Trifles

A detailed Summary of Trifles

Susan Glaspell was born in 1882 in Davenport, Iowa. She graduated from Drake University and worked as a journalist on the staff of the Des Moines Daily News. When her stories began appearing in magazines such as Harper's and The Ladies' Home Journal, she gave up the newspaper business. In 1915, Glaspell met George Cook, a talented stage director. Together they founded the Provincetown Players on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The Players were a remarkable gathering of actors, directors and writers. In 1916, Glaspell wrote the play Trifles for the Provincetown Players. The play was inspired by a murder that Glaspell covered while working as a reporter for the Des Moines Daily News. Trifles is a short, one act play about an investigation of the murder of a farmer named John Wright. While trying to find evidence that his wife was his killer, the men in the story, Mr. Hale, the county attorney, and the sheriff, are looking for solid evidence. At the same time, two women, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, the sheriff's wife, are talking and gathering some things to take to Mrs. Wright at the jail. The men desire to find something concrete, but in their simple acts, the women find the real proof. Although Trifles concerns a murder investigati

During the early 1900's, society perceived women as inferior beings. Throughout the play we read dialogue that allows us to see the demeaning view the men have for the women. Mr. Hale declares that, "women are used to worrying about trifles" (Glaspell 660). In saying this he is trivializing the many tasks and details that women are responsible for. And seemingly in his ignorance of how those duties are crucial in allowing a household to function smoothly, he implies their unimportance. The remark about Mrs. Wright from the County Attorney, "Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?" (Glaspell 660) is insensitive and unjustified. All because his hand finds the sticky residue of her exploded preserves, a soiled spot on her roll towel, and some pans are left unclean. We know that all these situations are outside of Minnie's control- what is not due to her not even being there is due to her dire emotional state. These statements and others made by the men as the play progresses show that women are just not looked on with any meaning for society.

Trifles is a clever way of presenting the societal image of women in the 1900's. Glaspell shows that men possessed a shallow view of women's intelligence and value. They were simply trifles. The men of that time had control over that view and while women did not always openly dispute it, based on the plot of Trifles; we know that they did not agree with it. The point of this tale is that while the men, smart as they were, were looking at the situation for an exterior perspective, the women were looking on the in

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1068
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English