Justice In Trifles By Susan Glaspell
Literary Modernism took origin in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it is characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional styles of poetry, verse, and prose writing. The modernism literary movement was driven by a conscious desire to overturn traditional modes of representation and express the new sensibilities of their time. (Cilliers, P., & Spurrett, D., 1999). The horrors of World War I saw the prevailing assumptions about society reassessed. Thinkers such as Freud questioned the rationality of mankind, challenging traditional ideas about humanity. Darwin challenged traditional ideas about religion when he came up with his theory of evolution. Karl Marx challenged the current idea of government by his theories on communism.
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The short story Trifles, written in 1916 by Susan Glaspell, portrays this type of confusion in the play. The two women questioned their values and their beliefs towards justice when they were struggling against Mrs. Wright's hidden clues, their own concepts of justice, and the men's demeaning attitudes to achieve protecting Mrs. Wright. The reason why these two women question themselves about whether is it right to withhold the evidence or tell the sheriff about it was because they became increasingly aware of Mrs. Wright and her husband when discovering clues such as Mrs. Wright's messy house, the uneven stitching pattern on the quilt, the broken cage and the bird with its wrung neck. They begin to relate sympathetically to her, to want to protect her, yet struggle to maintain their own sense of duty. The men express demeaning attitudes, using words like "trifles" and "not much of a housekeeper" and "quilt it or just knot it". As a result, the women became resentful and begin to justify Mrs. Wright's reason for killing his husband. This is the reason why they become more determined to protect Mrs. Wright. And even though they were struggling trying to determine if hiding or give the evidence of a crime was the right thing to do, they ended up taking the decision of withholding the evidence of the bird to protect her. Just like in Babylon revisited, Trifles did not end up with the traditional "happy ending" or with a true resolution to the conflict. Did Charlie have his daughter back? Did Mrs. Wright was accused of her husband death? In both stories, the audience is left to wonder what might happen
The short story Trifles, written in 1916 by Susan Glaspell, portrays this type of confusion in the play. The two women questioned their values and their beliefs towards justice when they were struggling against Mrs. Wright's hidden clues, their own concepts of justice, and the men's demeaning attitudes to achieve protecting Mrs. Wright. The reason why these two women question themselves about whether is it right to withhold the evidence or tell the sheriff about it was because they became increasingly aware of Mrs. Wright and her husband when discovering clues such as Mrs. Wright's messy house, the uneven stitching pattern on the quilt, the broken cage and the bird with its wrung neck. They begin to relate sympathetically to her, to want to protect her, yet struggle to maintain their own sense of duty. The men express demeaning attitudes, using words like "trifles" and "not much of a housekeeper" and "quilt it or just knot it". As a result, the women became resentful and begin to justify Mrs. Wright's reason for killing his husband. This is the reason why they become more determined to protect Mrs. Wright. And even though they were struggling trying to determine if hiding or give the evidence of a crime was the right thing to do, they ended up taking the decision of withholding the evidence of the bird to protect her. Just like in Babylon revisited, Trifles did not end up with the traditional "happy ending" or with a true resolution to the conflict. Did Charlie have his daughter back? Did Mrs. Wright was accused of her husband death? In both stories, the audience is left to wonder what might happen