Blog Post #5-"Trifles" By Susan Glaspell

I really enjoyed the play, “Trifles” By Susan Glaspell. I actually read this play for the first time last year in my Drama and Film class. In the class discussion on “Trifles,” we talked a lot about gender roles and symbolism, so it was interesting to revisit these ideas in class.

I personally think that Glaspell did a really great job portraying gender roles in this particular time period. Throughout the play, she shows how the men are dominant over the women, do not realize everything that the women do, and look down on them. They feel that the women always worry about things that they feel are rather silly, shown in lines such as “Women are used to worrying over trifles (page 983).” They don’t realize that their household would not be able to function without their wives. They pick on them constantly, laugh at them, and devalue them.

However, I feel that the women in this particular play are extremely strong. The men don’t take the time to think like Minnie, think about what she went through, and really connect with her. However, the women do the exact opposite. Because Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters have similar lives to Minnie, it is easy for them to relate to her due to society at the time. Women at this time had many specific duties, such as cooking in the kitchen, and because they were in “women’s territory,” they found clues that the men would not have found. Because they were in the kitchen, looking in her quilting basket, and around her preserves, the women found more evidence than the men would have dreamed of. When the women found the dead canary in the sewing basket, the women knew it had been Minnie Wright who had killed her husband, although they still did not want to completely believe it. However, through this and Mrs. Peters prior background knowledge of Minnie Wright, the women were able to understand what Minnie was going through. They understood that Minnie felt like the bird in the cage. Her marriage to Mr. Wright had changed and she was no longer happy; she couldn’t even sing anymore. She most likely suffered from abuse. At the very least, she was probably treated in a disrespectful manner, just as Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are by the men in the story. On page 989, Mrs. Peters states that, “We all go through the same things—it’s just a different kind of the same things.” When Minnie murdered Mr. Wright, she snapped because she could not take her life anymore. Although Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale recognize that murder is wrong, they understand the turmoil that Minnie went through and decide to keep the evidence a secret in support of her. They are able to sympathize with Minnie. This is also a silent act of rebellion against the men. The women are actually stronger, smarter, and more important than the men give them credit for.

Throughout the play, there are many other emphasizes on the major differences in gender in this time period. For example, on page 989, the County Attorney references that men and women are treated differently in the court system with the line, “But you know the juries when it comes to women.” This also comes off in the general attitudes of the men and women as well. The men are very dominant, condescending, and arrogant, while the women are quiet, submissive, and respectful of their husbands. There are also differences in where men and women belong. There are many references in the play to the women belonging in the home doing womanly duties, such as cooking, quilting, and cleaning. In contrast, the men are out working to support the family, which is more important than the women’s duties in their eyes.

I think that Susan Glaspell did a brilliant job writing this play. Some of the lines have a lot of deeper meaning behind them. For example, Mrs. Hale’s line, “We call it—knot it, Mr. Henderson.” is a very empowering line in the play because of what it stands for, due to the various references to it throughout the duration of the play. She was able to make many significant points in a fairly short play, which is impressive. It was very nice to re-read such a female-empowering play.