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale decide to hide this evidence that will implicate Mrs. Wright in the murder and the play ends with the implication that Mrs. Wright will most likely be acquitted.
Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles” a drama in which she tries to make an opinion on an ethical dilemma more appealing to the audience. Glaspell is passing along a bigger message through the plot of her play. Her play reflects her belief that men do not view women’s roles as being important, inevitably causing women to believe that it is actually true. Susan Glaspell expresses this belief using different types of quotes throughout the play. For instance, when the characters are in the kitchen, Mr. Peters says that the kitchen contains just “kitchen things” (Glaspell), nothing worth looking. His wife tries pointing out a broken jar of preserves, but he mocks her saying, “Well, you can beat the women! Held for murder and worryin' about her preserves” (Glaspell). Through this quote Glaspell uses the “preserves” as a symbol for the things that may be a concern for women are usually seen as trifles by men. At one point, the women deduce that Mrs. Wright may have been leading an unhappy life because of how tidy the house is. Similarly, when the men find by chance find dirt towels in the kitchen, they quickly jump to the conclusion that Mrs. Wright must not have been a very good housekeeper. Glaspell draws a fine line between the behavior and opinions of the men and women in the play. Since the men do not pay attention to trifling items, they miss out on clues that point towards Mrs. Wright’s motive for murder. On the other hand, it is because of the habit of looking into the little “trifles” that the men criticize them for that the women discover that Mrs. Wright was unhappy with her husband, who killed her bird, and so she murdered him. Despite being criticized and depreciated, the women always remained connected to their husbands and their professions, but the men kept seeing their worries as unimportant. Using the plot of her play, Susan Glaspell is emphasizes that the women of her time were being suffocated by oppression just like Minnie Wright was. They could not or would not raise their voices out of fear or because the men would shun them, not taking them serious, and viewing their concerns as mere trifles.
Personally, I think Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles” is very unique. Although numerous unique events occur in the story that have a very significant effect on the story line, but in my point of view, the discovery of the dead bird is the key to how the rest of plot flows. Another interesting thing about the play is how amazingly Glaspell highlights the differences between how men and women find and know information. Even today, the views of both genders tend to vary towards certain problems, if not to an extent as they do in Glaspell’s play. The way the women look into minor problems and spend time investigating them deeply also teaches a lesson about critical thinking and that no matter how minor or trifling something might be, you never know how important it may be.
Works Cited
Glaspell, Susan. Trifles, A Play In One Act. Baker's Plays, 1951. Print.
