...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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...of “Trifles”, Fidelity, and Women’s honor by Susan Glaspell. In writing “Trifles”, Fidelity, and The Visioning she drew from her past and current experienced events to create such stories. Her writing career had first begun when she was in high school and progressed further into her college years. While attending college, her career spun off as a reporter for Des Moines Daily News. After a short time of being a reporter, she and her husband decided to return back to her hometown Davenport, Iowa to become a full time writer. This was the beginning of her becoming “one of the early-twentieth-century America’s leading playwright”(Rudnick). Fidelity was Glaspell third novel which was published in 1915. It took place in a small town in Iowa about a midwestern woman name Ruth Holland who was a rebellion against the environment she was surrounded by. She was committed in a relatonship with a man name Stuart Williams who was also married. Throughout the story, Ruth wants to amends relationship with her family but they seen her only as a bad woman. She started to grow by filling the voids in her life. When Stuart’s wife granted him the divorce, Ruth at this point decided to leave for New York alone to find her idenity, “rather than marrying a man she no longer loves” (Carpentier). Though it did not received as much fame as her other writings, this novel proves that influences from other people helps a writer creat their story. Though Fidelity may be different from Glaspell’s real...
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...Trifles by Susan Glaspell Name: Course: Professor: Institution: Trifles by Susan Glaspell Trifles, is a play which was written by Susan Glaspell in 1916. It reveals the writer’s concern with issues related to culture thinking and notions of gender and sexual roles. The title itself depicts that the apprehensions of women are in many times considered as simple trivialities that their issues are insignificant to the society. Susan Glaspell wrote the play to exhibit the male supposition that the views of the female are irrelevant in a male subjugated culture. The play invites the reader to question the relative value of men and women perception in the society, this is achieved by setting up a tension packed play that develops through the advancement of two different and separate narratives, a male and a female (Clarkson, 2003). This research paper seeks to discuss and analyze the play. The setting of the play is back in the early twentieth century during a cold weather in a rural area. This helps the reader to identify with a real life area with real people. The setting establishes a miserable and thoughtful mood. The author describes the condition of the house as an abandoned farmhouse that had a gloomy kitchen and that was untidy. This creates a response of emotional trauma which is as a result of the theme of loneliness in the landscape. The characters of the play are: the county attorney George Henderson who is a young and arrogant individual. He has a good reputation...
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...One act plays can be some of the most polarizing and engaging acts of art. Yet, after viewing director Jasmine Castello’s version of Trifles, it seems that the excellent source material conceived by Susan Glaspell has been let down by a lackluster production team. Written by Glaspell in 1916, Trifles follows a group men and women as the try and solve why an elderly woman’s husband was found upstairs with a rope around his neck, dead. While the men begin to search the premises for any inkling of the culprit, the wives who remain indoors discovers some dark secrets of their own. One of the strongest factors of the play was simply Glaspell’s material. Not only did it convey a sense of mystery, but it’s underlying message that you discover throughout...
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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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...Men’s Pride Leads to Downfall in Glaspell’s “Trifles” “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 twenty-first century, mere decades ago people accepted sexism as common and even warranted. Since the male-dominated 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 real-life 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. Wright is gone...
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...Trifles: A Moral Justification for Murder The one act play “Trifles” depicts the views and passions of both men and women during the late-nineteenth century regarding the role of a woman. The characters in the play are the County Attorney, the Sheriff, and Mr. Hale, who are accompanied by Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters into the Wright’s home to investigate the murder of Mr. Wright. The men feel that the women are only concerning themselves with little things and make several condescending comments throughout the play displaying their views. While the men search for clues upstairs and in the outside barn yard, it is the women who cleverly piece together several clues leading to Mrs. Wright’s guilt in the murder mystery. But, because of the shocking evidence found by the women, they become sympathetic towards Mrs. Wright and decide to conceal their findings from the authorities. The women feel that the mental and emotional abuse Mrs. Wright received from her husband was justification for the crime in which she committed. Although murder is usually looked upon as an indefensible crime of selfishness, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters actions were morally validated because of Mr. Wright’s own selfish and tyrannical actions; which left Mrs. Wright with no other alternative but to murder him in order to reclaim her liberty. From the beginning of the play, when Mr. Hale explains to the other men that he was visiting the Wright’s home in hopes of convincing John Wright to pitch in on a party line...
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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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...Susan Glaspell’s play “Trifles” introduced a murder case in a small village. There are two groups of main characters. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale represent ethical women, with copassion for the unfortunate. County Attorney and Sheriff represent the judicial officers who seek for judicial fairness. The two groups’ conflict, therefore, represents the conflict of judicial fairness and ethical concerns in the real world. County attorney and Sheriff are characterized as official officers from the government. Their job is to catch the criminal and seek the evidence to prove that the criminal is guilty. However, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are more focused on the feelings and motives of the law-breaker (Minnie). In the novel, Mr. Henderson and Mr. Peters threw all of their attention into searching for, and analyzing, the evidence. They did not worry about, for example, the messy state of the kitchen, “County Attorney: (Looking around) I guess we’ll go upstairs first --- and then out to the barn and around there. [To the Sheriff] You’re….nothing that would point to any motive” (Trifles, p.1043). His obvious concern is solely as to whether there is any evidence that could be collected. He didn’t think about how a good house-wife could allow the kitchen to reach a state of mess like this. When Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are talking about frozen fruit, County Attorney said: “Well, can you beat the woman! Held for murder and worryin’ about her preserves.” (Trifles, P.1043). County...
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...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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...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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...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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...In the play Trifles by Susan Glaspell, we’re presented with a semi-witty gender battle during a murder case investigation. As usual, we get to witness the men flaring their egos up and about while belittling the women in the process; nonchalantly the two women proceed with the business with very little protest. While at the right house, the difference in gender agenda flowing casually through their dialogues helped the fluidity of the story. As the investigation went on, the dialogue among the men and the questions for the women carried with it an element of gender disparity. In one instance following a response to a question by Mrs. Hale, the sheriff exclaimed “They wonder if she was going to quilt it or just knot it! (The men laugh, the...
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...Trifles by Susan Glaspell Trifles, the play demonstrates how different roles were played between men and women and how women were treated. During the period of the late 19th and 20th century women wanted to become more independent and equal as men. In which, Feminist criticism is concerned with "the ways in which literature reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women" (Tyson). Therefore ladies were just a piece of the social part, being limited to only raise their family and be house spouses. As a result of Glaspell’s experience in the early 20th century, she gives us confining perspectives of women during the time, demonstrating it through her play “Trifles”. Glaspell gives us different points of interest that plays the role of sympathizing and speaking up for the women. In which the title Trifles itself seems to recommend that the play...
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...Plot Summary The setting for Trifles, a bleak, untidy kitchen in an abandoned rural farmhouse, quickly establishes the claustrophobic mood of the play. While a cold winter wind blows outside, the characters file in one at a time to investigate a violent murder: the farm’s owner, John Wright, was apparently strangled to death while he slept, and his wife, Minnie, has been taken into custody as a suspect in the crime. The sheriff, Henry Peters, is the first to enter the farmhouse, followed by George Henderson, the attorney prosecuting the case. Lewis Hale, a neighbor, is next to enter. The men cluster around a stove to get warm while they prepare for their investigation. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale follow the men into the kitchen; yet, they hesitate just inside the door. They are obviously quite disturbed by what has happened in the house and proceed with more care than their husbands. In a play filled with minor details (trifles) that take on major significance, the entrance of the characters is very revealing. There is an obvious divide — social, psychological, and physical — separating the men from the women, a fact that takes on a larger significance as the play progresses. The investigation begins with Henderson questioning Lewis, who discovered the murder the day before. Lewis explains that he was on his way into town with a load of potatoes and stopped at the Wright farmhouse to see if John and Minnie wanted to share a telephone line with him, since they were neighbors...
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