Essay 3 Drama “Trifles”

Dale J. Holman

Michael Bove

SMCC SU18 ENGL 115 D4 Introduction to Literature

August 10, 2018

 Today, we face challenges in recognizing and accepting the differences between women

and men and find conflicts in those differences. The play “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell is based on

stereotypes. The play explores the gender differences in general and the inferiority of women

over men that are prevalent in our societies. Women were repressed in the 1900s and were

largely looked down upon by men. They were not seen as intelligent people but rather as child

bearers and housekeepers. In the play as depicted by Glaspell demonstrates how wrong the

stereotypes were. Men having been sent to unravel murder details, and women accompanied

them to gather things belonging to Mrs. Right who has been accused of killing her husband.

Women worried more of the “trifles” (655) as stated by Mr. Hale. The differences in gender in

the play is important and obvious to the story. Men are depicted as self-centered and aggressive

during the time period that basically represents the traditional stereotypes of men. Women appear

to be more intuitive, cautious and sensitive (Arezki & Mahmoud, 2013).

The traits exhibited by women made them move closer to solving out the murder case

than men do. For example, women discovered the quilt that Mrs. Right had been dealing with.

Mrs. Peters asks Mrs. Hales by wondering whether she was going to simply quilt it or knot it.

The sheriff who was descending down the staircase ridiculed the women for worrying about such

simple things. It was later found out that this was an important part of the evidence in the story.

The ladies were concerned why Mrs. Right was extremely nervous while she was sewing since

she has always been sewing “so nice and even” (658).

The kitchen was viewed as irrelevant by men when solving the murder case but women

proved them wrong. For example, women, while trying to get some few supplies for Minnie,

came across a dead bird in Minnie Foster’s sewing box which appeared to be violently strangled.

Women are depicted as more intelligent even when not prepared or trained while men are
portrayed as incompetent. Glaspell is simply trying to dissuade the gender-based prejudice where

female gender are always discriminated against. Group of uneducated women gathers evidence

discovered at the crime scene to unravel the cause of Johns murder. It represents the chauvinistic

views that are portrayed by men towards women, for example, the remarks by Mr. Hale stating

that women worry over trifles. Women are viewed as heroines in the play yet men consider them

as Trifles (Arezki & Mahmoud, 2013). Men do not collect any piece of evidence that would

connect the murder of Mr. Right and Minnie Foster. Women took a different perspective by

approaching the setting as a home and place themselves in Minnie Foster shoes. (Tahameed,

2015).

Men judged Minnie and women in general as inept and not interested in knowing her

situation. Women, on the other hand, look at it as evidence of Minnie lonely life that could

account for her action. Men consider Minnie Foster guilty even if they do not have any evidence

that connects her to the death of her husband. Mrs. Hale reveals that Minnie used to wear nice

clothes before being married to John Wright. It appears Minnie Foster lived a lonely life. This

could explain that she might be deteriorating mentally as she was changing her personality

(Benkő, 2012).

From the title of the play, women are regarded as unimportant. The role of women in the

society is being disregarded as depicted in the way they challenged the housekeeping skills of

Minnie. Women are not asked if they found anything of value throughout the investigation.

Glaspell has helped illustrate women as more intelligent and thorough from the way they

analyzed the crime scene and revealed plausible explanations on the causes. Women find

everything they were searching for with relative ease as they have mastered the kitchen. Men are

judgmental towards Minnie Foster without considering her situations. For example, the county
attorney considers Mrs. Wright as a lousy housekeeper and lacking homemaking instincts that

women interpret as a sign of consciousness that has been disturbed (Demaree, 2014).

In conclusion, the Trifles play by Susan Glaspell explores the strict gender rules that

cause social division and allow women and men to have competing perspective on a variety of

issues. This is depicted in the way kitchen were disregarded by men as having nothing of value.

At the beginning of the play, both men and women have different tasks and positions. For

example, women were seen as mere visitors to the house of Minnie Foster while men had an

official duty. Women view Minnie Foster as a victim of the dead husband while men are

convinced she caused the death of her husband. The provocation by her husband is what caused

the women to get convinced that she might have killed him. The only companion to Minnie was

the dead bird and John Right invited trouble when he strangled it (Glaspell, 2010).
 References

Benkő, Z. (2012) Feminine Trifles: The Construction of Gender Roles in Susan

Glaspell’s Trifles.

Tahameed, e. S. H. B. (2015). Married life as portrayed in Kate Chopin’s “the story of an

hour” and Susan Glaspell’s “trifles” play (doctoral dissertation, Sudan University of science and

technology).

Glaspell, S. (2010). Trifles. Baker’s Plays

Demaree, S. E. (2014). Battles of the sexes onstage: explorations of changing Gender

roles by four American women playwrights of the 1910s-1930s (Doctoral dissertation).

Arezki, k., & Mahmoud, k. (2013). American women of the colonial period and of the

nineteenth century city: in Judith Sargent Murray’s On the Equality of Sexes, Edith Wharton’s

Roman Fever and Hamlin Garland’s Mrs. Ripley‘s Trip. Multilingual, 1(2), 171-182.