Trifles By Susan Glaspell Essay

The Capable Women Ain’t Triflin’ Around

Susan Glaspell's play Trifles was written in 1916 after she, as a reporter, covered the court case and conviction of a woman accused of murdering her abusive husband. Based on these events, her play is a social commentary put into the form of a murder mystery. In it, a man, John
Wright, is strangled to death in bed next to his wife, Minnie Foster Wright, who had allegedly slept right through his murder. The neighbors begin searching for clues, but it becomes apparent that some of them are attempting to cover something up. The viewers of the play are then faced with the questions of “Who did it?” "Will they get away with it?" and "Should they get away with it?" The themes presented
Glaspell thought the concept of Trifles was so worthwhile that in 1917 she rewrote the play into a short story called "A Jury of Her Peers." A contrast and comparison of
Glaspell's two works shows that while they differ somewhat in the presentation and content, the overall themes of society’s views of men and women, and fair judgment are the same.
While the play and short story differ slightly in their presentations and content, the most notable difference is the change of focus found in their opening/beginning scenes. Trifles, as is necessary for a play, is written in a format with the characters' names in all capitals preceding the

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The play weighs in at 9 pages, while the story is almost 50% longer at 13 pages. Some of the additional length is given to descriptions depicting events or conditions such as “the stark coldness of that shut-up room was not a thing to linger in,” but some of it comes from additional content not found in the play (573). An additional content difference is seen with the theme of isolation, and therefore vulnerability. This theme is first introduced in the play, when the words
“lonesome” or “alone” are used 3 times; it is continued in the rewritten story, but on a greater scale, with the words used 9 times. Glaspell uses a greater emphasis by placing the words together twice in a sentence, “‘But I'm awful glad you came with me, Mrs. Hale.’…‘It would be lonesome for me-- sitting here alone,’” is found in both the play and short story, but
“It looked very lonesome this cold March morning. It had always been a lonesome- looking place. It was down in a hollow, and the poplar trees around it were lonesome- looking trees. … "I'm glad you came with me," Mrs. Peters said nervously, as the two women were about to follow the men in through the kitchen door,”