Sexism In Trifles By Susan Glaspell

The 1920s were an era of exciting social reforms and deep cultural struggles. During this decade, time became progressive for women in America. Women were allowed to experience freedom on a more personal level. This didn’t hold back all the sexism that caused quite the controversy. Women from rural parts of the country started moving to the urban areas in search of jobs. In the work force, men received much more money than women did. The women who moved to the city found themselves with little money to go out and seek entertainment.

From Martin Luther’s 95 Thesis to the American Declaration of Independence, literature has been used all throughout history as a means to question perceived wrongdoing. This is exactly what Sarah Orne Jewett and Susan Glaspell intended to do when they wrote about the roles of women in a patriarchal society. Literature is an effective method of questioning the status quo because it allows writers to use tools like symbolism and characterization to emphasize their point.

Hidden Intellectualism,” by Gerald Graff, is an essay in which the former English professor discusses the misconceptions of the ideas of intellectualism amongst society. He primarily focuses on the way adolescents view intellectualism as a negative trait that only “nerds” strive for. He also elaborates on his experiences in revealing his own hidden intellectualism, while in college in a literature class, after growing up in the “anti-intellectual” 1950s. However, through a method that Graff and an eleventh grade high school teacher are developing, they hope to make students think and debate argumentatively as intellectuals would. They do this in an attempt to have the students see their true potentials as intellectuals themselves. Throughout

In “Trifles,” Mrs. Wright is perceived as a gentle woman who remained loyal until the death of her husband. After years of being confined into a house by Mr. Wright, through neglect and emotional abuse. Mrs. Wright paid back through

In “Trifles,” the men and women have opposing perceptions on how they find and what they consider evidence. The men in the play view things more literal, while the women find a deeper meaning behind

Throughout “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell a noticeable power struggle between the women and the men occurs. “A Jury of Her Peers” exposes the social injustices that women faced during the turn of the century. In the story Mrs. Wright lashes out against her husband as result of built up anger and societies social pressure. In the essays “from Silent Justice in a Different Key: Glaspell’s ‘Trifles’” by Suzy Clarkson Holstein and “from The Case of the Battered Wife: Susan Glaspell’s Trifles and ‘A Jury of Her Peers’” by Lillian Schanfield embody the theme of social injustices among women. The social gaps between men and women in “A Jury of Her Peers” and “Trifles” helped drive the plot and allowed a unique outcome to be achieved.

Can women who lead very different lives be similar? Susan Glaspell explores the differences and similarities of two characters in her story “Trifles.” Written in 1916, Glaspell’s fictional story uses an unforeseen event to bring Mrs. Hale, a farmer’s wife, and Mrs. Peters, a sheriff’s wife, together. Although Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters have their differences such as Mrs. Hale being outspoken, observant, and a leader, while Mrs. Peters is nervous and does not want to challenge authority, the women share some similarities such as being aware of male condescension and willing to keep information from male authorities if it means helping another woman.

The play “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell is largely based on stereotypes. The most prevalent one explores the difference between gender roles. Glaspell exerts the repression of women in the 1900s. During that time, women were highly looked down upon by men, and were only seen as the housekeepers and child bearers. This example is displayed throughout the play with the men, however, the women in this play prove that the stereotypes of gender roles held against them are completely wrong, which is shown through the characters, set design, and symbolism.

Authors, especially female authors, have long used their writing to emphasize and analyze the feminist issues that characterize society, both in the past and the present. Kate Chopin, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Susan Glaspell wrote narratives that best examined feminist movements through the unreliable minds of their characters. In all three stories, “The Story of an Hour”, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, and “A Jury of Her Peers”, the authors use characterization, symbolism, and foreshadowing to describe the characters’ apparent psychosis or unreasonable behavior to shed light on the social issues that characterized the late 19th century and early 20th century.

Throughout history, women have often been subjected to prejudice and an inferior status to men. Due to sexist ideologies of men believing that women are not capable of controlling their own lives, women have often been reduced to the status of property. This concept is prominent in many pieces of literature to demonstrate the struggles women have to go through in a predominantly, male structured world. In the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, the author illustrates a woman’s battle in an extreme society ruled by men to express the misogyny occurring in the time period when it was written, 1894. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia summarizes Atwood’s story as one that “depicts one woman’s chilling struggle to survive in a society ruled by misogynistic fascism, by which women are reduced to the condition of property.” Although written 100 years earlier, this is also seen in the novel, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy, because both authors show the oppression of women through the experiences the characters go through and the means of survival they use. The two novels, The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood, and Tess of the D’Urbervilles, by Thomas

“ A Jury of Her Peers,” a short story, and “Trifles,” a play, both provide the same story line of finding out the culprit in a early twentieth century murder scene but also differentiate by delving into different aspects on how to showcase the narrative. Both stories center around finding out if Minnie Wright murdered her husband and if she did, her motives for doing so. While the men in both stories simply care about finding out the culprit of the murder, the women fit their stereotypes by fiddling over small details but in the end piece the details together to look at the bigger picture. In “ A Jury of Her Peers” Martha Hale takes the stand as the dominant character of the play revealing how women must take their own stand during

Mary Wollstonecraft’s, Maria or The Wrongs of Woman, is an analyzation and critique about a woman’s place in society. Specifically, that socially, politically, and economically woman are at a disadvantage. Furthermore, society perpetuates this imbalance through certain expectations about motherhood, marriage, and double standards. This power imbalance has always been present in society and through the analyzation of Maria and themes such as: motherhood, domination, and traditionalist thought it is possible to contextualize the era that Mary Wollstonecraft lived in to gain a better understanding of what women went through in her time so that we have a reference to compare to how women are treated today.

The men in Trifles may be detectives, but they are incompetent to the case, due to their ignorance. Ken Jaworowski, the author of a segment for the New York Times, wrote, “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.” The women, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, are overlooked often in this play by the men. Hale, one of the male characters from the play states, “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles.” (Glaspell) This statement reveals how the men go straight to stereotypes with the women. Trifles, something of little importance, is the opposite of what the women are distraught about. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters find several items that were “women things”, such as an unfinished quilt and a bird in a box with its neck snapped. These items are key symbols, not only to the play, but to the motive of the murder. Mrs. Wright never revealed that her husband had done cruel things to her, but her husband was known to be harsh at times. Mrs. Hale brings up how Mrs. Wright lived before she married, “I heard she used to wear pretty clothes and be lively, when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls singing in the choir. But that-oh, that was thirty years ago.” (Glaspell) After marrying to John, Minnie did not have a multitude of freedoms as before. She became confined to being a

Trifles by Susan Glaspell is a play written in 1916 about a murder in a small town. There are seven roles, five of them speaking. Sheriff Peters, his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Hale, and the County Attorney Henderson are all trying to piece together what happened to Mr. Wright, who Mr. Hale found hanging from a rope in his home. Mrs. Wright, who doesn’t have stage time, is the main suspect in her husband’s death. It is understood she committed the crime by the end of the show. Small lines and actions give clear insight to the theme of a struggle for power between genders.Through lack of following the script, ignoring stage direction, and undeveloped characters the production of Trifles directed by Nancy Greening is an insufficient presentation of a

With the re-emergence of the feminist movement in the late 1960s , Glaspell Trifles and its short story “A Jury of Her Peers” were republished . The two works became central texts in gender studies that read around the world .Trifles was re-performed frequently as it tackled timeless issues and provided significant document of life in America as seen through the eyes of a pioneering woman in the first half of the twentieth