Susan Glaspell's Trifles And The Inheritors

Literature is always a reflection of its place of origin. It reflects the different values and traditions of the part of the world it comes from. In the same respect, American Literature has focused on our own, American values, such as freedom, honor and the different rights of men and women. In "Trifles" and "The Inheritors" both written by Susan Glaspell, we observe different qualities found in women and men and how are depicted in different light. The strong feeling of women being the caretakers at home is the first that we see. In both pieces of literature, we see the women always in the kitchen and men criticize them on how they take care of things. In "Trifles", we see a group of men and women investigating a crime scene, each with their own way. The two women, who are there to pick up some belongings for the woman held for a murder charge look at the place and really pay attention on how the woman was taking care of the household. They noticed how she was making jam and how she had started to knit a beautiful quilt, which at the end had some mistakes done and it seemed that she was rushing through it. One of the women started fixing it, by instinct. This shows us that women of that time had a certain consciousness and took their responsibilities at home very seriously. We see the emphasis even more when the men were discussing how dirty and unkempt the house seemed, but
In the play, she is sitting in a rocking chair in the kitchen, and when her son and Felix Fejevary talk about her, we get the idea that she has always been taking care of people from all walks of life and at some point joke about how the house seemed like an Inn. It provides us with a view of what women were supposed to be doing with their