Trifles By Susan Glaspell Gender Roles Essay

Susan Glaspell’s play, “Trifles”, expresses the gender character differences in society between men and women. During this time period society is primarily male dominant so women are often disregarded when it comes to many actions that are primarily carried out by males. In Trifles, the different viewpoints of the staging show that women’s perceptions can be the same if not better than that of a man’s. In the beginning the men are looking for evidence to convict Mrs. Wright of murdering her husband. One man finds a sticky mess on the shelf and one of the woman claims her fruit in the jar must’ve broke because it had gotten so cold. The men reply with comments such as “Well, can you beat the woman! Held for murder and worryin’ about her preserves” and “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles” (Glaspell 1412). The women, offended by the comments, move a little bit closer together at the table. Gender differences are shown as the two women are on one side of the table while the men are on the other. To the men, women and they’re trifles are meaningless and are not worth their time. Then the men still continue to insult Mrs. Wright’s kitchen before proceeding upstairs to search for evidence since they were unable to find anything besides
While in the kitchen they find many clues that point to Mrs. Wright being guilty. One major clue is a large sewing basket filled with quilts with erratic sewing. One of the women asked “I wonder if she was goin’ to quilt it or not it” (1415). The men coming down the stairs hear her and mockingly repeated what she had just said. The men laugh but the ironic thing is that the quilts are evidence for the crime. Later as they look for sewing material to fix the horrible sewing done by Mrs. Wright, they find a box with a dead canary wrapped in cloth. The bird’s neck is wrung and they figure out how and why Mrs. Wright murdered her