How Does Susan Glaspell Present Dianoia In Trifles
Victim or Murderer: Anangnorisis and Dianoia in Trifles
The play Trifles, by Susan Glaspell and written in 1916, is set in a time period when women were contained to the limits in which their gender role was of use in a patriarchal society. Housewives were often isolated within the domestic sphere and degraded to being merely characters of superficial and physical value. As a result, women were often divided amongst each other. The treatment of anagnorisis and dianoia in Trifles reflects the ways in which the achievement of anagnorisis and exhibition of dianoia can be influenced by feminine gender roles, particularly that of empathetic understanding in conflict, and aids in the play’s purpose of persuading the audience that …show more content…
women should stand in solidarity when faced with injustice.
In the play, Glaspell introduces the concept of anagnorisis when Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale discover that Minnie’s husband was emotionally abusive towards her. The anagnorisis that occurs is not the realization that Mr. Wright was abusive, however, but that both women realize that they can identify with Minnie in some way. The difference between the two women is that only Mrs. Peters achieves a true anagnorisis, whereas Mrs. Hale shows sympathy towards Minnie from the beginning of the play. As a result of Mrs. Hale’s sympathetic feelings towards Minnie throughout the play, she does not have a changed way of thinking at any instance in the play, therefore, an anagnorisis is unattainable for her. Both characters function in the play, one woman attaining an anagnorisis and one woman who aids in provoking the anagnorisis, speaks to the overall purpose of the play which is the significance of the force that can be constructed from the unity of women in times of injustice.
Mrs. Hale is presented in the play as being at Minnie’s defense from the beginning. Her first line in the play is that of jumping to defend Minnie when the County Attorney says, “Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?” and Mrs. Hale stiffly retorts with, “There’s a great deal of work to be done on a farm.” (32-33). Mrs. Hale is empathetic towards Minnie because she is also a housewife on a farm and relates to the lifestyle that Minnie had lived. Being in a likewise situation puts Mrs. Hale in a position of identifying with Minnie and leads her to feel the need to stick up for Minnie when she is being ridiculed. The fact that Mrs. Hale can clearly identify with Minnie from the beginning of the play is a crucial aspect in achieving unity amongst the women in the play because Mrs. Hale acts as a beacon for the recognition of the notion that women relate to each other in many ways. A substantial part of Mrs. Hale’s gender role is that she can sympathize easier with women in like situations because she has the capacity to understand similarities that unify women.
Mrs. Hale plays an important role in assisting the attainment of anagnorisis and dianoia for Mrs. Peters. Although Mrs. Hale sympathizes with Minnie from the beginning, Mrs. Peters remains somewhat distant and passive in the sense that she does not want to be associated with Minnie because she thinks of Minnie as simply a cold-blooded killer. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are in conflict because Mrs. Hale has taken the personal aspects of Minnie’s situation into account and believes that she should be advocated for, whereas, Mrs. Peters sees the situation objectively and believes that the law should be obeyed no matter the context of the crime. This conflict can be noted in the lines exchanged by Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, “Mrs. Hale: You know, it seems kind of sneaking. Locking her up in town and then coming out here and trying to get her own house to turn against her! Mrs. Peters: But Mrs. Hale, the law is the law.” (35). This instance is showing how Mrs. Hale believes that Minnie is being treated unfairly and, in comparison, Mrs. Peters believes that Minnie should deal with the consequences of her actions under the extent of the law. The significance of this conflict is that it reflects how Mrs. Peters’ initial position on Minnie’s situation is that of lacking sympathy and viewing it without bias. It also shows Mrs. Hale’s efforts to convince Mrs. Peters that Minnie needs help in being defended because Minnie’s situation is relative to the type of lifestyle that she and Mrs. Peters live.
For Mrs.
Peters, anagnorisis is provoked by observing Minnie’s isolation within her home and feeling sympathy for Minnie because of the loneliness and anger that she might have felt. Mrs. Peters relates to Minnie’s situation for two reasons. First, Mrs. Peters begins to identify with Minnie by relating the isolation and stillness of Minnie’s life towards her own. She indicates this when she says, “Mrs. Peters: [something within her speaking.] I know what stillness is. When we homesteaded in Dakota, and my first baby died – after he was two years old, and me with no other then – “ (38). Mrs. Peters relates her own experiences of loneliness to Minnie’s situation. However, she then continues with “Mrs. Peters: I know what stillness is. [Pulling herself back.] The law has got to punish crime, Mrs. Hale.” (38.) This additional statement reveals how Mrs. Peters begins to reject her recognition of relativity towards Minnie’s isolation and reminds herself of Minnie’s faults. Mrs. Peters experiences of isolation does not result in murder, therefore, she ends up retracting the correlation she has begun to make towards Minnie’s life. This is a false anagnorisis in the sense that it does not result in a dianoia. Mrs. Peters’ attitude towards Minnie remains the
same.
Secondly, Mrs. Peters goes beyond sympathetic emotion and empathizes with Minnie. Mrs. Peters reveals a childhood memory when she says “Mrs. Peters: [In a whisper.] When I was a girl – my kitten – there was a boy took a hatchet, and before my eyes – before I could get there – [Covers her face an instant.] If they hadn’t held me back I would have – [Catches herself, looks upstairs where steps are heard, falters weakly.] – hurt him.” (38). This instance reveals that Mrs. Peters has witnessed and experienced male brutality, much like the way Minnie was tormented by her husband’s deliberate attack on her pet canary. This correlation between Minnie’s emotional abuse and Mrs. Peters’ childhood memory of male harassment provokes Mrs. Peters to empathize with Minnie and put herself in Minnie’s situation. When Mrs. Peters states, “If they hadn’t held me back I would have – hurt him”, the brief pause in her line leads the audience to believe that what she really meant to say was “killed him”. Mrs. Peters relates to the rage that Minnie had felt after her husband killed her canary and realizes that she could have done the same thing upon feeling the same emotion. Ultimately, Mrs. Peters realizes that Minnie has been a victim of emotional abuse and male brutality/dominance, therefore, leading Mrs. Peters to recognize that she herself has fallen victim to these traumas as well and that she could have easily ended up in a place like Minnie has.
Mrs. Peters’ dianoia, following her anagnorisis, is revealed when she changes her perspective towards Minnie. It is evident that she has changed her attitude because she begins to collect evidence against Minnie and hides it, in Minnie’s defense. The most crucial piece of evidence against Minnie is that of her dead canary, killed by Mr. Wright, which can be used to infer a motive for the crime. Mrs. Peters aids in hiding this evidence, initially, when the County Attorney and Sherriff enter the scene unexpectedly and again at the end of the play when the women are leaving the house. This can be shown in the lines, “County Attorney: [Preoccupied.] Is there a cat? [Mrs. Hale glances in a quick covert way at Mrs. Peters.] Mrs Peters: Well, not now. They’re superstitious, you know, they leave.” (37-38). This example in the play is significant to the purpose of the play for two reasons. One reason being the exhibition of dianoia in Mrs. Peters’ changed attitude towards defending Minnie. Initially, Mrs. Peters’ was skeptical of helping Minnie, as Mrs. Hale had suggested they do, and thought obeying the law was in her best interest. From this example we can see that Mrs. Peters is now breaking the law by lying to the County Attorney about there being a cat in the house. She has changed her way of thinking towards the situation. Another reason why the example is important to the purpose of solidarity in the play is that the glance that is exchanged between Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters is that of shared knowledge between the two women. The glance functions as a form of body language that pertains to the way Mrs. Hale is hinting to Mrs. Peters to lie about the cat. This unspoken form of communication unifies the women at a level that is above the understanding of the men.
The play’s purpose of unity amongst women, as a result of their ability to relate to one another through means of empathetic understanding, is illuminated by a line spoken by Mrs. Hale. She says, “I might have known she needed help! I know how things can be – for women. I tell you, it’s queer, Mrs. Peters. We live close together and we live far apart. We all go through the same things – it’s all just a different kind of the same thing.” (38). This example is significant because it exhibits how Mrs. Hale recognizes the unity that lies between the women in the play. She begins the play by being sympathetic towards Minnie, but towards the end she shifts from a sense of sympathy to that of empathy. She felt bad for Minnie initially, but now she sees that she has experienced the same type of situation that Minnie has, only in a different way. Mrs. Hale is now putting herself into Minnie’s personal situation and sees the resemblances in her own life. By doing this, she is also persuading Mrs. Peters to follow suit and realize the similarities between women as a collective body.
The play provides Mrs. Peters with anagnorisis and dianoia, and uses Mrs. Hale as a tool to provoke this anagnorisis, because it unifies the women together in a sense that has a substantial effect on the overall purpose of the play, as opposed to having the women achieve separate anagnorisis. The women both discover, through the function of one anagnorisis, that they are both much like Minnie in the sense that their empathy allows them to relate to her. If the women had both achieved an anagnorisis separately, they would both have separate ways of thinking and separate perspectives on Minnie’s need for help. They would both attain their separate anagnorisis in different ways, thus dividing them and perhaps even furthering their conflict. The function of the play having only one anagnorisis is that, by having one character achieve the anagnorisis and having the other character provoke the anagnorisis, there is a sense of a shared perspective between the characters as well as a shared reason for the anagnorisis, which is that of playing the female gender role to one’s advantage and evoking empathetic understanding. The shared perspective that the women have is a crucial component of uniting them together, and also with Minnie, in solidarity to defend not only an individual, but also the collective female gender role.
Bibliography
Glaspell, Susan. Trifles. Text Book: Writing through Literature. Ed. Robert Scholes, Nancy R. Comely, and Gregory L. Ulmer. Boston and New York; Bedford St. Martin’s, 2002. 29-39. Print.
The play Trifles, by Susan Glaspell and written in 1916, is set in a time period when women were contained to the limits in which their gender role was of use in a patriarchal society. Housewives were often isolated within the domestic sphere and degraded to being merely characters of superficial and physical value. As a result, women were often divided amongst each other. The treatment of anagnorisis and dianoia in Trifles reflects the ways in which the achievement of anagnorisis and exhibition of dianoia can be influenced by feminine gender roles, particularly that of empathetic understanding in conflict, and aids in the play’s purpose of persuading the audience that …show more content…
women should stand in solidarity when faced with injustice.
In the play, Glaspell introduces the concept of anagnorisis when Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale discover that Minnie’s husband was emotionally abusive towards her. The anagnorisis that occurs is not the realization that Mr. Wright was abusive, however, but that both women realize that they can identify with Minnie in some way. The difference between the two women is that only Mrs. Peters achieves a true anagnorisis, whereas Mrs. Hale shows sympathy towards Minnie from the beginning of the play. As a result of Mrs. Hale’s sympathetic feelings towards Minnie throughout the play, she does not have a changed way of thinking at any instance in the play, therefore, an anagnorisis is unattainable for her. Both characters function in the play, one woman attaining an anagnorisis and one woman who aids in provoking the anagnorisis, speaks to the overall purpose of the play which is the significance of the force that can be constructed from the unity of women in times of injustice.
Mrs. Hale is presented in the play as being at Minnie’s defense from the beginning. Her first line in the play is that of jumping to defend Minnie when the County Attorney says, “Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?” and Mrs. Hale stiffly retorts with, “There’s a great deal of work to be done on a farm.” (32-33). Mrs. Hale is empathetic towards Minnie because she is also a housewife on a farm and relates to the lifestyle that Minnie had lived. Being in a likewise situation puts Mrs. Hale in a position of identifying with Minnie and leads her to feel the need to stick up for Minnie when she is being ridiculed. The fact that Mrs. Hale can clearly identify with Minnie from the beginning of the play is a crucial aspect in achieving unity amongst the women in the play because Mrs. Hale acts as a beacon for the recognition of the notion that women relate to each other in many ways. A substantial part of Mrs. Hale’s gender role is that she can sympathize easier with women in like situations because she has the capacity to understand similarities that unify women.
Mrs. Hale plays an important role in assisting the attainment of anagnorisis and dianoia for Mrs. Peters. Although Mrs. Hale sympathizes with Minnie from the beginning, Mrs. Peters remains somewhat distant and passive in the sense that she does not want to be associated with Minnie because she thinks of Minnie as simply a cold-blooded killer. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are in conflict because Mrs. Hale has taken the personal aspects of Minnie’s situation into account and believes that she should be advocated for, whereas, Mrs. Peters sees the situation objectively and believes that the law should be obeyed no matter the context of the crime. This conflict can be noted in the lines exchanged by Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, “Mrs. Hale: You know, it seems kind of sneaking. Locking her up in town and then coming out here and trying to get her own house to turn against her! Mrs. Peters: But Mrs. Hale, the law is the law.” (35). This instance is showing how Mrs. Hale believes that Minnie is being treated unfairly and, in comparison, Mrs. Peters believes that Minnie should deal with the consequences of her actions under the extent of the law. The significance of this conflict is that it reflects how Mrs. Peters’ initial position on Minnie’s situation is that of lacking sympathy and viewing it without bias. It also shows Mrs. Hale’s efforts to convince Mrs. Peters that Minnie needs help in being defended because Minnie’s situation is relative to the type of lifestyle that she and Mrs. Peters live.
For Mrs.
Peters, anagnorisis is provoked by observing Minnie’s isolation within her home and feeling sympathy for Minnie because of the loneliness and anger that she might have felt. Mrs. Peters relates to Minnie’s situation for two reasons. First, Mrs. Peters begins to identify with Minnie by relating the isolation and stillness of Minnie’s life towards her own. She indicates this when she says, “Mrs. Peters: [something within her speaking.] I know what stillness is. When we homesteaded in Dakota, and my first baby died – after he was two years old, and me with no other then – “ (38). Mrs. Peters relates her own experiences of loneliness to Minnie’s situation. However, she then continues with “Mrs. Peters: I know what stillness is. [Pulling herself back.] The law has got to punish crime, Mrs. Hale.” (38.) This additional statement reveals how Mrs. Peters begins to reject her recognition of relativity towards Minnie’s isolation and reminds herself of Minnie’s faults. Mrs. Peters experiences of isolation does not result in murder, therefore, she ends up retracting the correlation she has begun to make towards Minnie’s life. This is a false anagnorisis in the sense that it does not result in a dianoia. Mrs. Peters’ attitude towards Minnie remains the
same.
Secondly, Mrs. Peters goes beyond sympathetic emotion and empathizes with Minnie. Mrs. Peters reveals a childhood memory when she says “Mrs. Peters: [In a whisper.] When I was a girl – my kitten – there was a boy took a hatchet, and before my eyes – before I could get there – [Covers her face an instant.] If they hadn’t held me back I would have – [Catches herself, looks upstairs where steps are heard, falters weakly.] – hurt him.” (38). This instance reveals that Mrs. Peters has witnessed and experienced male brutality, much like the way Minnie was tormented by her husband’s deliberate attack on her pet canary. This correlation between Minnie’s emotional abuse and Mrs. Peters’ childhood memory of male harassment provokes Mrs. Peters to empathize with Minnie and put herself in Minnie’s situation. When Mrs. Peters states, “If they hadn’t held me back I would have – hurt him”, the brief pause in her line leads the audience to believe that what she really meant to say was “killed him”. Mrs. Peters relates to the rage that Minnie had felt after her husband killed her canary and realizes that she could have done the same thing upon feeling the same emotion. Ultimately, Mrs. Peters realizes that Minnie has been a victim of emotional abuse and male brutality/dominance, therefore, leading Mrs. Peters to recognize that she herself has fallen victim to these traumas as well and that she could have easily ended up in a place like Minnie has.
Mrs. Peters’ dianoia, following her anagnorisis, is revealed when she changes her perspective towards Minnie. It is evident that she has changed her attitude because she begins to collect evidence against Minnie and hides it, in Minnie’s defense. The most crucial piece of evidence against Minnie is that of her dead canary, killed by Mr. Wright, which can be used to infer a motive for the crime. Mrs. Peters aids in hiding this evidence, initially, when the County Attorney and Sherriff enter the scene unexpectedly and again at the end of the play when the women are leaving the house. This can be shown in the lines, “County Attorney: [Preoccupied.] Is there a cat? [Mrs. Hale glances in a quick covert way at Mrs. Peters.] Mrs Peters: Well, not now. They’re superstitious, you know, they leave.” (37-38). This example in the play is significant to the purpose of the play for two reasons. One reason being the exhibition of dianoia in Mrs. Peters’ changed attitude towards defending Minnie. Initially, Mrs. Peters’ was skeptical of helping Minnie, as Mrs. Hale had suggested they do, and thought obeying the law was in her best interest. From this example we can see that Mrs. Peters is now breaking the law by lying to the County Attorney about there being a cat in the house. She has changed her way of thinking towards the situation. Another reason why the example is important to the purpose of solidarity in the play is that the glance that is exchanged between Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters is that of shared knowledge between the two women. The glance functions as a form of body language that pertains to the way Mrs. Hale is hinting to Mrs. Peters to lie about the cat. This unspoken form of communication unifies the women at a level that is above the understanding of the men.
The play’s purpose of unity amongst women, as a result of their ability to relate to one another through means of empathetic understanding, is illuminated by a line spoken by Mrs. Hale. She says, “I might have known she needed help! I know how things can be – for women. I tell you, it’s queer, Mrs. Peters. We live close together and we live far apart. We all go through the same things – it’s all just a different kind of the same thing.” (38). This example is significant because it exhibits how Mrs. Hale recognizes the unity that lies between the women in the play. She begins the play by being sympathetic towards Minnie, but towards the end she shifts from a sense of sympathy to that of empathy. She felt bad for Minnie initially, but now she sees that she has experienced the same type of situation that Minnie has, only in a different way. Mrs. Hale is now putting herself into Minnie’s personal situation and sees the resemblances in her own life. By doing this, she is also persuading Mrs. Peters to follow suit and realize the similarities between women as a collective body.
The play provides Mrs. Peters with anagnorisis and dianoia, and uses Mrs. Hale as a tool to provoke this anagnorisis, because it unifies the women together in a sense that has a substantial effect on the overall purpose of the play, as opposed to having the women achieve separate anagnorisis. The women both discover, through the function of one anagnorisis, that they are both much like Minnie in the sense that their empathy allows them to relate to her. If the women had both achieved an anagnorisis separately, they would both have separate ways of thinking and separate perspectives on Minnie’s need for help. They would both attain their separate anagnorisis in different ways, thus dividing them and perhaps even furthering their conflict. The function of the play having only one anagnorisis is that, by having one character achieve the anagnorisis and having the other character provoke the anagnorisis, there is a sense of a shared perspective between the characters as well as a shared reason for the anagnorisis, which is that of playing the female gender role to one’s advantage and evoking empathetic understanding. The shared perspective that the women have is a crucial component of uniting them together, and also with Minnie, in solidarity to defend not only an individual, but also the collective female gender role.
Bibliography
Glaspell, Susan. Trifles. Text Book: Writing through Literature. Ed. Robert Scholes, Nancy R. Comely, and Gregory L. Ulmer. Boston and New York; Bedford St. Martin’s, 2002. 29-39. Print.