Susan Glaspell's Trifles

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A battle of the sexes has been a war ragging since day one of creation. Some view that men are superior and that they can do no wrong; others believe women should be allowed to have the same treatment as men and that a crime or punishment should not be changed or heightened based on their gender. Plays, movies, books, and even poems bring to life an issue that has been dealt with since man and woman stepped on the earth. One of the best plays that fits that 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…show more content…
Wright is the main suspect in Trifles; she is accused of murdering her Husband Mr. Wright by strangling him in his sleep. Mr. Hale is the first person to know that a foul deed was committed when he wandered next door wanting to talk to Mr. Wright about a phone line being put in for the surrounding houses in the small farming community. This can be proven when Mr. Hale told the County Attorney in a few more words that Mr. Wright was dead. Mr. Hale discovered the murder when he asked where her husband was and all Mr. hale said was, “She just pointed upstairs” (Glaspell 1051). Mr. Hale continued to tell his encounter of finding the body by stating Mrs. Wright answered the question of Mr. Wright’s death by simply stating, “he died of a rope around his neck” (Glaspell 1052). Two women are introduced into the play; Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters were put into a situation that had a fellow woman on trial against the mind of men who necessarily never took them very seriously in the first place. Throughout the play Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are able to use common knowledge viewed solely to that of a woman to discover clues that the men never would have been able to

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