Trifles- Battle of the Sexes

The struggle between the male and female gender has long seen its differences throughout our American history. Prior to 1848, women did not have a voice or a valued opinion; they were simply thought of as unseen and unintelligent. It took nearly 72 years before the 19th amendment to our Constitution was signed into law, granting women the right to vote (Infoplease). During the early part of the twentieth century, the duties and structures of women’s lives would have predisposed them to approach a problem from a different angle than that of men and even today, despite the significant changes in women’s lives and opportunities since mid-century, women’s responsibilities and concerns tend to remain somewhat distinct from men’s (Holstein). Susan Glaspell’s play “Trifles” is a sensitive psychological portrait of society where women’s struggle to connect with each other impedes their ability to achieve equal social footing with men (Kastleman). The protagonists are bound together through empathy that they have to keep at bay during the investigation but yet also calls attention to the gaps in understanding and equality that persist for women today (Kastleman). The title of Susan Glaspell’s play “Trifles” is used in different concepts and irony throughout by both the men and women characters. On the surface, trifles has a meaning by the men as being “simple” or “unimportant” but later in the play we learn it is the women’s “trifles” that solves the murder of Mr. Wright, something the men were not able to do. The men come to the scene of the crime and attempt to look through the eyes of legal investigators where the county attorney conducts his investigation by the book, interviewing witnesses and asking for only the facts (Holstein). The fact that all three men find “no importance” of the mess in the kitchen left by Mrs. Wright and stating “women are used to worrying over trifles” (Glaspell) when Mrs. Peters finds the hidden jar of fruit, displays the different

Bibliography: Glaspell, Susan. “Trifles.” Plays. Boston: Small, Maynard and Company, 1920. Holstein, Suzy Clarkson. “Silent justice in a different key: Glaspell’s ‘Trifles’.” The Midwest Quarterly 44.3 (2003): 282+ 30 Mar. 2011. Infoplease. “Woman’s Rights movement in the U.S.: Timeline of Events (1848-1920).” 2000-2007 Pearson Education, publishing as Infoplease Resource Center: Web. 30 Mar. 2011. Mann, Judith. The Difference: Growing up Female in America. New York, N.Y.: Warner, 1994. Center: Web. 30 Mar. 2001.