The play “Trifles” written by Susan Glaspell majorly mirrors the relationship between husbands and wives, and their attitudes towards resolving daily hassles. The men were looking for the “effects” while the women were concerned with “causes”. Mr. and Mrs. Hale were the closest friend of the family of Mr. Wright John and aware of the strain in their marriage. Mr. Hale’s superficial effort to salvage the situation caused more harm than the deep emotional insight of Mrs. Hale who tried to save her friend.
Mr. Hale’s testimony showed how close he was to the family. He was also aware of the strain in the marriage and the feeling of loneliness experienced by Minie Wright. As typical of men’s reactionary approach to problem-solving, he tried to convince Mr.Wright to install a telephone to facilitate communication between Mrs. Wright and her friends and acquaintances. According to him “I am going to see if I can get John Wright to go in with me on a party telephone…. but I thought maybe if I went to the house and talked about it before his wife, though said to Harry I didn’t know as what his wife wanted to make much difference to John” (Glaspell 980). He felt to realize that Mrs. Wright needs to talk more with the husband and treated like a lady than talking to the outsiders. On the other hand, Mrs. Hale knew Minie Wright and had nostalgia about her beautiful personality “she was kind of like a bird herself-real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and –fluttery” (Glaspell 987). She
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Show MoreWright it is easy to tell that she is not at all upset about her husband’s death. When being asked about the situation she “laughed and pleated her skirt” (4). Mrs. Wright is compared to a bird that is found later in the story. The bird was found in a pretty box with marks around its neck. Hale and Peters say that the death of her bird would have been her motive if she actually was her husband’s murderer, but the author utilizes the bird and its broken cage to be a comparison to Mrs. Wright’s life.
Edelman argues that the anger is not all her husband 's fault and that mostly the issue is mutual between her and her husband. She details the one time she got so mad that she went out and bought a tree house for no good reason. She said, “One day I said f*** it, and I took John’s credit card and bought a swing set” (55) This outburst again conveys to the reader that Edelman becomes so frustrated that eventually she breaks down. Her eruptive use of “f***” drives home her final feeling.
Mrs. Bogle’s first husband held her until he finally died just as Jody held Janie captive until he died. Her second husband proved his love and pride to her just as Tea Cake proved his love and pride when he took Janie’s money but gambled it back to spoil her. There is also a stereotypical aspect showing male dominance over females as Janie’s husbands have power over her just like Mrs. Bogle’s
he was the childhood sweetheart, and what more does he want?” This jealousness of another man’s affection towards his wife is again shown on page 34 when the wife reveals the narrator has no friends. This is an important fact used to show the significance of the wife, a person that actually cares for him and someone he doesn’t want to lose. The audience feels sympathy towards the narrator at this point as we observe the situation through his first-person perspective. This perspective influences the way the audience experiences the story and the reader can understand the narrator’s reasoning for being against housing a man that had a long and powerful connection to his
Glynnis is no longer seen in the image of a victimized house wife; she is now the antagonist, “Glynnis is angry” ( American Appetites 51). All the anger and hatred that Glynnis directed at Ian came from Glynnis’s self hatred. Glynnis had an affair with Ian’s best friend. Even though Glynnis knows she was in the wrong, she refuses to accept it. She must take her blame and put it upon the shoulders of her husband.
Throughout her essay Brady used sarcasm and outlandish claims to incite a strong emotional reaction from her readers. I too was shocked by her requirements for a wife and the fact that women in that time period were expected to follow these requirements. Brady has done an excellent job of appealing to the readers using pathos while explaining how absurd the expectations of wives
They both conclude that someone was rough with the empty birdcage. Immediately afterward, Mrs. Hale comments on the men’s progress to find evidence, saying, “’I wish if they’re going to find any evidence they’d be about it’” (Glaspell 1416). Mrs. Hale’s remark is ironic because her current conversation about the birdcage’s door hinge is indirect evidence, yet she is growing impatient with the men’s attempts to discover any solid evidence. A little later on, Mrs. Hale relates the idea of a bird to Mrs. Wright by saying, “’she was kind of like a bird herself.’”
In the plays Trifles and A Doll House the reader can see the portrayal of a male society and the way women are where dominated and abused by their husband in the nineteenth century. In A Doll House Nora’s Husband Treats her as if she is and absent minds doll wife that is incapable of thinking for herself. In Trifles Mrs. wright is a woman that have been oppressed and abuse by her husband for so many year that she need to escape one way or another. The woman in the play both took steps to gain there independence in society by any means
However, while they both have the same intentions, their actions conflict heavily, and situate them on opposite sides of a matter. Because of this, there is not a clear good or evil person; almost every aspect of the playwright is up to the reader’s interpretation. But, it is not impossible to make a compromise between two people about their values, even if it seems the values could not be more
Talking about Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters “the two characters begin to reconstruct the accused woman’s life. They do so through several means; memories of her, memories of their own lives (similar to hers in many ways), and speculation about her feelings and responses to the conditions of her life” (Holstein 283.) The two women immediately placed themselves in Minnie Wrights position. And while reconstructing Mrs. Wright life based on their own memories and emotions they acknowledge the murders missing clue “Minnie’s dead pet bird” (Holstein
in Schanfield 1656). In the text, Glaspell insist on Mrs. Wright being identification as a “songbird” before she married John Wright (Schanfield 1655). Glaspell chose to do this so the audience can see how an independent woman is happier and better off alone. As her marriage played out with Mr. Wright she slowly morphed into the mold a woman was forced to fit into. In “A Jury of Her Peers” Mrs. Hale (referring to Mrs. Wrights singing and happiness in the context of the bird) said, “No, [Mr.] Wright wouldn't like the bird… a thing that sang” she went on to say “She used to sing.
Instead of the conflict of the story being between a husband and wife, the conflict is between a mother and a daughter. In the beginning of the story, we can see the obvious conflict between the two. The mother is what one might consider to be strict or abusive or maybe even just tough love. Many times, throughout the story, the mother is said to have hit or choked her daughter. Because of this, the daughter has turned into a disobedient girl and will do anything to go against the wishes of her mother.
Triumph over Trifles The struggles of women have subsisted in countless pieces of literature. Stereotypically speaking, women are not always seen as strong leading characters. Often women are found confined in stories as they are in life. Literature frees women in a way that real life simply cannot. Female authors as well as characters gain that feeling of freedom, due to the less constricting binds of literary writing.
Elizabeth Cary’s The Tragedy of Mariam makes many valid points about women’s identities in marriage. Mariam’s choices throughout the play reflect her understanding of the fact that in the world she lives there is no space for a chaste, honest, independent woman. The standards that a woman of the time are impossible and Mariam’s attempts to grapple with them are doomed to fail. After experiencing the freedom of self expression afforded to her after she believes her husband has died she is unwilling to re-enter the position of a subordinate.
The play An Ideal Husband was written by Oscar Wilde in 1895 in England’s Victorian era. This era was characterised by sexual anarchy amongst men and women where the stringent boundaries that delineated the roles of both men and women were continually being challenged by threatening figures such as the New Woman represented by Mrs Cheveley and dandies such as Lord Goring(Showalter, 3). An Ideal Husband ultimately affirms Lord Goring’s notions about the inequality of the sexes because of the evident limitations placed on the mutability of identity for female characters versus their male counterparts (Madden, 5). These limitations will be further elaborated upon in the context of the patriarchal aspects of Victorian society which contributed to the failed attempts of blackmail by Mrs Cheveley, the manner in which women are trapped by their past and their delineated role of an “angel of truth and goodness” (Powell, 89).