The Importance Of Setting In Susan Glaspell's Trifles

Victoria Mendoza
Kelsi Vanada
The Interpretation of Literature
02 October 2014
Setting: More than Meets the Eye

“You’re convinced that there was nothing important here—nothing that would point to any motive?” (Glaspell 1128). “Nothing here but kitchen things” (Glaspell 1128). This is his greatest mistake. Little does he know that there is more to this gloomy, disorganized kitchen than he thinks. In fact, all the answers he is looking for are right in that room. In Trifles, the kitchen is the setting, where an investigation is taking place looking into the death of Mr. Wright, a farmer and the owner of the house who was strangled to death. His wife is being held as the prime suspect. In the story where the men see nothing in the kitchen,
the women find everything. It is astounding that Glaspell composed this one-act play that brilliantly took a single setting and opened up a world of questions for the reader. Through Glaspell’s use of elements within the setting, geographical setting in the Midwest, and actual setting in the kitchen, she causes the reader to invoke questions about justice and morality to identity and patriarchal dominance. Using these three scopes of setting gives the reader an extensive amount of insight into the story and beyond. On a Midwestern farm in the winter of 1916, we are taken back to a time in history where Susan Glaspell employs a strategic hand on the use of the literary element of setting which ultimately causes the reader to understand and examine the backwards and oppressive gender roles of early 1900s America. There are some object elements within the setting that contributed to Glaspell’s view of roles for women in the time period. In the story, after the men leave to examine outside, they leave the women inside to talk more. The women snoop in the kitchen cupboard to find a bird cage. Mrs. Peters exclaims, “Why, look at this door. It’s broke. One hinge is pulled apart” (Glaspell 1131). “Looks as if someone must have been rough with it”, responded Mrs. Hale (Glaspell 1131). I think that this birdcage in the setting is symbolic of Ms. Wright. Her husband had been rough with her, “No, [Mr.] Wright wouldn’t like the bird—a thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that, too” (Glaspell 1133). Here, the ladies find the box, an important element of the setting, which contained the dead bird. They speculate that Mr. Wright had killed Minnie’s bird because it sang. Through this act, he had also killed her will to sing. Once again, these elements present in the setting of the kitchen give insight to the readers about the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Wright. I think this is where the sense of oppression comes into play. Mr. Wright was a very harsh man who ruled over his wife and once again shows patriarchal dominance of the times. In Trifles, Glaspell uses the kitchen as the main setting for the play to show us the role that Minnie played in the home and to show her character.
From the very beginning, the kitchen is described as a “gloomy kitchen” with “unwashed pans under the sink, a loaf of bread outside the bread-box, [and] a dish towel on the table” (Glaspell 1125). This disorder shows that there was something off about this house. The county attorney goes on to say that the house wasn’t cheerful, “I shouldn’t say she had the home making instinct” (Glaspell 1128). The fact that he says this suggests the view that men expected women to take the role as housekeepers, which meant cleaning, cooking, and maintaining the house. This is something that Minnie Foster couldn’t keep up with. This is also evidenced when the county attorney goes to wash his hands and finds that the towels are dirty. “Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?” (Glaspell 1128). Once again, an eye-opening statement to the way women were viewed in the time period. The kitchen was viewed as the domain for women. If they weren’t able to keep the house and the kitchen, they weren’t seen as good for much anything. When one doesn’t feel like much use, that uselessness translates itself into depression and sadness. Women back then were also expected to take care of children. She also didn’t have kids, which “makes a quiet house” (Glaspell 1132). The fact that she didn’t have children contributes to the fact that the house was
quiet and gloomy. Something sad is the idea that she not only didn’t have children, but she couldn’t sing either. This meant that she had essentially not had anything to comfort her. It is very possible that the outcome of the play would have changed if she actually had children. She may have been more careful with her actions, and I honestly believe that the murder would not have taken place. Not only could she not keep up the kitchen, but there were no children to keep up with in the home. This leads to a sense of sadness and not feeling good enough for her husband. This type of harsh environmental setting atypical for the ordinary woman contributes to the fact that Minnie was unsatisfactory in her role as a wife of the early 20th century. One important aspect of the setting is the fact that it takes place in the geographical setting of the Midwest. Some areas of the Midwest are known for their harsh winters. Though it is not explicitly stated in the play that it is winter, this is evidenced by the fact that in the beginning, “all are much bundled up and go at once to the stove” (Glaspell 1125). The fact that there is a murder investigation with a winter setting suggests that the tone of the story will be especially cold and gloomy, as it turns out to be. In truth, the story would not hold the same meaning had it taken place in the summer instead. The fact that it is winter helps contribute to our setting. Take the frozen preserves, for example. “It’s a shame about her fruit… I declare I believe that’s the only one” (Glaspell 1129). All of the other preserves had been cracked due to the fact that they got too cold. I think that the preserves freezing is representative of something bigger. Not only are the frozen preserves an aspect of the winter setting, they are also elements of the setting as objects. “Oh, her fruit; it did freeze… She worried about that when it turned so cold. She said the fire’d go out and her jars would break” (Glaspell 1128). I think that this represents the idea that since she is sad about herself as a person, she had frozen as well. She had become broken as a person and had frozen over and broken. In addition, when Mrs.
Peters points out her fruit froze, Mr. Hale said, “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles” (Glaspell 1128). It is evident that the men in the story believe that what the women speak of or what the women do is insignificant to the investigation. The “trifles” in the setting that these men don’t see are actually significant to their investigation. Through careful examination of the kitchen that these men deem unimportant, these women were able to find the truth of the crime. It is suggested that finding the dead bird is evidence that Mrs. Wright did in fact kill Mr. Wright. They had believed this because they found the bird with its neck
wrung. In the end, the setting has revealed to the reader much of what is important in the story. Though it can show us many things, it did a successful job at showing the importance of setting elements in the play. I believe that through the intelligent use of setting, Glaspell was trying to reveal to us what the early American 1900s were like for women. I think that she was also trying to portray the fact that it was a bad time for a woman to be alive because roles for women were too defined and narrow back then. It makes completely perfect sense for her to write about this, because she was a published author, this would allow people to listen to her message no matter what. I think she knew very well that her word would get out and be heard by many.

Works Cited
Glaspell, Susan. "Trifles." 1916. The Norton Introduction to Literature. By Kelly J. Mays. 11th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2013. 1125-35. Print.