Trifles: Gender and Men
Trifles by Susan Glaspell
In reading Trifles, I felt the two primary themes are gender differences and isolation. First, gender differences is important because women were treated differently in the household and their opinions weren't taken seriously many times by men. Men thought that women were concerned with nothing but trivial things like cooking, cleaning, gossiping. But women's intelligence was underestimated by men, so when they had "intelligent" thoughts or expressed their opinions about serious subjects, they weren't taken seriously. Another theme is isolation. Mrs. Wright led a very isolated life at home. She wasn't able to bloom like she wanted to through her music, for example. Mr. Wright suppressed the things his wife loved and prevented her from having her own interests. Also in Trifles, there are key elements which are gravely important such as the point of view, the irony and the symbolism.
The point of view in this play is specially important. Trifles, meaning to pay attention to the small details, is described by showing the contrasting views between the attention of the men and the women to the 'trifles' when trying to solve a murder in the Wright’s house. The sheriff, his wife, Mrs Peters, the county attorney, and Mr. and Mrs. Hale are all investigating in the house. The views of the men can be seen when the sheriff, looking at the kitchen, says, “Nothing here but kitchen things.” The sheriff obviously looks at the kitchen as merely nothing and it seems like he just wants to skip over the kitchen because it had no importance.This event displays that men have very little attention to the minute detail. The views of the women can be seen when Mrs. Peters, also looking at the kitchen, says, “Oh, her fruit; it did freeze. She worried about that when it turned cold. She said the fire’d go out and her jars would break.” It is almost as if Mrs. Peters knew something was wrong in the kitchen. She noticed that the Wright's fruit had
In reading Trifles, I felt the two primary themes are gender differences and isolation. First, gender differences is important because women were treated differently in the household and their opinions weren't taken seriously many times by men. Men thought that women were concerned with nothing but trivial things like cooking, cleaning, gossiping. But women's intelligence was underestimated by men, so when they had "intelligent" thoughts or expressed their opinions about serious subjects, they weren't taken seriously. Another theme is isolation. Mrs. Wright led a very isolated life at home. She wasn't able to bloom like she wanted to through her music, for example. Mr. Wright suppressed the things his wife loved and prevented her from having her own interests. Also in Trifles, there are key elements which are gravely important such as the point of view, the irony and the symbolism.
The point of view in this play is specially important. Trifles, meaning to pay attention to the small details, is described by showing the contrasting views between the attention of the men and the women to the 'trifles' when trying to solve a murder in the Wright’s house. The sheriff, his wife, Mrs Peters, the county attorney, and Mr. and Mrs. Hale are all investigating in the house. The views of the men can be seen when the sheriff, looking at the kitchen, says, “Nothing here but kitchen things.” The sheriff obviously looks at the kitchen as merely nothing and it seems like he just wants to skip over the kitchen because it had no importance.This event displays that men have very little attention to the minute detail. The views of the women can be seen when Mrs. Peters, also looking at the kitchen, says, “Oh, her fruit; it did freeze. She worried about that when it turned cold. She said the fire’d go out and her jars would break.” It is almost as if Mrs. Peters knew something was wrong in the kitchen. She noticed that the Wright's fruit had