Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles” dwelled on the investigation of the murder scene of Mr. Wright. In the beginning of the play, Mr. Wright was found dead in the upstairs bedroom with a rope hung around his neck. Lewis Hale recalled how he discovered Mrs. Wright acting bizarrely, and that she told him that her husband was murdered while he was sleeping. Mrs. Wright’s strange behavior and body language caused Mr. Hale and the Sherriff to believe that Mrs. Wright was the main suspect in her husband’s murder. There are three significant reasons for Mrs. Wright’s strange behavior. Mrs. Wright’s relationship, lifestyle, and the patriarchal dominance during that era caused Mrs. Wright to act inappropriately.…
“Trifles” was a very mysterious play. This play was written by Susan Glaspell. It does not explain why the two women helped Mrs. Wright. It does not mention any information about them being friends with her, so why would they help her? Mrs. Wright basically was tired of her husband’s ways and abuse and retaliated by murdering him. He was said to have killed her kitten years ago and in more recent terms, he killed her bird.…
Since the 1900’s, women have struggled with gender roles in society that leaned more in favor of men. Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles, reflects on this struggle by blatantly separating the ideas, opinions and actions of the men and women in the play. As the title Trifles suggests, the men in the play view the two women’s concerns as unimportant and frivolous in comparison to the “real” work the men have to do. Glaspell’s characterization of the sheriff, Henry Peters, the attorney, George Henderson, and the neighboring farmer, Mr. Hale, portrays them as typical men of the time who decide to take charge because, as men, that is their duty and only they know what can be done and how to go about discovering the truth. They only take along Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters to collect some things for Mrs. Wright, never taking a moment to think that from a woman’s perspective, the answer to the murder could be found.…
Trifles, by Susan Glaspell is a well-known play throughout the English community. It is a suspenseful murder mystery that pulls citizens of a town together to try and seek justice after a homicide has occurred. This play begins with the audience learning that John Wright, a humble farmer, has been killed while he was asleep. His wife, Minnie Wright, has a very strange way of handling this grief and becomes the main suspect. During this play five characters, two women and three men, search the Wright home for clues, evidence, and a possible motive for the murder. It ends with the women finding a shocking discovery that they choose to hide from the men.…
Susan Glaspell was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, actress, novelist, and journalist. Glaspell wrote the play Trifles which tells the story two investigations being conducted over murder of John Wright. While the male characters of the play conduct an “official” investigation the female characters find themselves inadvertently conducting their own “unofficial” investigation. However this is not a run-of-the-mill murder mystery play, in which the focus lies solely on discovering the culprit and the culprit’s motive. Glaspell uses her story to also present a unique perspective of a controversial issue during her time, including the theme of female identity, primarily between women. During the time period in which Glaspell lived, the idea of fighting for women’s…
Throughout the play “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters visit the Wright home after the murder of Mr. Wright to help look for evidence. They come across an empty bird cage and notice that Mrs. Wright once owned a song bird. The women then observe the cage and realize the door has been broken partially off of the hinge. Mrs. Hale assumes that someone was “rough with it” and suggests this to be the motive of the crime that took place. When the two women discover the dead canary wrapped up in a piece of fine silk in Mrs. Wrights sewing box, they piece these clues together and discover the reason why Mrs. Wright committed this cruel act.…
The scene of Susan Glaspell’s play “Trifles” is set in a gloomy, unkempt, and now abandoned farm house. The town sheriff, the county attorney, and Mr. Hale along with the sheriff’s wife and Mrs. Hale, a neighbor, enter through the kitchen. The men are there to investigate the death of the owner, Mr. Wright. The women have come along to gather some things to take to Mrs. Wright who is in jail for the murder of her husband. Susan Glaspell ties the use of exposition, conflict, and symbol together to reveal the gloomy and hopeless mood of this play.…
"Trifles" is a play which was written by Susan Glaspell in 1916. The play takes place in the empty farmhouse of Mr. and Mrs. Wright. The county attorney George Henderson, the sheriff Henry Peters and his wife, and Mr. and Mrs. Hale, neighbors of Mr. and Mrs. Wright all go to the farmhouse to investigate the crime scene. Throughout the book Susan Glaspell uses a lot of symbolism. One example was the a dead bird that the women find. Hoping to find a motive for the crime the men go upstairs to the bedroom where Mr. Wright was murdered. While the women stay downstairs and look around the kitchen. The women come across a bird which symbolizes Mrs. Wright. The bird becomes the motive for Mrs. Wright to kill Mr. Wright.…
First, you can see the meaning of the word “trifles” and the reasons behind why it is an appropriate title. You can first start to figure out the word’s meaning shortly after the play begins. Mrs. Peters tells the men that Mrs. Wright is worried about her fruit jars breaking during the cold winter night. Mr. Peters, who is the sheriff, responses with, “Well, you can beat the woman! Held for murder and worryin’ about her preserves” (1369). Mr. Hale states, “ Well, women are used to worrying over trifles” (1369). Mr. Hale and Mr. Peters refer to Mrs. Wright worrying about the fruit preserves as something of little importance compared to being held for murder. The County Attorney, George Henderson, judges Mrs. Wright of being a poor housekeeper when he tells everyone else, “Not much of a housekeeper, would you say ladies?” (1369). He is criticizing Mrs. Wright instead of thinking about how this small detail can help solve the investigation. The kitchen is considered to be a woman’s domain, so the men look everywhere else but there and the living room. The wives notice the quilt; Mrs. Hales mentions to Mrs. Peters,” …look at this sewing! All the rest of it has been so nice and even, And look at this! It’s all over the place! Why, it looks as if she didn’t know what she was about” (1371). The women worry over the small things around the house; the women are able to figure out the motive of why Mrs. Wright killed her husband, because of all the small, simple details they discovered. Trifles…
In Susan Glaspell's play "Trifles" there is a lot of symbolism of the bird in reference to Minnie Foster. The bird symbolizes many things, the representation of the life that she once had, Minnie's non-existent children, and her transformation from being John's pet to being free. Living in a quiet farm house with no children, Minnie acquires a bird and treats it as her own child. When her husband supposedly wrings the bird's neck, Minnie returns the action to her husband, John Wright.…
The play “Trifles” written by Susan Glaspell is based in the early 1900’s when it was typical for the masculine gender role to dominate the feminine role. The theme is of the play is power and domination over females during this time era. Upon analyzing this play, Mr. Hale and Mr. Peter’s are investigating the murder and they portray themselves as strong and determined, but in reality they are not as alert as the women are. In conclusion, the women figured out that Mrs. Wright murdered her husband by simply observing the house and finding the dead bird; the men were upstairs at the scene of the crime and could not figure it out. Men to this day still do not understand that sometimes the woman’s way of thinking is better!…
In the play, “Trifles,” Susan Glaspell demonstrates the inequality that occurs between men and women during the 20th century. From the opening scene, the two women are not given much attention unlike the men, until they are separated from them and become the main characters. Although the women are seen as inferior to men, they prove that they are much more capable as they are the ones who solve the case by thinking outside the box. They find the real motive behind Mrs. Wright’s action and are able to understand her doing because of the way women were treated back then. Even though both women decide to defend Mrs. Wright by hiding the evidence, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters sympathize with her, but for different reasons.…
The forward action of the play Trifles begins when the men go upstairs to investigate the room and the woman are left downstairs alone, because as they begin to share experiences compared to those of Mrs. Wright they begin to form a bond. When the women find an empty bird cage and eventually a dead canary the without any expression decide to hide the murder.…
Women have been treated as lessors to men in the past, feminine equality is a new concept that has only been around for about a century. In both plays “Trifles” and “A Doll’s House” they address stereotypes of women during these time periods. “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell explores the mysterious death of Mr. Wright (Mrs. Wrights husband). As the play progresses the audience gets insight to Mrs. Wright’s life, and how Mr. Wright treated her. Mr. Wright was known to be a brash, and unruly man. The women in this play (Ms. Hale and Mrs. Peters) both know the kind of man Mr. Wright was, The men may have known this too, but the time period the play takes place in, domestic violence toward women was not highly looked into. The text “Portable Literature: Reading, Reacting. Writing” explains that Glaspell’s main force behind the play “Trifles” was to shed light on the treatment of women. The text states that “Women…
Susan Glaspell’s Trifles is a play about a murder mystery that is loosely based on an actual murder case that the author covered while working as a reporter for the Des Moines Daily News (Ben-Zvi 143). Since the play is written in 1916, a time when the boundaries between the private and public spheres are beginning to break down, it strongly reflects on the culture-bound notions of sex roles and gender. Back then, women are thought to be concerned about insignificant issues that hold little to no importance to the true work of society, also known as trifles, just as the title of the play suggests. In 2008, Ghost Ranch Productions, with director Pamela Walker, who plays Mrs. Wright herself, produces Trifles, a film adaptation of Glaspell’s famous play. Through the creative use of literary elements and some small alterations to the plot, dialogue, and setting, Walker effectively demonstrates the play’s major theme of gender differences in the film.…