Trifles By Susan Glaspell

“Trifles”, which is a one-act play written by Susan Glaspell in 1916 when discrimination towards women is not criticized, or when women hardly work outside of their house, and what they could do was limited including legal aspects, such as having no right to vote and to sit on juries. (Maillakais) This story is about one man, John Wright, was killed with a rope around his neck. One day, the people who were related to the dead, such as the first finder of the dead body and friends of Mr. Wright’s friends/neighbors, are called by the county attorney and sheriff. As “Trifles” means “A thing of little value or importance” (Oxford University), while men are inspecting the dead body, women notice objects, trifles, seem not to do with the mysterious dead but actually those are. This story is based on the real murder of one man, which Susan Glaspell reported on working as a journalist. I think that the author wants to express status difference between men and women by symbolic objects showing isolation of Mrs. Wright,
Wright and her situation. She used to sing and be cheerful like a canary. “She was kind of a bird herself –real sweet and pretty, kind of timid and –fluffy.” (Glaspell 95) However, after she married Mr. Wright, she would be like a bird in the cage and it implies she only have had freedom within the cage –the house. Who and what makes her do so is Mr. Wright. “He was a hard man, Mrs. Peters. Just to pass the time of day with him. Like a raw wind that gets to the bone.” (Glaspell 95) At the time, while women began to gain independence divorce was not common in America. (Engel) That is why she could not decide to divorce and the situation she had no one to consult because of the lonely situation in the cage Mr. Wright made. The canary was the only one living creature that she could be relaxed on because she felt sympathy with the bird, so speaking extremely, I assume when the bird wad killed, Mrs. Wright