Susan Gaspell’s “Trifles”, written exactly a hundred years ago, brings out the gender disparity and the male dominance experienced by her in her society. The plot, the investigation of the murder of John Wright, brings together a few men and women in John’s farmhouse. The ladies prefer to stay back in the kitchen and share their views among themselves, instead of joining their husbands who go upstairs where John was found hanging. The two separate narrations, coming from men and women, enable the playwright to bring out the different gender perspectives, or the opposing perspectives of male and female, which, in turn, exposes the open gender discrimination prevailing in society. By identifying the females with the trifle things in the kitchen or in the house, men try to establish their superior place. At the same time, the talk in the kitchen can be seen contrasted to the futile investigation that men make in the upstairs. The thrust of this paper is to analyze the play in order to see how the symbols used by the playwright enrich the play.
The first part of the play is dominated by the presence of men and their conversations. The discovery of the crime is narrated by Mr. Hale. Initially, the attention is drawn to the character, Mrs. White, when Hale mentions that she was seen “as if she didn’t know what she was going to do next. And kind of done up” (Gaspell). This focus on Mrs. White throws doubts on her; why she sits rocking when her husband’s dead body lies upstairs. In spite of this fact, the men who are supposed to be intellectually superior fail to proceed with their investigation by basing it on this particular fact. In short, the weight of the play is placed not so much on the cruelty of the murder, but, on the helplessness of the lady who is fated to live with a loveless husband. This reality does not enter the minds of the investigating men, because they can never think of the sentiments of a woman who finds it difficult to adjust with her husband. The playwright, therefore, gives more importance to the perspectives of the women in the play. Thus, the female characters can be seen focusing their attention on trifle things, because they know how a woman is likely to seek diversions in order to escape from the boredom the domestic life gives her. That is how the quilt and the cage of the bird gain symbolic importance in the play.
The bird, of course, is the symbol of the spirit of Mrs. White, the desire of a domesticated lady to seek release. The cage indicates her house, where she practically leads a caged life. It stands for her oppression. The married women in those days had only a very limited opportunity. Confined to her kitchen, she always sought freedom and release, but the male domination gave them no hope. Probably, the release from the monotonous life of cooking, baking, and rearing children was only through knitting. Therefore, the quilt in the play, becomes another symbol. By observing the way the quilt was knit, the women could detect the restlessness of Mrs. White in that farmhouse. In other words, they arrive at the conclusion that there is no wonder if she had ultimately decided to strangle her husband. This logic conclusion emerging from the conversation between Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale reveals the collective intolerance towards the male supremacy. “I’d hate to have men coming into my kitchen, snooping around and criticizing”, tells Mrs. Hale (Gaspell). The bird in the cage was killed by someone. It must be Mr. White, they surmise. The ladies draw a parallel between the strangled bird and the strangled life of Mrs. White. They realize that, in such a situation, any woman like Mrs. White might commit the crime. To cut it short, the investigating team fails to arrive at a possible conclusion, but, the ladies, with their intuitive power, are able to arrive at the truth.
The title of the play is significant. The interests of women are considered to be trifle. This fact is wonderfully exposed through the dialogue of Hale at the beginning of the play: “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles” (Gaspell). Hale’s words, in fact the play as a whole, indicate the notions prevailing in the society in which the author lived. By confining women in the kitchen, men seem to claim that all the important works in society are meant for them. The play, therefore, questions this superior wisdom of the male. Not only that, by making the efforts of the men in discovering the murderer futile, the playwright tries to highlight the abilities of women for better intellectual activities. Their way of approaching reality is shown as more sensible in the play. The mere spectators become effective actors in the play. The women finally discover that Mrs. White was living a cheerless life in that cold farmhouse. The talk veering around the chill outside and inside the farmhouse shows the lack of warmth in the family; it indicates the lack of warm emotions in the house.
The play, “Trifles”, therefore, highlights the weak spots in husband and wife relationship. It also exposes the false assumptions men have about their wives. The inability of a woman to connect to the outside world is shown in the play through her desire for a telephone connection in the house. The most significant point emerging from the play is that the women can find solutions to their problems, if they can stand together. As the wives in the kitchen share their experiences they succeed in establishing that almost every married woman is like Mrs. White; and, if pushed to such an extreme, eliminating one’s husband is the only practical solution.
Work Cited
Gaspell, Susan. “Trifles”. http://www.one-act-plays.com/dramas/trifles.html. Retrieved on
