Preview

Differences Between Men And Women In Susan Glaspell's Trifles

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
683 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Differences Between Men And Women In Susan Glaspell's Trifles
When looking at a crime scene you need to be attentive to every detail. Assumptions and not realizing something is important can make or break a case or put the wrong person in jail or let the murder get away. The Mr. Peters and Mr. Hale in the play Trifles are more attentive as to how Mr. Wright died and using that to determine the motive. The women pay more attention to the little details which eventually help them determine if Mrs. Wright had a motive in murdering Mr. Wright. Despite the differences between the way the men and women investigate the crime scene, this lead Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters to discover why Minnie Foster killed Mr. Wright. The objects the two women found around the house symbolize the confinement Mrs. Wright felt from her husband’s abuse and the freedom she desperately wanted.
In the 1900s men are still superior to woman. Woman were to be seen but …show more content…
Wright not Mrs. Wright. Mrs. Wright has a psychological problem from the abuse she endured from Mr. Wright. He killed Minnie foster psychologically, so Minnie killed him physically. “MRS. HALE (with a slow look around her): I wonder how it would seem never to have had any children around. (Pause.) No, Wright wouldn’t like the bird --- a thing that snag. She used to sing. He killed that, too.” (Glaspell 573) When the two of them got married she gave up everything. She gave up her last name, her lively smile and her singing. He abused her, which would have a reaction on her life. She went from being bright, free and fun to dull, sad and dreary. He took the life out of her and in return she took his life.
The yellow canary represents Minnie Foster, the bird in the cage is Mrs. Wright. the broken cage represents that Minnie finally broke out her current state and went back to the way she used to be. The bird with a broken neck is what Mr. Wright did to her. Minnie finally broke free only to kill Mr. Wright and having her freedom token away again due to the fact she’s in
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Lamb To The Slaughter Summary
    • 585 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Lamb To The Slaughter Summary

    Triffles is a play in which Mr. Hale and Sherriff Peters are investigating the cause of death of John Wright. Wright appears to have been strangled with a rope and the first suspect in the crime is his wife, Mrs. Wright. In the presence of Mrs. Wight’s friends, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, the two men begin searching for leads to the cause of the murder. The two women are fascinated by female stuff in the house and are especially attracted to Mrs. Wright’s unfinished quilt “pulling a knot and ripping the sewing”. They did not know that the knot was the evidence of the crime. On noticing the dead pet canary, the two women unravel the events that unfolded before the death of Mr. Wright. They successfully hide the dead bird and its cage “in Mrs. Hale’s pocket in her big coat” from the male investigators which led to Mrs. Wright escaping justice.…

    • 585 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    How Does Susan Glaspell Use Symbols In A Jury Of Her Peers
    • 160 Words
    • 1 Page

    How Does Susan Glaspell Use Symbols In A Jury Of Her Peers

    The use of a roller towel by Mr. Henderson, symbolizes the monotony of day in and day out repetition of Minnie’s life. The bird like Minnie, “a sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and—fluttery’, held captive by the cage, like Minnie is imprisoned by her life of battery. Mr. Wright, is killed by suffocation symbolizes how he strangled…

    • 160 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Brandon Esssay Life
    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Brandon Esssay Life

    One significant reason for Mrs. Wright’s behavior was her relationship with Mr. Wright. Their relationship wasn’t good at all. Mr. Wright was seen as a good man, but he was known to neglect his wife. Mr. Wright showed no interest in anything that pleased Mrs. Wright, and he wouldn’t allow her to sing in the choir. Mr. Wright oppressed Mrs. Wright by not allowing her to leave the house or have any interaction with the outside world. The dead canary was also symbolic of how Mr. Wright wanted to kill anything that gave Mrs. Wright pleasure. The bird represented Mrs. Wright’s personality, and how sweet she was as an individual before she was married to Mr. Wright. The dead canary is the motive for why Mrs. Wright killed her husband. When Mr. Wright killed the bird, he killed her along with it. Mr. Wright’s cruel attitude and control over Minnie Foster caused her to change as a person. Her lively attitude had eventually decreased tremendously due to the ways she was treated by her husband. Clearly, Mrs. Wright’s relationship with Mr. Wright had caused her to behave abnormally.…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Trifles: Wife and Mrs. Wright Shoes
    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Trifles: Wife and Mrs. Wright Shoes

    “Trifles” was a very mysterious play. This play was written by Susan Glaspell. It does not explain why the two women helped Mrs. Wright. It does not mention any information about them being friends with her, so why would they help her? Mrs. Wright basically was tired of her husband’s ways and abuse and retaliated by murdering him. He was said to have killed her kitten years ago and in more recent terms, he killed her bird.…

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Susa Trifles Feminist Analysis
    • 1388 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Susa Trifles Feminist Analysis

    It has five main characters and it is about a murder case solving scenario where the detectives were trying to solve it and women attempted to hide the truth from the men because of various reasons. There are two main female characters in Trifles. Mrs. Peters, the wife of the detective and Mrs. Hale. They are neighbor and when they go and collect something from Mrs. Peters' house they discover the dead body of Mr. Wright. While the whole cast of characters will have their lines in the play, the Wrights would be only explained through lines but no actual role. The story goes while they discovered the dead body in the house, they were looking for pieces of evidence in the house. The question would whether Mrs. Wright is responsible for this or not. Throughout the play we also can sense the relationship between both couples are not so well. Towards to end they discovered some crucial evidence which could prove that Mrs. Wright was the killer of her own husband. However they then think of the unhappy marriage they had and decided to hide the evidence as a revenge to their husband so they can never solve this…

    • 1388 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Women In Susan Glaspell's Play Trifles
    • 683 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Women In Susan Glaspell's Play Trifles

    Milton Levin states “Its picture of women’s isolation in a bleak world is finely drawn.” During the dialogue between Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, they discuss the loneliness of the Wright house. Mrs. Hale states that she stayed away because it weren’t cheerful. It’s down in a hollow and you don’t see the road. (732) Minnie was isolated from all of society. John Wright would not even consider a telephone. In his opinion, people talked too much. Christine Dymkowski writes, “The separateness of the female and male worlds is thus immediately established visually and then reinforced by the dialogue.” This separation is shown in the text, where the men of the play are often minimizing the women and their responsibilities while patronizing them. Standing in the kitchen, the County Attorney judges Minnie for having a dirty towel. (728) He speaks to the women about it looking for agreement and becomes condescending when he does not have it. He says, “Ah, loyal to your sex, I see.” (728) Then the men proceed to laugh at the fact that the women wondered if Minnie would quilt or knot her pattern.…

    • 683 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Women In Susan Glaspell's A Jury Of Her Peers
    • 1043 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Women In Susan Glaspell's A Jury Of Her Peers

    Throughout the story, they find several motives for why Mrs. Wright would kill her husband and sympathize the pain she goes through. As they look through Mrs. Wright’s closet to find clothes to give to her in jail, the two women observe how rugged and old her clothes appear, showing that Mr. Wright must not have been financially stable enough to provide her with the items that she desires. This extremely upsets Mrs. Hale, for she had known the unmarried Mrs. Wright, who was widely known to be beautiful, lively, and one of fashion. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters also examine the kitchen of the house and find everything in a mess and every chore half-finished. While the men degrade her for not fulfilling her duties as a wife, the women support her and exclaim that “farmers’ wives have their hands full” (207). The stove in the poor conditioned kitchen is also used as a metaphor to Mrs. Wright’s relationship with her husband when the two women find it to be broken. The story states that Mrs. Hale thinks “of what it would mean, year after year, to have that stove to wrestle with, and Mrs. Peters replies, “A person gets discouraged—and loses heart” (210). This clearly exemplifies the…

    • 1043 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Gender Roles In Susan Glaspell's Trifles
    • 571 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Gender Roles In Susan Glaspell's Trifles

    Glaspell uses general stereotypes of the time periods gender specific roles. Leonard Mustazza very helpfully points out the difference between the genders and how the characters react to their position (Mustazza 1). Throughout the play, the male characters steers the readers into believing that a woman’s place is at the home, where she is spending most of her time cleaning and taking care of her husband. One knows this because the county attorney remarks, “I shouldn’t say she had the homemaking instinct” (Glaspell 746) after he was through surveying the kitchen. He implies that a women’s duty is to make sure that the home well taken care of. Also, the males expects the women to be submissive and to have the same values as their husbands. For…

    • 571 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Uncontrolled Emotions In Trifles And Oedipus The King
    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Uncontrolled Emotions In Trifles And Oedipus The King

    The first type of uncontrolled emotion that can lead to bad consequences is fear. In Trifles, the reader understands that Mrs. Wright has significantly changed as a…

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Susan Glaspell's Trifles
    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Susan Glaspell's Trifles

    The Webster’s Dictionary definition of trifle is: something that does not have much value or importance (“trifle”). When one looks at the title of Susan Glaspell’s short play, at first they may think that it is as the title implies; unimportant or the story being told is for nothing more than entertainment. Upon further examination and consultation of critical sources, the reader is able to tease out a deeper meaning. The play, Trifles, written by Susan Glaspell is an intricately weaved narrative on gender roles and home life as it was in early 1900s.…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    A Jury Of Her Peers Analysis
    • 728 Words
    • 3 Pages

    A Jury Of Her Peers Analysis

    Wright, formerly Minnie Foster, used to sing before she married. After her marriage, she got a bird that sings. Mr. Wright, having already “killed” one form of singing, proceeds to do so with yet another form, the bird (paragraph 244). The bird is a reflection of Mrs. Wright’s pre-marriage personality, and when killed, it is essentially killing Minnie Foster again. The two women become sympathetic toward Mrs. Wright, backing up the desire to withhold the evidence of the dead bird. Meanwhile, the men are searching for evidence of motive, in order to convict Mrs. Wright. While the women are gathering belongings to take to Mrs. Wright, they discover an unfinished quilt that has some stitching that is out of place; Mrs. Hale decides that it would make Mrs. Wright happy if she fixed the stitching for her. The women also discover that Mr. Wright was murdered in the same fashion that the bird was killed. Mrs. Petersrecalls when her kitten was killed right in front of her, and remembers that she had wanted to “hurt” the person responsible, however, she was being held back. At that, she understands the emotions controlling Mrs. Wright and becomes more sympathetic to…

    • 728 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Trifles Gender Roles
    • 131 Words
    • 1 Page

    Trifles Gender Roles

    The play “Trifles” written by Susan Glaspell is based in the early 1900’s when it was typical for the masculine gender role to dominate the feminine role. The theme is of the play is power and domination over females during this time era. Upon analyzing this play, Mr. Hale and Mr. Peter’s are investigating the murder and they portray themselves as strong and determined, but in reality they are not as alert as the women are. In conclusion, the women figured out that Mrs. Wright murdered her husband by simply observing the house and finding the dead bird; the men were upstairs at the scene of the crime and could not figure it out. Men to this day still do not understand that sometimes the woman’s way of thinking is better!…

    • 131 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Trifles Feminist Analysis
    • 2287 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Trifles Feminist Analysis

    In the play, “Trifles,” Susan Glaspell demonstrates the inequality that occurs between men and women during the 20th century. From the opening scene, the two women are not given much attention unlike the men, until they are separated from them and become the main characters. Although the women are seen as inferior to men, they prove that they are much more capable as they are the ones who solve the case by thinking outside the box. They find the real motive behind Mrs. Wright’s action and are able to understand her doing because of the way women were treated back then. Even though both women decide to defend Mrs. Wright by hiding the evidence, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters sympathize with her, but for different reasons.…

    • 2287 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    What Is The Motive Behind Susan Glaspell's Trifles?
    • 297 Words
    • 2 Pages

    What Is The Motive Behind Susan Glaspell's Trifles?

    In “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell, the obvious murderer of Mr. Wright is Mrs. Wright. It wasn’t difficult to figure out this because Mrs. Wright was acting suspicious when questioned by the sheriff and county attorney Hale. She seemed entirely calm for a person who had just lost their husband. The motive behind Mrs. Wright killing her husband is unsure, but whatever it is it took Mrs. Wright over the edge. However, one reason n for Mrs. Wright to kill her husband could be because of domestic abuse. Its roots lie in that of physical and emotional trauma that Mrs. Wright endured with being married to Mr. Wright. I would assume that when Mr. Wright killed one of Mrs. Wright canaries that was a breaking point for his wife, she was vulnerable and mad.…

    • 297 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Feminist Symbolism in Glaspell's "Trifles"
    • 1700 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Feminist Symbolism in Glaspell's "Trifles"

    Mrs. Hale remembers Mrs. Wright as a girl; Minnie Foster. Mrs. Hale described the young girls, as "kind of like a bird herself – real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and – fluttery." (Glaspell) If you notice, even the name Minnie belittles her. There are several indicators that Mr. Wright is abusive to his wife, but the people of their town see John Wright as a "good man." (Glaspell) Mrs.…

    • 1700 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics