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A play of trifles given in 2014, you can see the price of tickets also.

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A play of trifles given in 2014, you can see the price of tickets also.

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This was a basic kitchen in the 1900's. So you could imagine the women cooking in this daily.

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This was a basic kitchen in the 1900's. So you could imagine the women cooking in this daily.

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The newspaper article that Glaspell wrote at Des Moines News for the murder of Mr. Hossack.

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The newspaper article that Glaspell wrote at Des Moines News for the murder of Mr. Hossack.

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"feminism, socialism, Darwinism, and legal reform"

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"feminism, socialism, Darwinism, and legal reform"

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Disclaimer: This essay has been submitted by a student. This is not an example of the work written by our professional essay writers. You can view samples of our professional work here.

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The play "Trifles" by Susan Glaspell is one of the shortest plays that I have read. It is also one of the least dramatic and extremely difficult to interpret plays. To understand the significance in this play the viewer or reader should have a better understanding of the cultural context in which this play was written. To do this it is beneficial to know what events were happening in the author's, Glaspell, life at the time she wrote this, the role of women in everyday life back then, and how the suppression of women males affected their social recognition now and then.

The play "Trifles" was written in 1916 (McMahan, 1099). In the early 1900's, up until 1920, the women's suffrage movement was still working to guarantee all women in the United States equal civilian privileges beside men. Susan Glaspell wrote many of her plays on the social issues of "feminism, socialism, Darwinism, and legal reform" (Beatty, unpaginated). Along with her husband they, "founded the Provincetown Players, a theater group committed to transforming American theaterâ€¦ into an artistic medium in which serious social issues could be treated realistically" (Beatty, unpaginated).This is important to understanding the play because it brings up the important theme of the play of male dominance over the women. "Trifles" shows the audience first hand a case in where male dominance and ignorance of the women's observations actually hinders their abilities to solve the case of the murdered husband, Mr. Wright.

To get a further insight into how she was able to portray such a realistic incident, it is important to know that this play was written based on a real incident that she, as a reported, covered. As a reporter for the Des Moines Daily News, she was assigned to cover the murder story of Mr. Hossack. The kitchen at the crime scene of the Hossack farmhouse played a huge role in the depiction of the kitchen in "Trifles" (Midnight Assassin, unpaginated). She was not an investigator, just like women in the play, but solely an observer, just like the women as well. She viewed the world and the crime scene the same way that women in the play did. Unlike the men, who were looking for large key pieces of evidence, the women noticed small, seemingly unimportant, out of place kitchen items and connected that with the emotions and feelings of the deceased husband's wife, Mrs. Wright. After the women notice a view of these minor clues, Mr. Hale says to one of the other men, , "well, women are used to worrying over trifles" (McMahan, 1093). This line is the basis for the entire play. "Trifles" not only refers to the out of place items but also the women themselves. By them worrying about such miniscule occurrences they are, as the men see, not capable of doing a man's business.

This leads into the next aspect of the play which is male dominance and ignorance. When this play was written it was the woman's job in society to be around the house to raise the children, mend cloths, cook dinner, clean the houseâ€¦etc. They were not able to get jobs or live out on their own. In the husbands eyes they did not have significant roles in society, only in the house. Many men at this time did not show the appreciation, love, attention, and affection that most women should always be shown. Their role was to be the head of the house and provide their family with the necessities to live, nothing more. Glaspell does an excellent job of showing this by describing the kitchen setting in the play. The men overlook details about the house and Mrs. Wright that women notice almost immediately. As Jenny Cromie put it, "They notice Minnie's desolate, isolated existence, her broken furniture, the run-down kitchen where she had to cook, and the ragged cloth-ing she was to wear because of her husband's mi-serly insensitivity." ("Jury", 277) These clues, which could ultimately decide the guilt or innocence of Mrs. Wright, are completely overlooked as dumb or unintelligent, solely because the women found them. Also, at a point in the play Mrs. Hale describes Mr. Wright as, "Yes-good; he didn't drink, and kept his word as well as most, I guess, and paid his debts. But he was a hard man, Mrs. Peters. Just to pass the time of day with him. Like a raw wind that gets to the bone" (McMahan, 1097). She acknowledges that he was a decent man but, by the more she looks into the life of Mrs. Wright, she notices that he was not a decent husband, as were many of the men at that time.

Greg Beatty found an important part of the play in which male dominance is showed at its finest. Glaspell shows their dominance, not by words or actions but, through dramatic devices. The play follows, strictly, the outline for a tragedy. However, Glaspell leaves out the closing of the curtain to show a different or a switch of scene in the play. Instead, this brought about through the absence of the men. Beatty stats, "Each time the men leave, the women exchange private information; each time they enter, the men force or prevent crucial decisions." (Beatty, unpaginated) This suppression of information was not fully by the choice of the women. Even if they did speak up and tell them about the so called "evidence" that they had found, the fact that they were women trying to do a man's job, would hinder the ability for the men to take them serious in their findings. The men would not be able to see how the "trifles" could be linked to the murder because that is not the way that they think.

Beatty also made a connection between the names that the women and the men had in the play. The last names of men were befitting for them because of their position in society. "Mr. Hale is hale and hearty," and, "Mr. Peters, whose name means 'rock', is a sheriff, or a foundation of society" (Beatty, unpaginated). These titles are relevant to the women because that is the only name they are referred to by throughout entirety the play. They are referred to by society through the legal connection of their husbands and not by the independence of their first names. Even though they are individuals that take care of the house and family, they do not have enough freedom from their husbands to be called anything but their husband's names. Mrs. Peters admits her duty to her husband and the law when she says, "But, Mrs. Hale, the law is the law" (McMahan, 1095). Here she clearly states that she is loyal to her husband and the laws. Also the County Attorney says, "a sheriff's wife is married to the law" (McMahan, 1099). Contradicting what she had say earlier she agrees with him even though she is hiding key pieces of evidence from the "law". She has chosen to break her obligation to her husband and law in order to stick up for her fellow woman.

Sticking along the arguments of being legally bound, Bailey McDaniel claims that Mrs. Wright would not have had the right to a proper jury in today's terms. It would have more than likely consisted of just men. Bailey says, "A certain irony underscoring the legislated inequality toward women is established before the play even begins" (McDaniel, unpaginated). The women in the play and the people in the audience at the time knew this little fact. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters did not share the "trifles" with the other men because they were rebelling against the social norms. They knew she was guilty but had compassion for her after Mrs. Hale tells her story of when she was a child. She said, "When I was a girl--my kitten--there was a boy took a hatchet, and before my eyes--and before I could get there--. If they hadn't held me back I would have--hurt him" (McMahan, 1098). Here she states that she would have hurt the boy because he killed her cat. Mr. Wright not only killed his wife's bird, but also her., metaphorically. Beatty compares the similarities of the two by saying, "The bird symbolizes Mrs. Wright, a beautiful creature who loved to sing. When her husband killed to, it was as if she had been killed, and she killed him in turn." Mrs. Wright had to put up with all of her husband's troubles but he would not put up with hers. She was lonely and only had him for company. When she got the bird she was finally a little happier. However, Mr. Wright did not like that so he killed her bird. McDaniel says that back then though, women did not have as many, if any, options after they were married. If they got married and were unhappy they were stuck and did not have the option for a divorce like current women do (McDaniel, Unpaginated). For this reason of unhappiness they are willing to show compassion for Mrs. Wright.

Even though the 19th amendment gives women the same rights as men and dissuades for the domination of men over women, it is still a large part in our society today. In 2001, the film "Legally Blonde" came out to theaters. This movie gives a modern twist on the inequality, and the dominance and ignorance of men that was found in the play "Trifles". Elle, the main character, has a hard time in her job because of her gender, a woman. She is not given the same opportunities that men of her same career are given. She, however, just like the women in the play, can see the littlest "Trifles" in a crime scene and solve the case. The men push her off but she is persistent in proving her evidence. The women in the play had all of the right evidence but due to society at their time could not, and would not, release it to the sheriff. Kelly Marsh describes this situation perfectly in her article Dead Husbands and Other "Girls' Stuff": The Trifles in Legally Blonde when she says that "Trifles" is about, "the destructive potential of the objectification and devaluation of women by men" (Marsh, 201). This problem has still not been resolved and is, in many eyes, still a very large problem in today's societies. The only difference is women have more resources and more social support to get help this devaluation occurs to them not only in the house but also in the career fields.

To sum this everything up, "Trifles" is not just a play, but a tool. A tool used to convey, to every person that watches, the suppression and hardships that some women had and still have to go through because of "devaluation" in a male dominance oriented society. When reading the play it is short, unelaborated, and un-dramatic. But by now knowing the actual murder story that this play was based off of, by knowing a little more about the personality and the early life of Susan Glaspell (the author) and finally understanding the strong male domination in this play, back then, and now, it makes the play that much clearer.

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Published: Disclaimer: This essay has been submitted by a student. This is not an example of the work written by our professional essay writers. You can view samples of our professional work here. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UK Essays.

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This link shows the attitudes, society, economy, technology, and entertainment that took place around the 1900s

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This link shows the attitudes, society, economy, technology, and entertainment that took place around the 1900s

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Expensive presidential campaigns, controversial military involvement overseas, prosperity, fast-moving technology, monopolies, immigration, natural disasters. Sound familiar? Although we may not wear corsets, we are facing a technological revolution, and many of the issues and realities facing turn-of-the-century America are still with us today.

Americans in 1900 emerged in an increasingly complex world, a world quickly moving toward the unknown. These were our mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers. These were our fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers. With optimism, tempered by a vague sense of anxiety, they realized that a cultural revolution was at hand.

Attitudes

As 1900 opened, society reflected -- much as we did with the turn of 2000. "What did the 1800s bring us?" they asked. "What have we achieved, where are we going?" It was a time for looking back to a century of rapid transformation and looking forward to the changes still to come.

Americans were optimistic in 1900. For most of them, life was better materially than it had ever been. This was a time of prosperity -- a new materialism, available leisure time, and vacations for the emerging middle class appeared. America was now the world's most affluent country. Access to electricity, automobiles, and indoor plumbing was not widespread, but most people felt that such conveniences were just a matter of time.

For every American, including the working class, there was "possibility." Anything was possible in America. This was the place of the self-made man, the American Dream, "rags to riches."

Economy and Technology

With this prosperity and possibility came jobs. Still largely a rural society, Americans increasingly moved to the city looking for work, armed with a belief in the possibilities and a strong work ethic. Alongside them came nearly a half-million immigrants in 1900, also seeking a better life.

America's Industrial Revolution produced much prosperity and leisure, but also much poverty and disillusionment. Tycoons such as J.P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie amassed fortunes greater than many European nobility. But in the same cities, factory workers and coal miners, often children, slaved for perhaps $1 to $2 each 12-16 hour day. With no safety net, many workers just couldn't make it -- nearly a third of 1900's immigrants headed back home. Awareness of poor working conditions and unfair wages increased. Concern that trusts and monopolies were taking advantage of workers led to the first large-scale organized labor strike in 1900, an event that impacts industry even today.

But technology didn't stop for anyone, even in 1900. Recent advances included phonographs, light bulbs, typewriters, machine guns, skyscrapers, telegraphs, diesel fuel, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Eiffel Tower, microphones, and aspirin. In 1900, a train could bring you the same distance in six days that a covered wagon brought you in six months. Cross-continental travel became easy for almost anyone.

As Henry Ford produced the first Model T, automobiles were looked upon generally with both interest and disdain. Though autos traveled twice as fast as horses, only 8,000 cars and about 10 miles of paved roads existed in 1900 America. Adding to the technological fervor, that year's Paris Exposition showed off exciting new inventions like moving sidewalks, wireless telegraphy, powerful telescopes, and the first escalator. To cap it all off, 1900 ended with the first overseas telephone call.

Society and Politics

In the face of ever-expanding industry and invention, America found itself an emerging world power. Having never participated in a military operation outside of the Western Hemisphere, the country now found itself engaged in two. Both the Philippines conflict and the Boxer Rebellion in China produced much debate among Americans about the country's military actions.

At home, "anti-imperialism" became one of the touchstone issues in America's first hard-fought, expensive Presidential campaign. After the candidates spent millions, the voting ultimately resulted in William McKinley's re-election as President and Theodore Roosevelt's election as Vice President. Also throughout 1900, the U.S. continued to struggle with issues of women's suffrage and civil rights.

America's leadership found themselves in precarious times. Several world political figures had been recently assassinated by anarchists who believed that all Western heads of state should be eliminated. In 1900, assassins killed King Humbert I of Italy, made an attempt on the Prince of Wales and the Shah of Persia, and targeted President William McKinley. On September 6th of the next year, McKinley was shot at Buffalo, New York's Pan-American Exposition. He died a week later.

Entertainment and Leisure

But optimistic Americans were unaware of what the future held for their President. With an emerging middle class, time saving technologies, and more leisure time, they enjoyed a variety of past-times. Vaudeville and theater were popular, as were outdoor band concerts across America. People played and sung the music of John Philip Sousa and Scott Joplin in concerts and at home -- the popularity of sheet music and home pianos meant that many across the country were now singing the same songs. Phonographs and records also provided music for those who could afford it. Movies became wildly popular when available, although they were actually short, seconds-long films called "views." The idea of "motion pictures" was dazzling to Americans in 1900.

Such technologies amazed 1900 America the way many of us still marvel at today's developments like computerized everything and genetic research. In fact, 1900's attitudes, culture, and economy were more like today than we might believe. In their wonder we see a reflection of ourselves, marveling at what human minds have created. Looking with excitement, and a little fear, toward future advancements and a world we know is coming but can't even imagine.

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Expensive presidential campaigns, controversial military involvement overseas, prosperity, fast-moving technology, monopolies, immigration, natural disasters. Sound familiar? Although we may not wear corsets, we are facing a technological revolution, and many of the issues and realities facing turn-of-the-century America are still with us today.

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Holstein speaks upon the two parallel narratives of Trifles are built upon “the differences in [men’s and women’s perceptions and behaviors] grounded in the home space"

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Susan Glaspell's play, Trifles, was written in 1916, and reflects the author's preoccupation with culture-bound notions of gender and sex roles. As the title of the play by Susan Glaspell, "Trifles" (click here for a full plot summary) suggests, the concerns of women are often considered to be mere trifles, unimportant issues that bear little or no importance to the true work of society, which, of course, is being carried out by men. Glaspell questions, and in so doing calls the reader or viewer to also question, the relative value of men's and women's perspectives and work by setting up a tension-filled drama that unfolds through the development of two distinct narratives, one male and one female. As Holstein argues in her essay, however, the questioning Glaspell provokes is not necessarily only about women's roles in society, but rather how knowledge and perspective are valued or devalued within specific contexts.

Holstein contends that the two parallel narratives of Trifles are built upon "the differences in [men's and women's perceptions and behaviors as they are] grounded in the home space" (282). According to Holstein, the men in the play approach the Wright house, where Mr. Wright has been found murdered, as a crime scene, while the women who accompany them during the investigation approach the house as a home.Holstein acknowledges that the men and the women have two very different reasons for being there-the men, to fulfill their obligations as law professionals, the women, to prepare some personal effects to carry to the imprisoned Mrs. Wright. Yet she argues that in Susan Glaspell's "Trifles" (click here for a full plot summary) the fact that the alterability of their motives is rigid, in the case of the men, and flexible, on the part of the women, determines how they view the scene. There are two critical consequences of this positioning on the part of the women. First, Holstein states that the women's " way of knowing leads them not simply to knowledge; it also leads to the decision about how to act on that knowledge" (282). She describes this way of knowing as the ability to " relive [Mrs. Wright's] entire married life rather than simply to research one violent moment" (287). Second, as a result of adopting this way of knowing, the women are able to gain power "in being devalued, for their low status allows them to keep quiet at the play's end" (285). Because the men do not expect the women to make a contribution to the investigation, they are disinterested in the women's astute impressions and valuable findings that solved the murder case.

Holstein suggests, and I would agree, that traditional feminist readings of Trifles are as limiting as the socially constructed categories of gender are. More than questioning gender roles, Glaspell seems to be inviting the reader to question a construct that is even more complex, and that is how human beings understand, and how they believe they understand, one another and their stories. As Holstein signals, it is not necessarily true that the women's approach and ultimate decision to protect Mrs. Wright "simply derive from sharing... gender" (288). The most powerful piece of evidence in this regard is that Mrs. Peters initially argues that the law is the law (Glaspell 1902); she does not necessarily feel sympathy for Mrs. Wright, as Mrs. Hale does, because of their shared gender or the shared social position to which gender has relegated them. Rather, it is precisely because the women go to the Wright home without the motive of discovering something that they remain open-minded, that they find valuable evidence, and, perhaps most importantly, that they construct a plausible narrative out of that evidence. Then, because they can empathize with Mrs. Wright's pain, they decide, quickly and without extensive debate, that they must conceal her crime; in effect, they feel her actions were justified. Clearly, the County Attorney and the Sheriff would interpret the law and their place within it differently; again, this is not necessarily because of their gender, but because of their professional positions and their accustomed ways of seeing and knowing.

Early in her essay, Holstein writes that Glaspell's play Trifles is deceptive in that it seems "simple, almost inconsequential" (282). On the surface, it seems that Trifles is really only about the competing roles and perspectives of women and men. This is certainly one part, and an important one, of the play. It would be historically inaccurate and irresponsible to suggest that Glaspell did not intend to write a play about social divisions created by strict gender roles, specifically, that women were confined to the home and that their contributions went unnoticed and undervalued. Nevertheless, digging deeper, as Holstein does, one sees that Trifles is about a concept that is even more profound, and that is how we pursue the truth, how we come to interpret and explain it, and how we value it. Often, that process does become as divided and as divisive as gender itself; however, one should not automatically assume that men and women cling to the dominant beliefs of their gender. Doing so belies the complexity of truth, as well as of human relations.
Click here for a full plot summary of "Trifles"
Other essays and articles in the Literature Archives related to this topic include : Full Plot Summary of "Trifles" by Susan Glaspell

Works Cited

Clarkson Holstein, Suzy. "Silent Justice in a Different Key: Glaspell's Trifles." The MidwestQuarterly 44 (2003): 282-290.

Glaspell, Susan. Trifles. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter 6th ed. Ed. NinaBaym. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2003. 1893-1903.

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Analysis of the Play "Trifles" by Susan Glaspell

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Susan Glaspell's play, Trifles, was written in 1916, and reflects the author's preoccupation with culture-bound notions of gender and sex roles. As the title of the play by Susan Glaspell, "Trifles" (click here for a full plot summary) suggests, the concerns of women are often considered to be mere trifles, unimportant issues that bear little or no importance to the true work of society, which, of course, is being carried out by men.

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Things that were for sale in the 1920's.

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comparing Mrs. Wright to the bird

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"The device is effective, if somewhat obvious: the genius of Glaspell’s writing is revealed in the moments of sympathy and, eventually, identification that the wives eventually express toward the accused woman. In the later half of the drama, these outpourings of empathic commiseration transform the play from a conventional domestic murder mystery into a much more cutting reflection upon the coercive dynamics of patriarchal authority. Two-Headed Calf interestingly assigned the role of the deputy sheriff to a female-bodied actress who here appeared in the butch garb of a rural lawman. But the reasons for this putatively queer casting choice were never entirely clear: was this a deliberate choice, meant to undercut Glaspell’s quaint gender politics or imply that patriarchal power is not solely defined by biological sex?" - Leon Hilton New York University

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Trifles, by Susan Glaspell.: All Databases for SCC Library

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"As performed here, “Trifles” is poignant and, occasionally, pretentious. Extended pauses have been inserted throughout, creating long silences; characters often abruptly stop for 5 or 10 seconds between lines or in the middle of dialogue. At first the effect is puzzling (the first-night audience tittered and laughed nervously). Yet those silences go on to build an unnerving sense of claustrophobia and isolation. They’re an effective device but one that suffers from overuse, as does the wordless singing that punctuates the play — what serves as a tool threatens to become a distraction.

Still, even when those and other techniques sometimes misfire, the production, directed by Brooke O’Harra, is never less than professional. Caitlin McDonough-Thayer, as Mrs. Hale, and Becca Blackwell, playing Mr. Hale, are standouts in a strong cast, and the new-music quartet Yarn/Wire provides beguiling live accompaniment. Peter Ksander’s set and Justin Townsend’s lighting also aid in creating an eerie, affecting mood that lingers after the show ends.

That mood is the most absorbing aspect of this hourlong “Trifles.” In reimagining Glaspell’s play, the ensemble gambles that a host of nontraditional methods will help heighten the tension and foster compassion. Some of those chances pay off. A few don’t. And others just need to sink in." -Ken Jaworowski, New York Times

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Be careful how you judge "Trifles," as performed by the experimental troupe Theater of a Two-Headed Calf. What initially feels foolish could, on reflection, prove to be more powerful, and what is frustrating may later gel into something intriguing. While not all of the production's missteps are absolved by time, not everything here is what it first seems, either.

"Trifles," written by Susan Glaspell and first performed in 1916, has become a staple of theater studies. Though the play is celebrated as an early feminist drama, it stands on its own as an engrossing story. In the tale, two women, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, gradually uncover the motive for a murder, while their male counterparts are blinded by ignorance and insensitivity. The women examine the details - the trifles - of the suspect's life to discover a deeper meaning and in the end solve a mystery by exposing a tragedy.

As performed here, "Trifles" is poignant and, occasionally, pretentious. Extended pauses have been inserted throughout, creating long silences; characters often abruptly stop for 5 or 10 seconds between lines or in the middle of dialogue. At first the effect is puzzling (the first-night audience tittered and laughed nervously). Yet those silences go on to build an unnerving sense of claustrophobia and isolation. They're an effective device but one that suffers from overuse, as does the wordless singing that punctuates the play - what serves as a tool threatens to become a distraction.

Still, even when those and other techniques sometimes misfire, the production, directed by Brooke O'Harra, is never less than professional. Caitlin McDonough-Thayer, as Mrs. Hale, and Becca Blackwell, playing Mr. Hale, are standouts in a strong cast, and the new-music quartet Yarn/Wire provides beguiling live accompaniment. Peter Ksander's set and Justin Townsend's lighting also aid in creating an eerie, affecting mood that lingers after the show ends.

That mood is the most absorbing aspect of this hourlong "Trifles." In reimagining Glaspell's play, the ensemble gambles that a host of nontraditional methods will help heighten the tension and foster compassion. Some of those chances pay off. A few don't. And others just need to sink in.

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Theater of a Two-Headed Calf Takes On Susan Glaspell's Play

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Be careful how you judge "Trifles," as performed by the experimental troupe Theater of a Two-Headed Calf. What initially feels foolish could, on reflection, prove to be more powerful, and what is frustrating may later gel into something intriguing. While not all of the production's missteps are absolved by time, not everything here is what it first seems, either.

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Artist J. Howard Miller produced this poster in later year has become one of the most famous icons of World War II.

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* Photo Credit“Cheap Stage Curtains.” Curtains Design Gallery, 1 Sept. 2015, curtains.dailynewdesign.com/cheap-stage-curtains/. Accessed 21 Apr. 2017.

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* Photo Credit“Cheap Stage Curtains.” Curtains Design Gallery, 1 Sept. 2015, curtains.dailynewdesign.com/cheap-stage-curtains/. Accessed 21 Apr. 2017.

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A  Newspaper Article from January 31st, 1870.

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Susan Glaspell is from Rural Davenport Iowa.