Essay Example on Trifle: A Play Divided by Gender, Investigating a Murder

"Trifle" is a play by Susan Glaspell, presenting a diverse view of a society dominated by males. In the play, Susan presents a critical view of the society using a murder scene of John, where Mrs. Wright, her wife, is the main suspect since she is the only person that lived with John. The murder case is then investigated to determine if the woman is guilty of the act. This investigation is further divided into two, with men on one team and women on the other side. In Susan's team, the investigation by the two teams presents a critical view on modern society, bringing the play forth as a feminist work. The author's play establishes significant themes in its opening instants that build in the latter aspect of the work. It further examines the relationship between wives and husbands, specifically a marriage that ended in a murder. The central aspect and topic that the play covers relate to how women stand together to show how they have been pushed by the society dominated by males, while at the same time showing their loyalty to each other over their husbands. A literary analysis to Susan's "Trifles" s justifies that it is a feminist work, seeking to engage a feminist objective through the plot and the involved characters.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

From the play, John does not support her wife, Mrs. Wright, being outside the world and therefore makes sure that she in the house all through. Mrs. Wright only has the opportunity to leave the house only once every year, a fact that is still a problem for John. Susan presents that not only did John discredit her wife going outside but also having a phone and talking to people outside their house. As such, Mrs. Wright has the perception that her role only revolves around cooking, kneading, and sleeping with John (Puspitarini, 74). Moreover, she was also used to only being in the kitchen and only worrying about serving John. Susan portrays Minnie Wright as a fascinating character since, even though it is never seen, she yet steers and influences the play more than the rest of the characters. It is, therefore, essential to note that at this particular point, the author's work is significantly feminist, advocating against the concept of a traditional housewife. Furthermore, as Huber (28) presents, in this regard, Mrs. Wright, as a character, plays a critical role as she serves as a source that makes the play take a different turn.

In addition, as a significant theme in the play, social oppression is evident with a representation of strict gender roles, where men occupy a work sphere while women solely exist as housewives. Despite the fact that the male-dominated society locks women into lonely lives, leaving them dependent on their husbands, they also fail to recognize that they play a massive role in oppressing their counterpart women (Sherine, 101). Furthermore, men also belittle women through aspects such as mocking their characters, their integrity as well as shadowing. Besides, the fact that men laugh at women mainly because of their emphasis on trifles, including the housekeeping chores as well as comfort even though some are things that men allow women to possess. This indicates that not only do men oppress women but also blame them for enjoying the only things that they were allowed to have amidst the oppression.

Ideally, while the women in the play search the house, they only find objects that provide more in-depth insight into Minnie's personality and understand the reason why Mrs. Wright killed her husband. As a result, we witness her character driving the rest of the characters through the story. Moreover, the women take time and rethink Mrs. Wright's situation, without overlooking any details. On the other hand, men as investigators are portrait to ignore the truth, meaning that they tend to ignore women's world and therefore fail to connect psychologically. In fact, as Huber (32) notes, the men in the play refer to women as triffles, to mean that they do not have much importance. The investigative situation, therefore, shows differences of perspective and knowledge between the two teams. Furthermore, trifles adequately represent the attitudes that men had during the 1900s, where they expected hospitality from women, thinking that no matter what women went through, it was their role to take care of men.

When the investigators found the dead canary in Mrs. Wright's belongings, a fact that plays a huge role in analyzing her persona and character. More importantly, the dead bird serves as a development of her character, which has an immediate effect on all the decisions that Susan portrays women taking in the play. As such, it can, therefore, be asserted that while her character is explored thought the investigation, it continues to develop significantly (Hernando-Real, 15). Further, the termination of the plot is also influenced by an act that owes its origin to Mrs. Wright's character. In this aspect, the fact that Susan speaks out against the increasing prevalence of the society dominated by men shows that the play is specifically feminist-based.

Minnie Wright, along with the rest of the female characters in the play, symbolizes the manner in which Susan highlights the need for realizing the role of women in the society. For instance, as Hernando-Real (17) points out, the author emphasizes on the need of women sticking together and, in some way, generalize light on the men. She, therefore, give minimal attention to the men, while portraying them as powerful every time she refers to them in the play. Moreover, she tops up her work by showing how the men in the play consider themselves as the sole of all the work, while in the real sense, women are the ones that silently modeled the decisions (Huber, 34). As such, in doing so, Susan succeeds in the need to show the actual courage and power that women possess in society, despite being discredited continuously being dominated by men.

Susan's playwork, 'triffles' further highlights that women need to emphasize on the need to assist each other. For instance, this is shown by the fact that a woman character pocketed the dead canary with the aim of supporting the accused murderer, allowing her to live despite the fact she understood that this was wrong (Puspitarini, 76). Moreover, Mrs. Hale's support towards Minnie also shows the empathy that women have for each other, resulting in ultimate loyalty. For instance, Mrs. Hale understands the difficulty of running a farmhouse as a woman while Mr. Anderson does not. On the same note, while he dismisses women considering them as unimportant, Mr, Handerson still feels the need to judge women's performance. As such, Mrs. Hale sees this injustice a fact that suggests she also experienced the same herself and therefore defends Minnie against the judgment presented by Mr. Handerson (Sherine, 101). This, thus, shows that the experiences unite women that they have in common, along with loyalty to each other, since men do not seem to understand their situation.

Furthermore, the team of women as investigators seem to understand Mrs. Wright's situation as well as the motive, therefore deciding to keep the truth for themselves. As such, this gives the audience of the play away to choose towards pursuing, interpreting, and, more importantly, explaining the truth. Additionally, as (Puspitarini, 78) provides, both the men and women in the play decide to do act differently while investigating the murder case. There is also a representation of how men and women view things differently, the fact that the play shows its occurrence and the reason behind it.

Conclusion

In conclusion, throughout the entire play, Susan Glaspell presents and emphasizes that there is a need to realize the quest for right and wrong. This includes the identification of integrity and respect for women in a society dominated by women. As such, it is, therefore, worth to conclude that Triffle, by Susan Glaspell, is indeed feministic. Thus, it is evident through the engagement in the feminist objectives and, more importantly, through the plot and the characters involved. Furthermore, there is evidence that the 1900s was crucially a man's society with huge ignorance as well as undetermined among women. However, Susan does wonderful work in explaining women's point of view. Furthermore, she sets an example of how women in society were not to be seen just as house workers but are also useful in too many different ways.

Works Cited

Puspitarini, Diana. The Hidden Meanings Seen from The Symbols, Characters, And Settings in Susan Glaspell's Trifles. The Eugene O'Neill Review 38.1-2 (2019): 74-92.

Huber, Daniel. "Some linguistic lines of thinking on Trifles by Susan Glaspell (the play and its film adaptation)." (2017): 28-41

Sherine, Kamal. "The Spousal Abuse of Women in Susan Glaspell's Trifles." Alustath 1.224 (2018): 101-118.

Hernando-Real, Noelia. ""Celebrating Susan Glaspell when Trifles turns 100". Interview with Martha C. Carpentier and Barbara Ozieblo (cofounders of the Susan Glaspell Society)." Miranda. Revue pluridisciplinaire du monde anglophone/Multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal on the English-speaking world 13 (2016): 14-25