...who intends to prosecute Minnie * In his arrogance and haste, he misses vital details * Is "young and arrogant" Sheriff Peters * Sheriff of the rural community * Married to Mrs. Peters * Arrested Minnie, but leaves George Henderson to head the investigation * Mrs. Peters, though she didn’t know the younger Minnie, can relate to Minnie’s loneliness and isolation as she recalls her own losses; she helps Mrs. Hale hide the evidence Mrs. Peters * Married to the Sheriff John Wright * The murdered man and owner of the house Mrs. Minnie Wright (f/k/a Minnie Foster) * John Wright's wife and his suspected murderer ************************************ Summary Feminist Drama Trifles is an example of early feminist drama. Though its plot focuses on a single moral choice, that of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters deciding whether or not to expose why Mrs. Wright killed her husband. It addresses the principal issue of justice and contemporary issues of gender and identity politics....
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...Glaspell, Susan. “Silent Justice in a Different Key: Glaspell's Trifles.” Midwest Quarterly 44.3 (Spring 2003): 282-290. 2006. Literature Resource Center. Web. 26 Mar. 2015. Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles” is a play that uses deception, yet it seems simple like the title states. Yet it represents conflict between perception and behavior. Exploring the play reveals fundamental between the actions of me and women, the understanding of home space. The county attorney, the sheriff, and a neighbor return to the scene of the crime, attempting to collect evidence. Two of the men's wives accompany them to gather belongings for the jailed woman. In the course of the action, the women accidentally turn up the evidence which the men seek in vain, and the...
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...Glenn Klosowski Jr. Professor Barker ENG 102 04 November 2015 An Investigation of "Trifles" Written in 1916, Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles” begins as a murder mystery but soon becomes an examination of marriage and domestic life as an institution of repression and suffocation. Minnie is driven to kill her husband; by not providing a specific incident to trigger the murder, the presumption is that it is committed as a result of prolonged and systemic suffering over a period of time, as opposed to a crime of passion. Minnie is not so much murdering John as she is killing her marriage outright. The play rivets attention to Martha and Mrs. Peters, who ultimately solve the murder (although keep this information withheld), by exploring their unique...
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...Susan Glaspell was born in Davenport, Iowa, on July 1, 1876. In 1899, she graduated from Drake University with a Bachelors of Arts degree. Glaspell considered herself as a novelist, she was best known for her plays. One of her greatest plays were Trifles, which is a one-act play. She finished it in ten days (Wiedeman). It has played successfully throughout the United States and Europe, but was not performed as much during the mid-twentieth century. The play had an absent protagonist, Glaspell doesn’t write about Mrs. Wright. The play is focused more on the facts on the incident. Trifles is not just about a murder case, it is a cultural study that examines the status of women. This play was related to Glaspell’s individual career as a dramatist, she has covered a murder trial in which a wife killed her husband. The play opened on August 8. 1916, with her playing as Mrs. Hale, while her husband played Mr. Hale. Trifles introduces a technique Glaspell reuses in her other plays, which is central character never appears on stage. Since Mrs. Wright doesn’t appear in the play, it is very hard to figure out if she is good or bad because...
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...LITR201-1402B-04: Literature: A Reflection of Life- PHASE 4 Name: Institution: LITR201-1402B-04: Literature: A Reflection of Life- PHASE 4 PART A Drama is also referred to as a play because it tells a story and is also performed on stage. In addition, drama is similar to plays in that it has a theme, a plot and is often narrated by a persona (Ghent, 2012, 629). Also, drama is also known as a play in that it evokes emotions and has a tone just like a play. During my high school days, the school invited a group of people who performed a play on HIV/AIDs. This was my initial time to timepiece a live stage performance. The characters perfectly represented their roles in that the audience felt as if the characters were real. For example, those characters representing HIV patients appeared weak and sad; the sounds were full of sympathy as they spoke. Every scene had its own sounds that paralleled the theme and purpose of the act (Meyer, 2011, p111). There were cries, mourns and even sounds of desperation. Throughout the drama, the audience was full of sad mood. HIV/AIDs infection was presented as something that people should be afraid of. The audience was also filled with pity and sympathy for the infected characters. Since it was my first encounter to see a live stage drama, the theme, scenes and characters were a great impact to my life and my understanding of what entails a drama. For a elongated time I had wished to be involved in a dramatic act until one day, my literature...
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...IDENTIFICATION OF WOMEN AFTER MARRIAGE Marriage is known by all as a legal union of a man and woman forming together to become one as equal partners. Unfortunately, in the plays Trifles by Susan Glaspell and Doll House by Henrik Ibsen. Marriage is identify as a type of union were women have to adapt to a mans need, and be subject to be beneath their husband. In both stories, the main idea and theme interact with each other in the sense of degrading women and leaving them with no sense of worth. The universal definition of Theme is defined as the subject of a talk or a person’s thought. However, in literature it’s illustrated as a main idea or the foundation for an entire piece. In the plays, Trifles and Doll House, one common similarity shared was theme. Identification of women was a main component because not only did both story portrayed women as not having any sense of identity but because their role were mostly determined by who their husband was. In Doll House, the main character Nora is initially known for her silly, childish ways. For example, “oh yes, Torvald let us…squander a little…I’ve been buying a lot…oh, please Torvald can I hung money on the tree…oh please wouldn’t that be fun.” (Act I) This quote demonstrate how poorly Nora thinks as a woman and how she acts and beg like a child just to get what she wants. As a matter of facts, because Nora acts like a child her husband treats her as such. Instead of calling her by her name he refers to her as his “little...
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...It anticipates the way we would come to understand the twentieth century’s unique lessons about the capacity of ordinary citizens to do evil” (Franklin). “The Lottery is definitely compared to the twentieth century due to the fact that they have a tradition to play a tragic game every year. Also their is no upper hand to stop this game everyone plays it and feels no remorse. “Trifles” is a play about a woman who gets accused of murdering her husband. “Though the play is celebrated as an early feminist drama, it stands on its own as an engrossing story. In the tale, two women, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, gradually uncover the motive for a murder, while their male counterparts are blinded by ignorance and insensitivity” (Jaworowski). The Attorney, Sheriff, a neighbor, and two of the men’s wives accompanied them to searched Mrs. Wrights house to see if they can find clues on why she would have murdered John Wright. The men enter the house with eyes of legal investigators while the two women enter the house with trying to understand why Mrs. Wright would do this to her husband. In “The Lottery” and “Trifles” both women in the text get punished for committing no crime. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is a story about a town who has a ritual to play a game every year. Every year they gather around for a couple of hours and finish in time for noon dinner. The village people begin to gather in the square between the...
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...Writing 1 January 6, 2016 Between the Past and the Present “Women belong in the kitchen. Men belong in the kitchen. Everybody belongs in the kitchen, the kitchen has food”. This is the best quote so far for the reason that the concept of “women belong in kitchen” is a disrespectful notion. “Trifles” deals with women status and treatment in society. Susan Glaspell shows the readers how men underestimate women’s interests and thoughts, especially since the whole play is set in a kitchen. Minnie had a miserable life ever since she married John Wrights who’s known as a hard man. She was a happy and full of energy who used to sing. She had nothing cheerful left but a bird, but unfortunately Mr. Wright choked it. She couldn’t help herself but to burst with anger, seize the opportunity and kill him. He took everything she loved: her voice, her body, her beauty and now all there was left: her bird. Sadly, Minnie represents many women all over the world today who are treated as neglected and worthless creatures who are suffering from physical and psychological assault. Technological development and world’s advancement isn’t necessarily related to the development of how people think. “Trifles” was written about a hundred years ago, and still its impact can be seen nowadays. Malala is a pakistani activist for female education and youngest Nobel Prize winner; who Taliban threatened then decided to kill her, and eventually they attempted to assassinate her, but luckily she survived...
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...A Jury of Her Peers by Susan Glaspell The short story “ A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell was published in 1917. The story is a version of the play Trifles which was written in 1916, however was not published until three years later. The fictional story is said to be based off of an actual court case from Iowa. The characters themselves are also part taken from the actual court case that took place in Iowa. In the story “ A Jury of Her Peers” the theme, symbols, and characters all show how different men and women are and at the same time, how men and women are alike. The story jumps into action when Mrs. Hale, Mr. Hale , Mrs. Peters, the sheriff, and the county attorney are at the scene of the crime and Mr. Hale explains what he saw and heard yesterday at the Wrights house. After Mr. Hale gives his story, the men decide to investigate the crime scene. The men tell the women to stay in the kitchen and look around for any clues to help them find out what happened. The men go out to look around the house to see if there is any evidence outside. The women find clues that incriminate Mrs. Wright but in the end they decide to not tell the men of their findings. At the beginning of the story Mrs. Hale is flustered with work in the kitchen when she is called upon by her husband to travel to the Wright’s house. Once there she finds out the horrible truth that Mr. Wright has been murdered. While she listened to her husband give testimony about what he had heard and...
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...April 7th 2009 Lit & Comp Trifles Marriage and beliefs can cause tension when it comes to law and justice. This is demonstrated in the one act play “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell. “Trifles” is a play that takes place in the early 20th century. This play is set at the scene of a murder, where a house wife is suspected of killing her husband. The story comes down to two women deciding what to do with newly found evidence. This causes tension between law and justice. The treatments these women receive during this story portray a larger statement about the role of gender and justice in society. For example, the Sheriff, Mr. Peters and his wife represent the conflict between law and justice because Mrs. Peters has to choose between her marriage to the “law” and her beliefs of justice. One important role in this story is sexism. “Trifles” involves drama within the male dominated society of the time period. The men in this play such as the Sheriff, the County Attorney, and Mr. Hale all represent the law. These men are in the play to try to enforce the law and find evidence against the suspected murderer Mrs. Wright. Justice is demonstrated in the characters Mrs. Peters, Mrs. Hale, and Mrs. Wright. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are at the crime scene supporting their husbands to find evidence. After being mocked by their husbands, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale conceal the evidence they find to bring Mrs. Wright closer to justice. Mrs. Peters keeps her mouth shut and goes along with Mrs....
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...usually refer to the moment when the crime is submitted to justice, in the case of "Trifles" is more complicated than that. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters discover the dead bird of Mrs. Wright. This was to them a very clear evidence that Minnie was the one who killed her husband, however, somehow also justify the act. Mrs. Hale feel guilty for not being more attentive to Mrs. Wright “I might have known she needed help! I know how things can be—for women.” (Glaspell 1916: 191) They understand that Minnie's actions were more than a murder; it was the way to get rid of her husband and get her freedom. The fact that her husband strangled her bird was not really the reason; rather the act took her to the point of having the need to be freed from that social oppression to which she was transfixed. The ladies feel identified with the situation to the point where Mrs. Hale mentions “We all go through the same things-it's all just a different...
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...Frohlich 1 Makenzee Frohlich English 1020 Mr. French 18 December 14 Symbolic Beyond Sexism “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles,” says Mr. Hale in Susan Glaspell’s play, “Trifles.” While demeaning women and their concerns is criticized as sexist in the twentyfirst century, mere decades ago people accepted sexism as common and even warranted. Since the maledominated society considered women’s tasks less important than men’s, men treated women with a lack of consideration. In the 20th century drama “Trifles,” Glaspell challenges the suppression in effect during her lifetime, basing the play on a series of news stories she wrote about the reallife court case of a woman prosecuted for murdering her husband. In “Trifles,” Glaspell uses symbolism to show that male sexism causes a lack of empathy which leads to men’s failures as much as it does women’s. From the first scene to the final line, Glaspell uses spatial symbolism to reason her case about the detrimental effects of men’s stereotypes of women. According to the stage direction, the initially timid female characters, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters “...come in slowly, and stand close together near the door,” clearly displaying a reluctance to enter a widow’s empty home. However, as Mr. Hale, the sheriff and the county attorney “go at once to the stove,” they discuss what happened the previous day. When Mr. Hale had first knocked on the door to request Mr. Wright’s help, he tentatively entered when he thought he heard “come in”; now that Mr...
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...Susan Glaspell’s one-act play, Trifles, is based on actual events that occurred in Iowa at the beginning of the century. For two years Glaspell worked as a reporter for the Des Moines News, where she covered the murder trial of a farmer’s wife, Margaret Hossack, in Indianola, Iowa. Hossack was accused of killing her husband, John, by striking him twice in the head with an ax while he slept (Trifles 216). Trifles, written in the early 1900’s by Susan Glaspell. Glaspell wrote this play during a time of controversial feminist issues. Glaspell wrote "Trifles" to demonstrate the male assumption that women were insignificant members in a male dominated society. Because the men underestimate them, the women are able to prove they are not insignificant. The play opens at the Wright farmhouse where Mr. Wright has been murdered in his sleep. They entered in the house: county attorney, the sheriff, Mrs. Hale, and Mrs. Peters. The men and women have come to investigate the case against Minnie Foster, the wife of Mr. Wright. Most of the stuffs which the male characters supposed to be insignificant objects like the broken bird cage door, the quilt, the dead canary, and the entire kitchen consequentially lead to the solution (Trifles 219). The improper assumptions by men toward women can have dire consequences, as demonstrated in Glaspell's world. Combating these narcissistic assumptions displayed by men can result in a unity among women that can overcome any male caused disrespect...
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...In Brian Sutton’s work “‘A different kind of the same thing’: Marie de France’s LAUSTIC and Glaspell’s Trifles”, he analyzes the similarity regarding the core symbol, a murdered songbird, and the powerful meaning of that symbol. Sutton compares both works to derive with his conclusion; that both works are linked to a piece of literary history connecting listening to a songbird with “a longing for the ideal and far off.” Even more so both works are compared with the will for freedom. Looking strictly at his opinions regarding “Trifles”, Sutton states how the dead canary “evokes a wife’s urge to escape her marital dreariness”, which is expressed in quotes from “Trifles” from Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters. However, the dead songbird is used for numerous other symbols throughout the play. Such as how Mr. Wright killing the bird is easily portrayed as an attack on his wife. Sutton interpreted the canary to be Mrs. Wright, more so the cheerful side extinguished by the depressing marriage between herself and Mr. Wright. Quotes withdrawn from “Trifles” can support this idea, again being stated by the lone women in the play, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters. Sutton reasons that the killing of the bird (by Mr. Wright presumably), equates to a symbolic attack on Mrs. Wright. This attack only adds onto the guilt of already killing Mrs. Wright’s spirit, hence the presence of the songbird, where the canary is a “stand-in” for Mrs. Wright. This article constructed by Sutton only focuses on one thing:...
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...O’Neil 1 Becky O’Neil Arquette Eng. 112-01 December 6th, 2012 “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell During the 19th century, possibilities for women were severely restricted. Women were not allowed to vote, could not control their own finances, and were not able to work outside the home(unless widowed), any money or property they had was turned over to their husbands upon their marriage. Much of history is written from the male perspective. Women of that era were struggling with finding a sense of themselves and a certain freedom from the traditional gender roles society had dictated for them. Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles” portrays these struggles through Mrs. Wright, who is expected to conform but resorts to an act of desperation to gain her freedom. The tale begins when Mr. Hale pays a visit to his neighbor, John Wright, only to discover That Mr. Wright is dead. Upon asking Mrs. Wright what killed him, she tells him, “He died of the rope around his neck.”(789) The sheriff and the County Attorney are called and arrive at the scene. However, in this case the professionals fall short in their task to find evidence of a motive for murder. It is the two women who accompany their husbands to the house who uncover the vital clues as to motive. Mrs. Hale, the wife of the man who reported the crime, and Mrs. Peters, the sheriff’s wife, are left in the kitchen. They are there only to gather a few...
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