Trifles By Susan Glaspell Research Paper

The Comradery of Women

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” (Preamble). This is a quote from the Preamble to the United States Constitution. It is the introduction of our Country’s fundamental purpose and principles. However, in the early 1900’s, where Susan Glaspell’s dramatic play, “Trifles” takes place, we see a different belief. Women are considered less intelligent, insignificant, and dominated by men, who think they are the above them. The women’s suffrage movement is underway when this play is written in 1916. “Trifles” acknowledges the prejudice that women faced during that time, and it opens the doors to discuss the repression of women and the solidarity that this kind of repression causes. The egotistical assumptions of the men in the play “Trifles” results in unity among the
women to overcome their oppression.

Gender Conflict

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Glaspell uses gender conflict to show the prejudice opinions of women in society, and the unity that it creates among women. Throughout the beginning of the play, there were rude comments being made by the men about women and their silly ways of doing things. When the sheriff enters, he says, “Nothing here but kitchen things” and “Well, can you beat the women! Held for murder and worryin’ about her preserves.” (Glaspell 1386). Then Hale responds, “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles.” (Glaspell 1386). As the comments continue the women start to speak up and defend the women’s responsibilities. Mrs. Peters explains that Mrs. Wright’s jars are broken because they break easily in the cold weather. Mrs. Hale explains that “there’s a great deal of work to be done on a farm.” (Glaspell 1386). She also goes on to explain the problem with the dirty roller towel. She says, “Those towels get dirty awful quick. Men’s hands aren’t as clean as they might be.” (Glaspell 1386). As the men continue to make remarks about women and their silly worries and ways of doing things, the women feel unappreciated and defend their jobs and their roles. The lack of value that is being placed on the women’s role in the home alienates the women and brings them closer together. The court attorney notices this when he comments, “Ah, loyal to your sex, I see. But you and Mrs. Wright were neighbors. I suppose you were friends, too.” (Glaspell 1386). Symbols
The symbols in the play are significant to the message that Glaspell was trying to convey. The kitchen of the house is known as the women’s main workroom. The untidy
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kitchen symbolizes the fact to the women that Mrs. Wright was having a break down of her own home and life. While the men search for clues outside in the barn and upstairs in the bedroom, where the man would have had the dominance, the women search in the kitchen, where Mrs. Wright would have spent the majority of her time. The rest of the home is well kept and organized, as we see with the description of the organized closet. Everything had a place, and Mrs. Wright knew exactly where her apron was kept. The fact that the table was half clean and half unclean demonstrates her struggle between her role as a wife and her defiance against that role. The stitches of her quilt showed perfect stitching at the beginning, and then the stitching becomes erratic. Mrs. Hale noticed this when she said, “Mrs. Peters, look at this one. Here, this been so nice and even. And then look at this! It’s all over the place! Why, it looks as if she didn’t know what she was about!” (Glaspell 1389). This inconsistent stitching symbolizes to the women that Mrs. Wright was unstable. The men think, once again, that the women are worrying over and discussing petty things. The birdcage is also a symbol in the play. It represents the imprisonment that Mrs. Wright felt in her home. She was isolated, silenced and oppressed. She felt like she had given up her name, her freedom and her identity when she married John Wright. The symbols of her home and the evidence that was discovered by the women made them empathize with Mrs. Wright.

Unity

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Once the women sit down at the table and notice the inconsistent stitching of Mrs. Wright’s quilt, they know this is a clue. One that the men could benefit from had they focused on the kitchen. Rather than showing them what they found, Mrs. Hale pulls out the stitch to fix it. This shows the unity in the women and their understanding of their need to help each other. The bird that they find in the box is the most significant evidence in the play. The fact that they discover that the bird has been straggled with a rope would be the main clue to solve the case; however, once again, instead of sharing the evidence that they have found with the men, they chose to hide it from them to shield Mrs. Wright. They are uniting together. They understand that Mrs. Wright could identify with the canary. Mrs. Hale describes her: “She-come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself-real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and-fluttery. How did she change?” (Glaspell 1390). Under her circumstances they begin to parallel their lives to that of Mrs. Wrights and begin to understand her freedom in his death. Mrs. Peters relates to Mrs. Wright and her loneliness when she says, “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…“ (Glaspell 1391). Mrs. Hale relates the feeling of male dominance and the rebellion and anger that it brings forth when she says, “When I was a girl-my kitten-there was a boy took a hatchet, and before my eyes-and before I could get there-If they hadn’t held me back, I would have… hurt him.” (Glaspell 1391). Mrs. Wright now had power over Mr. Wright, and in doing so, she has freed herself. Mrs. Peters recognizes the motive of Mrs. Wright when she says, “Killing a man while he slept,
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slipping a rope around his neck that choked the life out of him.” (Glaspell 1392). Although they didn’t necessarily agree what she did was morally right, they understood. Mrs. Hale proved that they understood when she said, “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.” (Glaspell 1392).

Equality The women in the play were united and they were brought together through their own recognition of the struggle of women and the oppression that they faced.
Three years after Glaspell released the play “Trifles”, women gained the right to vote. Women in the early 1900’s realized that in order to get ahead, they needed to be united. Not all women felt this way, but many understood it. Many of them, like Mrs. Wright in the play, over stepped their boundaries in their traditional roles of a woman to make a way for equality. They struggled and fought. Even in today’s society, women are judged, and by many people, women are still thought of as the weaker person. “Trifles” shows how the men disrespected the ladies and their opinions. They did not want to give up their power to someone whom they deemed weaker than themselves. The women realized this, and were determined to unite together to move forward. As Glaspell proves in her play, women can be just as productive and smart as the men, but women sometimes
go

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about it a different way, by looking at the little details, which to some, can seem unimportant and irrelevant.