“Trifles” is a classic feminist play about two women’s secret discovery of a woman murdering her husband. “A Jury of her Peers” is another edition of this story. During the 1830’s, the “Temperance Movement” which was the very first American reform campaign to emphasize the brutality of domestic violence. Insisting that domestic violence was the direct influence of alcohol the reformers believed that survival of the alcoholic’s wife was dependent on her rights to control her own earnings, gain custody of her children, and to seek a divorce on her own and none of these were options at that time for most women.…
After reading the Leidholm and Norman cases and watching The Burning Bed, I believe that Battered Women’s Syndrome should be a valid defense to murder. So many women all across the world these days get not only physically, verbally but mentally abused by their spouses. In the case of Janice Leidholm after being abused by her husband for years one argument and attack before bed was her breaking point. She stabbed her husband in his sleep. When a man abuses a women it does not just cause physical damage, it effects the women as a whole. Mentally it makes the women feel hopeless and scared. Not wanting to tell anyone, women tend to keep it all to themselves because a lot of times they are abused because their spouses fill their ears with comments…
Susan Glaspell was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, actress, novelist, and journalist. Glaspell wrote the play Trifles which tells the story two investigations being conducted over murder of John Wright. While the male characters of the play conduct an “official” investigation the female characters find themselves inadvertently conducting their own “unofficial” investigation. However this is not a run-of-the-mill murder mystery play, in which the focus lies solely on discovering the culprit and the culprit’s motive. Glaspell uses her story to also present a unique perspective of a controversial issue during her time, including the theme of female identity, primarily between women. During the time period in which Glaspell lived, the idea of fighting for women’s…
In 1916, a woman’s place was in the kitchen. That is the setting for Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles. The set is described as gloomy with faded wallpaper. Glaspell is painting a picture of the life of the absent Minnie Wright. Throughout the play, the reader discovers, along with the female characters, that Minnie lived a lonely life of neglect and abuse. As this was written before the passing of the nineteenth amendment, women had little to no rights. According to Isabel Marcus, “Prior to the divorce-law reforms of the second half of the twentieth century, women seeking divorce from an abusive husband were required to demonstrate ongoing serious abuse before a court would grant a divorce on the grounds of cruelty.” Women were essentially considered…
The Webster’s Dictionary definition of trifle is: something that does not have much value or importance (“trifle”). When one looks at the title of Susan Glaspell’s short play, at first they may think that it is as the title implies; unimportant or the story being told is for nothing more than entertainment. Upon further examination and consultation of critical sources, the reader is able to tease out a deeper meaning. The play, Trifles, written by Susan Glaspell is an intricately weaved narrative on gender roles and home life as it was in early 1900s.…
In the play, “Trifles,” Susan Glaspell demonstrates the inequality that occurs between men and women during the 20th century. From the opening scene, the two women are not given much attention unlike the men, until they are separated from them and become the main characters. Although the women are seen as inferior to men, they prove that they are much more capable as they are the ones who solve the case by thinking outside the box. They find the real motive behind Mrs. Wright’s action and are able to understand her doing because of the way women were treated back then. Even though both women decide to defend Mrs. Wright by hiding the evidence, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters sympathize with her, but for different reasons.…
Susan Glaspell’s short story “A Jury of Her Peers” follows the plot of Minnie Wright and her husband’s death. Its impact as a piece of revolutionary feminist literature is established through her daring choice to explore the depths of morality and justice. She asks us to question ourselves throughout, pleading for us to answer to what we would do if justice failed us throughout the course of our lives.…
Women have been treated as lessors to men in the past, feminine equality is a new concept that has only been around for about a century. In both plays “Trifles” and “A Doll’s House” they address stereotypes of women during these time periods. “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell explores the mysterious death of Mr. Wright (Mrs. Wrights husband). As the play progresses the audience gets insight to Mrs. Wright’s life, and how Mr. Wright treated her. Mr. Wright was known to be a brash, and unruly man. The women in this play (Ms. Hale and Mrs. Peters) both know the kind of man Mr. Wright was, The men may have known this too, but the time period the play takes place in, domestic violence toward women was not highly looked into. The text “Portable Literature: Reading, Reacting. Writing” explains that Glaspell’s main force behind the play “Trifles” was to shed light on the treatment of women. The text states that “Women…
Russell, B. L. (2010). Battered Woman Syndrome as a Legal Defense: History, Effectiveness and Implications . McFarland &Company, Incorporated Publishers.…
Jackson, Dana N. "Admissibility of Evidence of Battered Woman 's Syndrome Evidence on Issue of…
Should the battered woman syndrome be admissible as a murder defense in American courts and should expert testimony be permitted on such a syndrome? Since the 1970’s when the battered woman syndrome was first proposed by Dr. Lenore Walker, women have been using this syndrome to proclaim mental illness due to the syndrome aligned with self-defense as an excuse for their crimes (Dixon, 2001). Dr. Walker defined the battered woman as, “A battered woman is a woman who is repeatedly subjected to any forceful physical or psychological behavior by a man in order to coerce her to do something he wants her to do without any concern for her rights. [In] order to be classified as a battered woman, the couple must go through the battering cycle at least twice” (Mihajlovich, 1987). Naturally, many questions have risen as a result of such a syndrome and then, a defense for such a syndrome. First, is there even such a thing as a “battered woman syndrome defense”? Second, “whether proponents of the battered woman syndrome use the courtroom to promote a particular subclass of self-defense for women who have been ignored by the legal system far too long; and whether there is a proper role for expert testimony on the battered woman syndrome in self-defense cases?” (Mihajlovich, 1987).…
Susan Glaspell was born in 1882; she wrote a short story called “A Jury of Her Peers” based on her play Trifles. Susan Glaspell received a degree in philosophy from Drake University. She became a newspaper reporter in Des Moines. The writer married a freethinker who believed in free love. In 1916 the author was inspired to write the play Trifles based on a murder case she covered on the job. One year later in 1917, she creates the short story. Mrs. Glaspell has stated that promotes all progressive movements. Her short story “A Jury of Her Peers” is very touching and judgmental. In her story she is revealing moments that define the women’s personalities and lives. This short story is symbolizing how the women felt, what roles they play in society, and what the women saw as a worry was considered little to none importance by men.…
Walker, L.E. (1992). Battered woman syndrome and self-defense. Symposium on Women and the Law, Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics, and Public Policy, 6 (2), 321-334.…
As a result, for women whose experiences differ from this set standard, their responses to their victimization risk are doubted owing to the fact that they fall outside the scope of those typical victims. In fact, syndrome-based testimony can be used to help establish that a particular woman is not a legitimate battered woman. Unless a battered woman’s experience of violence conforms to the pattern detailed within Walker’s cycle theory of violence, or is consistent with learned helplessness, the evidence will essentially be viewed as irrelevant and disregarded by Judges. However, this framework fails to account for the complexity and diversity of victim experiences. As a result, the nature and dynamics of domestic violence is often left obscured and misinterpreted in a Court of law. Despite such shortcomings, expert evidence remains an important tool within the courtroom, the main reason being that the battered woman syndrome terminology supposedly provides a frugal framework under which the experiences and behaviors of battered women may be expediently…
Your opinion of “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell is accurate, because it can be interpreted in various ways. The theme that stood out is gender differences. For example, Mr. Hale and Mr. Peters are serious and determined investigators that arrive to investigate the crime scene for evidence and they have brought their wives along. Mr. Hale and Mr. Peters frustrate their wives with their sexist comments towards Mrs. Wright’s housekeeping skills and the fact that there is nothing downstairs to investigate because it’s nothing but kitchen gadgets. The man’s head upstairs to investigate the crime scene in search for forensic evidence to solve the crime, but in the meantime, their wives are downstairs waiting and they began to notice the dim house…
