Yes, I know its a low score - buts its a B, and I got the highest grade out of anyone in my English class. The average class score was 52/100. So I am pretty darn proud of myself. Anyways, I wanted to share with you my English Final Paper, it is an Analytical Drama Essay on a play called "Trifles" and it is analyzing the theme of feminism. If you don't wanna read it it, I understand, just thought I'd share it with ya! :)
Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles, was written in 1916, and reflects the author’s preoccupation with culture-bound notions of gender and sex roles. As the title of the play, Trifles, suggests, the concerns of women are often considered to be mere trifles, unimportant issues that bear little or no importance to the true work of society. Glaspell questions, and in doing so calls the reader to question the value of men and women’s perspectives and work by setting up a tension-filled drama that unfolds through the development of two distinct narratives, one in the male perspective and one in the females. Glaspell’s play explores the fact that women pay attention to the small details of situations in order to solve something, in this case a murder. In this play, the men seem to believe that the women are only worried about the little things instead of worrying about the big picture, but what they do not seem to realize is the fact that the women are actually solving the murder by worrying about these mere trifles. The title of the play can not be underestimated or just simply forgotten about since there is much symbolism within just the word, “Trifles.” The title represents many of the themes and meanings that are hidden within the play. Basically, the main theme of this dramatic play is that of feminism and the statement Trifles makes through a feminist perspective, being proven through the title of the play, the body language of the characters, the separation between the men and women within the play and many symbols throughout the play.
Susan Glaspell wrote this play at a time when women were beginning to challenge their socially defined roles. Women were realizing that their identities as wives and domestics kept them in a subordinate position in society. Because of the fact that women were demanding more freedom, traditional institutions such as marriage, which confined women to the home and made them mere extensions of their husbands, were beginning to be reexamined. Glaspell chose a married woman as the play’s protagonist, Minnie Wright, who has challenged society’s expectations by murdering her husband. Minnie’s defiant act has occurred before the action begins and as the play unfolds two women, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, piece together the details of the situations surrounding the murder. As the events unfold, however, it becomes clear that the focus of the play is not on who killed John Wright, but rather on the themes of the subordinate role the women portray. Mr. Hale, Sheriff Peters and the County Attorney, the men in the play, are at The Wright’s house to investigate the murder. The women, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, are there to gather some things to take to Mrs. Wright in jail. The play carefully distinguishes between the affairs of men and the concerns of women. The men and women both observe that the house is not being well taken care of, but they see the messiness from a different point of view. The men see it as Minnie being negligent to her household duties as a wife, this is proven by the County Attorney’s comment about Minnie not being much of a housekeeper and complaining about the dirty towels. Mrs. Hale protects Minnie by saying, “There is a great deal of work to be done on a farm.” The men are blinded to this because they do not notice any one else but themselves, and do not notice anyone else’s chores but their own. Mrs. Hale also states that men’s hands are not always as clean as they should be and that is why the towels are possibly dirty. When they find that Minnie is worried about her jars of preserves, the men laugh and state that she should be worried about being tried for murder and not about jars of preserves. However, the women recognize the broken jars of fruit as hours of hard work over a hot stove. The men dismiss these things as insignificant by stating, “Women are used to worrying over trifles.”
The title of this play is a very important concept of the play. “Trifles” has many different meanings that Glaspell has hidden throughout the play. The idea of trifles is portraying the small things that women worry about. There are many examples of the small things that the women in this play notice, that the men don’t – the preserves, the bread that was left unbaked, the quilt and the canary and birdcage. The men in this story are simply worried about the big picture and think it’s ridiculous that the women are spending so much time noticing the small things, when in reality that is what is going to solve the murder case. As the title suggests, these small trifles are exactly what the women need to figure out just who the murderer is and portray the emotional portion of the murder, making it clear to the women and to the readers just why the crime took place. Performing an analysis of Trifles solely on the significance of the title is quite simple. It should be noted how the issues of gender come to the forefront of what the men versus the women recognize as important to the murder case. As stated a few times previously, the women discover and gather evidence accidentally, while the men are busy scoffing at the women for noticing the preserves and the quilt – both things which are extremely symbolic to the play. Mrs. Wright makes a symbolic decision to “knot it” making a reference to the rope around her husbands neck and the quilt symbolizes that she wished to just “stitch” over her problem. The men in the story refer to these trifles because they don’t believe that the women can solve a murder case, for one, especially not with finding small clues and evidence. However, this is not only to portray and criticize the way that the women are handling the situation, but it is to also show how men can be blinded by arrogance when they believe that women have nothing to offer.
Body language is presented throughout the play, and is a very revealing dramatic element and literary device in the story by Susan Glaspell. It not only offers stage directions to the actors staging it, but also because it cues the reader of the play to the important theme in Trifles, which is gender and association. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are the wives of two very respected men in the town, and when they begin to search through the home where the murder took place they become very close with one another. For example, while they are all in the kitchen and the men comment on how horrible the housekeeping is, the women begin to move closer together. Also, when the County Attorney makes the statement about how “women are used to worrying about trifles” the stage directions stated that the women “move a little closer together” which is showing that there is beginning to be a separation between the men and women and there is a divided loyalty. Even though the two women are the wives of these well respected and known men, they begin to develop almost a sisterhood among themselves and begin to go against the cold and condescending tones of their husbands. Ultimately, this dividedness is what leads them to ultimate decision to protect Mrs. Wright.
The Trifles that the women have discovered eventually prove that Mrs. Wright killed her husband. The men were worried about finding concrete evidence that would easily convince an all-male jury, but they never could because they did not notice the small things that their wives found. The men never read into the small details like the women and they acted as if the women were crazy for noticing all of the trifles; therefore the women never informed the men of the discoveries. The women also sympathized with the accused woman and respected her work as a homemaker and wife. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters felt sorry for Mrs. Wright because they knew that her husband was emotionally abusive towards her, and because of this it helped them not to pay attention to the fact that she actually did murder her husband. The major contrast between the male and female counterparts demonstrates the feminist theme because the women have the power to set Mrs. Wright free or condemn her due to the things that they discovered while in her kitchen. The kitchen represents a symbolic role in the theme of feminism because it no longer reflects a woman’s role as a house wife, but as a place where women have secrets that provide ultimate empowerment.
The play’s feminist theme can also be gleamed from comparing Mrs. Wright to the dead canary. The canary is a symbol of her confinement; it was caged just as Mrs. Wright was trapped in an abusive relationship with her husband. Mrs. Hale describes her as “kind of a bird herself – real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and – fluttery.” Before Mrs. Wright’s marriage to John Wright she was extremely beautiful and happy and always sang on a regular basis. While in the kitchen, Mrs. Hale tells Mrs. Peters, “I wish you’d have seen Minnie Foster when she wore a white dress with blue ribbons and stood up there in the choir and sang.” However, after she married Mr. Wright her personality completely changed. He did not like singing and kept Mrs. Wright from showing her true personality and individuality; he strangled the life out of his wife just as he did to the canary. Mrs. Wright spent almost thirty years living with her cruel husband as her only sense of companionship, besides the canary who was her only sense of her true self. When John killed the canary it was Mrs. Wright’s breaking point, this was a big mistake done by Mr. Wright. The broken birdcage represents the symbolism of Minnie’s freedom from the restrictive role of abused housewife. Once she became free, she takes revenge against John for all of the years of abuse and oppression. She strangles the life out of John just as he had done to her spirit and to her canary. The bird and birdcage is also a great metaphor to show feminism in society in general, not just in the play. The metaphor represents the role women are forced into in society. The bird symbolizes the women and the cage is the male dominated society. By killing her husband, Minnie redeems a bit of her life and dignity.
The quilt in the story also portrays feminist themes. The quilt can definitely be seen as representing Minnie’s life. She has taken the scraps and sewn them into a nice and beautiful quilt. However, the block she was working on “was all over the place.” After the death of her beloved pet, Minnie was most likely angry and confused; the stitches represented her state of mind at the time. The question that was asked about the quilt was whether Minnie was going to “quilt it or knot it.” This represents the decision that Minnie had to make about her future. She could either quilt it, meaning that she could continue to endure the isolation and abuse given by her companion, or she could knot it and accept that her life was miserable and do something to change it. In the end, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale begin to realize just what Minnie had gone through during her marriage to John Wright and make the decision to stick up for her. Mrs. Hale sums up the women’s feelings when she replies to the County Attorney’s question by saying, “we call it – knot it, Mr. Henderson.” Minnie decided to take control of her life; the path that had been journeying was “not it.”
The feminist agenda of Trifles was never meant to be subtle. Glaspell uses the contrast between the men and women and the symbols of Minnie’s life to demonstrate the oppression of women in a society dominated chiefly by males. The author makes evident that before anything, we are human and directly following, we are either man or woman. The play is a call for women to use their subordinate role as a tool to manipulate the system and a warning to men that male domination cannot and will not be tolerated forever. Why should our sexuality limit us? To conclude this analytical essay on Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles, The women are forced to make a moral decision in the end. Using what they have learned and in conjunction with the cold behavior of their husbands and, also importantly, their own experiences as women who have faced tragedy. For these women, the law is something dedicated to men and using female knowledge gleaned from trifles such as an ill-sewn quilt and dead bird, the women are able to be the judge and jury and create their own law in true feminist fashion.
Hope you enjoyed :)
