Trifles Can be Just As Important As Murder John Wooden, a college basketball coach, once said, “It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.” In this quote lies the importance of the title Trifles, by Susan Glaspell, written in 1916. In her one-act play, characters such as Lewis Hale, a neighboring farmer, Henry Peters, the sheriff, and George Henderson, the county attorney, are all in on the hunt to find the murderer of a fellow farmer, John Wright. The wives of
Trifles is a one-act play written by Susan Glaspell in 1916. In the play, Glaspell makes great use of irony, symbolism, and metaphors, she also makes a great play for the newly emerging feminist movement. We first see women’s suffrage and fight for equal rights taking root in the 1840’s, and then in the 1890’s a movement, termed the Feminist movement, began to take place. This movement advocates women’s suffrage and fight for equal rights, and challenges the long-standing nature of the “female role”
Lauren Passmore Julie Faulkner Comp 2 2 December 2014 Sexism Exists In today’s world, it is not unusual for women to commit crimes, work crime cases or even solve them. During the time period that Trifles by Susan Glaspell was written women were not thought capable of doing such things. Susan Glaspell uses Minnie Wright’s character to display the role of women in the early twentieth century. Glaspell was very aware and active when dealing with feminism issues. Glaspell was influenced by getting
Susan Glaspell's, Trifles, and Tom Stoppard's, The Real Inspector Hound, are both about a murder mystery, however there are many aspects of the two plays that are different, such as the setting, style, and tone of the plots. Glaspell and Stoppard both had different influences that helped to make them and their writing famous. Susan Glaspell is an early twentieth century playwright who had a knack for acting and a gift for writing plays. Glaspell was influenced by her mid-western history such as
world if they wanted to. “Trifles” and “The Ice Palace” examples of the change that happened
In the first quarter of the play, Mr. Hale, the Sheriff, and the County Attorney show that men are dominant. Before the County Attorney goes upstairs with Mr. Hale and the Sheriff, the County Attorney has a conversation with Mrs. Peters. “Yes, but I like to see what you take, Mrs. Peters, and keep an eye out for anything that might be of use to us” (Glaspell 920). This sentence from the County Attorney shows that he does not believe in Mrs. Peters. This man thinks that women cannot be trusted and
author, such as Susan Glaspell’s Trifles. In Glaspell’s Trifles, it is evident that there is a difference in gender roles between the men and the women. Glaspell uses a story where a woman is the murderer, to demonstrate the roles of women during that century. The roles that were given to the women were provided by the men in this play. Those roles were dispersed to them on behalf of the men that believed that women were only concerned with little unimportant things or so-called trifles. This concept
“Trifles” written by Susan Glaspell explores the oppressive nature of an enduring patriarchal hierarchy coinciding with the extensive psychological damage solidarity imposed on farmers’ wives throughout the 20th century; Glaspell utilized the symbol/image of a bird to juxtapose/compare/contrast the death of Mrs. Wright’s canary to the death of Mrs. Wright’s soul. Denotatively a bird is defined as, any of a class (Aves) of warm-blooded vertebrates distinguished by having the body more or less completely
more publicly being recognized as the “head of the house” making women feel lesser than men. This discrimination based on the sex of a person has oppressed women from all areas of the world. The theme of sexism and gender is revealed in Susan Glaspell’s Trifles through the setting, conflict, and choice of irony exhibited by the women’s treatment, their reactions, and the results of the investigation. The setting takes places at a farmhouse in the early twentieth century, and it is within this
description would have to be Susan Glaspell’s Trifles. Trifles tells the story of a murder that takes place in a small town coming from the most unlikeliest of places and unlikeliest of suspects. This play brings gender issues to the forefront of the mystery taking place. Women have the chance to stand by their sister or tell the men the truths they