Both Margaret Edson and Susan Glaspell can be considered feminist playwrights. Both women explored a number of themes that plague women in difficult situations. One of the fundamental themes of both plays is loneliness; although both authors develop this theme differently, the intersection of womanhood, loneliness and isolation is one of the most important thematic interactions within both plays.
Wit by Margaret Edson tells the story of a woman who is diagnosed with cancer. This, in and of itself, can be quite an isolating experience; when the main character is diagnosed with cancer, she begins to quote Donne’s sonnets to the audience, weaving the sonnets together with the lines of the play. The main character, rather than becoming more lonely as the play moves forward, forms an important bond with another woman. Susie, the protagonist’s nurse, becomes her friend and confidant-- she becomes everything that Vivian relies upon. This friendship between the two women undermines Vivian’s loneliness and her isolation; instead, Edson depicts womanhood as a thing that can be supportive and loving, rather than isolating and lonely (Edson). This is part of the fundamental tenets of feminism, particularly of second-wave feminism.
Vivian, the main character of Wit, is not initially portrayed as a likeable character; this is, perhaps, why she is isolated. She is portrayed as overbearing and demanding, particularly for her students, and she seems quite cold and unforgiving. However, over the course of the text, she begins to accept that she needs others, and she becomes more receptive to their kindness. This changes her character; it makes her less lonely, but it also makes her much less abrasive for the viewer (Edson).
Where Wit could be considered to be a modern feminist piece with the themes of loneliness and isolation, Trifles is certainly not a modern piece; it is much older, and the thematic treatment of the ideas in the play reflect that. Mrs. Hale, one of three female characters in the play, sympathize heavily with a woman who strangled her husband. Rather than focusing on the men in the story, the plot focuses on the knowledge of women; Minnie, the murderer, felt isolated by her husband and killed him. The other women of the play find evidence of the crime in her sewing basket, and hide that evidence because they feel that she was probably justified in her crime (Glaspell).
The idea that a woman’s work is meaningless-- merely trifles-- are what set the men and the women apart in Glaspell’s play. The women recognize some kindred spirit in each other and bond together as a result; the isolation and loneliness of Minnie, the murderer, is alleviated thematically by the other women in the play hiding evidence of her crime. The men of the play exist only to set off the relationships between the women of the story; they exist in whole as background characters, serving to push forward the thematic ideas of the story and nothing else.
Isolation and loneliness are common themes in literature, but one of the things that binds feminist literature together is the theme of sisterhood and connectivity. Both Wit and Trifles demonstrate the theory that the bonds that women make can be very significant and impactful on their lives as a whole.
References
Edson, M. (1999). Wit. New York: Faber and Faber.
Glaspell, S. (2014). Trifles. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 26 December 2014, from http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10623/10623-h/10623-h.htm#TRIFLES
