Women In Susan Glaspell's Play Trifles

“Trifles” a Woman’s Life in the Early 1900’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
Milton Levin states “Its picture of women’s isolation in a bleak world is finely drawn.” During the dialogue between Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, they discuss the loneliness of the Wright house. Mrs. Hale states that she stayed away because it weren’t cheerful. It’s down in a hollow and you don’t see the road. (732) Minnie was isolated from all of society. John Wright would not even consider a telephone. In his opinion, people talked too much. Christine Dymkowski writes, “The separateness of the female and male worlds is thus immediately established visually and then reinforced by the dialogue.” This separation is shown in the text, where the men of the play are often minimizing the women and their responsibilities while patronizing them. Standing in the kitchen, the County Attorney judges Minnie for having a dirty towel. (728) He speaks to the women about it looking for agreement and becomes condescending when he does not have it. He says, “Ah, loyal to your sex, I see.” (728) Then the men proceed to laugh at the fact that the women wondered if Minnie would quilt or knot her pattern.