Analysis Of Trifles By Susan Glaspell
“A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men” – Gloria Steinem. Susan Glaspell’s short play “Trifles” can be recognized as feminist literature and the primary concept was to highlight the gender inequality where women are treated unequally and their viewpoints were taken lightly by men in the early 1900s. Glaspell features these pieces of evidence from the characters, and the setting. “Trifles” demonstrates the discrimination of a male-dominated society, and at the same time, insults women who stands up for their rights. During this period, the first-wave feminism had begun and females from across the country started to stand up for their right to vote in the 20th century. The setting of “Trifles” will
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Hale, investigates the house for clues, while the wife of Sheriff; Mrs. Peter and Mrs. Hale were looking for clues in the symbolic setting: the kitchen. Glaspell’s describe the setting as “gloomy”, “abandoned”, and everything in this kitchen seems to be disheveled (Glaspell 1038). Also, all the activities took place in this kitchen and readers can feel trapped and stuck in one place, just like how women were back in the 19th and early 20th century. According to Baily, L. McDaniel’s essay “Literary Contexts in Plays: Susan Glaspell's "Trifles,"” it explains life in the 19th century was a “lonely”, “difficult”, and “depressing” (1). Mrs. Wright the main suspect of the crime was lonely because she had no child and as McDaniel stated: during that time, there was no television or telephone (1). The male minor characters immediately dismiss the symbolic kitchen and look for clues for the murder case around the house and the barn because they think the kitchen belongs to the women, and they believe it’s not a place that could contain any valuable clues. Furthermore, the sheriff ignores the kitchen’s importance here: “Nothing here but kitchen things” (Glaspell 1040). The Attorney and the Sheriff ignore the kitchen because they consider the kitchen to be a female
Hale, investigates the house for clues, while the wife of Sheriff; Mrs. Peter and Mrs. Hale were looking for clues in the symbolic setting: the kitchen. Glaspell’s describe the setting as “gloomy”, “abandoned”, and everything in this kitchen seems to be disheveled (Glaspell 1038). Also, all the activities took place in this kitchen and readers can feel trapped and stuck in one place, just like how women were back in the 19th and early 20th century. According to Baily, L. McDaniel’s essay “Literary Contexts in Plays: Susan Glaspell's "Trifles,"” it explains life in the 19th century was a “lonely”, “difficult”, and “depressing” (1). Mrs. Wright the main suspect of the crime was lonely because she had no child and as McDaniel stated: during that time, there was no television or telephone (1). The male minor characters immediately dismiss the symbolic kitchen and look for clues for the murder case around the house and the barn because they think the kitchen belongs to the women, and they believe it’s not a place that could contain any valuable clues. Furthermore, the sheriff ignores the kitchen’s importance here: “Nothing here but kitchen things” (Glaspell 1040). The Attorney and the Sheriff ignore the kitchen because they consider the kitchen to be a female