Trifles+by+Susan+Glaspell



The Chrysanthemums A Wagner Matinee Albert Maltz

Summary of Trifles

Trifles is a one-act play written by Susan Glaspell in 1917. The play opens in the farmhouse of Mr. and Mrs. Wright. The previous night Mr. John Wright was strangled to death in his bed. The play centers on the investigation surrounding Mr. Wright’s murder in which his wife is being held in jail as a suspect. Sheriff Peters, the County Attorney, as well as Mr. Hale, gather in the Wright house searching for evidence that proves the guilt of Mrs. Wright or suggests another suspect. Accompanying the male characters are two women, Mrs. Peters, the Sheriff’s wife who was an acquaintance of the Wright’s, and Mrs. Hale who knows neither the victim nor the accused.

The scene begins with the Sheriff and Mr. Hale explaining to the County Attorney the events of that very morning when the body of John Wright was found. Meanwhile, the two women stand nearby overhearing and briefly participating in the discussion. The conversation begins with the sheriff telling of his visit to the Wright home earlier that morning. Mr. Hale tells the County Attorney that he went to the Wright house to speak to John about having a party-line installed in both of their homes. Mrs. Wright, he said, was sitting in her chair and acting very withdrawn and strange. When he requested to speak with her husband he said that Mrs. Wright responded very calmly, “…he’s dead”. At this point the sheriff went upstairs to the couple’s bedroom where he found Mr. Wright lying dead in his bed with a rope tied around his neck. According to the Sheriff, Mrs. Wright remained in this detached and abnormal state sewing on items from her sewing basket.

After relaying the events of that morning, as well as making several comments regarding the unkept appearance of the Wright home, the men set out to search for the evidence they had come to retrieve, leaving the women alone in the kitchen. Mrs. Peter's was given the task of gathering a few personal items belonging to Mrs. Wright that would later be delivered to the accused in jail. After retrieving a few articles of clothing belonging to Mrs. Wright the women stand beside the stove and engage in a very telling conversation about the Wright’s lives and relationship. The conversation begins with Mrs. Peters telling Mrs. Hale about Mrs. Wright’s life prior to marrying. She says that Mrs. Wright used to be Minnie Foster, a beautiful, lively, and talented lady who sang in the choir. All that changed when she married John Wright, Mrs. Peters says. Minnie Foster went from lively and pretty to withdrawn and shabby. According to Mrs. Peters, Mr. Wright was a very unpleasant man.

The conversation then turns to the men’s earlier comments regarding the condition and messiness of the house. The women speak of their disapproval of the men’s rude comments and Mrs. Hale says, “You know, it seems kind of sneaking. Locking her up in town and then coming out here and trying to use her own house to turn against her.” At the conclusion of this particular conversation Mrs. Peters goes to hang up her coat when she notices a quilt under a corner table. Just as Mrs. Hale was asking, “I wonder if she was goin’ to stitch it or knot it?” the men make their way back downstairs, and over hearing the comment laugh at its insignificance. At this, the men leave the house and precede to search the barn leaving the women alone in the house again. As the women are discussing their annoyance over the men’s comment they discover something else. The women, while looking at the quilt Mrs. Wright had had been sewing as her husband lay dead in their bed, noticed that the stitching went from “nice and even” to “…all over the place!” At this Mrs. Hale rips out the messy stitches and re-sews the quilt. While Mrs. Hale sews, Mrs. Peters searches for paper and string to package Mrs. Wright’s belongings and finds a birdcage in one of the cupboards. The women aren’t aware of Mrs. Wright ever owning a bird; however, feel that it is strange that she’d have a cage but no bird. After further inspection Mrs. Peters notices that one of the hinges securing the door on the cage is broken, to which Mrs. Hale concludes, “Looks as if someone must have been rough with it.” Later in the conversation Mrs. Hale states that Mrs. Wright was similar to a bird, “-real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and fluttery. How – she – did –change.” Just as the women are discussing this Mrs. Peters, rummaging through Mrs. Wright’s sewing basket, comes across the dead bird wrapped in silk. The women quickly discover that the bird’s neck is “wrung” just as John Wright’s had been. This discovery leads to the end of the play when the women hide the evidence they find that suggests Mrs. Wright’s guilt. The men return to the house and condescendingly ask the women if they had figured out whether or not Mrs. Wright was going to stitch or knot her quilt – still failing to realize the significance of the question.

//Trifles// Analysis

It appears quite obvious that women weren’t shown any respect by the male characters in //Trifles//. Men’s ignorance regarding the capabilities of women was a considerable subject during this period. Many women writers, as well as a few male writers, capitalized on this common issue and wrote about it extensively, making it a considerable element of modernist literature. While many writers wrote more blatant work depicting women as strong challengers of the stereotype during this period, Susan Glaspell took a considerably modest approach to the idea. Not only was Glaspell successful at depicting women as a capable and sufficient sex she bluntly displayed women’s edge over men in the idea that they are more aware of the fine details that men consider trivial or “trifles”. The female characters in “Trifles” weren’t the complete opposite of the stereotypical women during this period. Both women behaved in a rather subservient manner towards their husbands. In this manner the women proved to themselves, rather than their husbands, of their abilities and worth. Because of this, it is obvious that Glaspell wasn’t making a blatant and obvious statement about women but a rather modest one. Glaspell’s modesty makes her an extremely realistic writer concerned with portraying women in a unpretentious manner rather than an overtly dominant one. The women’s subservient manner can be seen consistently throughout “Trifles”. For instance, at the beginning of the play the women become upset and bothered by the men’s comments regarding Mrs. Wright’s failures as a housekeeper. Neither of the women were close friends of Mrs. Wright so there isn’t an obvious explanation for the resentment they felt. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale became offended by the comments because it was something they could relate to. Every married woman during this period was bound by social expectations regarding their responsibilities around the house. They were to keep a clean and organized home, and when they didn’t they were deemed inferior, which is proven by the men’s reaction to the homes appearance. Women were also bound by social expectations regarding their demeanor. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, although annoyed and offended, reacted in a suitable manner, given the stereotypical identity and expectations typical for women during this period. Mrs. Hale gave a weak attempt of defending Mrs. Wright, stating, “There’s a great deal of work to be done on a farm.” However, neither woman fully expressed their annoyance of the situation. To do so would lead to their being judged by the male characters, just as Mrs. Wright was judged because of the appearance of her house. It is issues such as these, real and substantial, that found its home in modernist literature. World War I, the Depression, and Women’s Liberation played a large role during this period. And while most works dedicated to women’s issues focused much on portraying the situation for what it was, Glaspell went a step further when she created “Trifles”. “Trifles”, as a work, honestly depicts the situation, which is key to modernist literature; while at the same time takes a real, yet quite, stance for women.

Biography

Susan Glaspell was born into a conservative, less than middle class, family on July 1, 1876 in Davenport, Iowa. As a young writer much of Glaspell’s work was based on the conservative Midwestern lifestyle she was raised in. Much of her earlier stories and plays shared the common plot of a young woman in search of a husband (Ozieblo). In 1897, Susan Glaspell enrolled in Drake University in Des Moines where she earned her Bachelors degree in English. After graduating from Drake University Glaspell took a job as a journalist for the Des Moines News. While working for the Des Moines News Glaspell grew extremely impatient with the many restrictions on women she had observed while on the job (Reuben). This impatience led to Glaspell enrolling in the University of Chicago to do graduate work in English. Prior to completing her graduate studies Glaspell left the University of Chicago to travel abroad with the intentions of exploring more personal and professional possibilities. Soon after returning to the states Glaspell married George Cram Cook in 1913 (Ozieblo). Glaspell and Cook divided their time between two locations, Provincetown, Massachusetts and Greenwich Village in New York (Reuben). The couple spent half the year in Provincetown and the other half in Greenwich Village due to their involvement and membership in the “Liberal Club”, a group of writers, artists, and intellectual thinkers. It is the “Liberal Club” that led to the creation of Glaspell’s theater company The Provincetown Players. One of the plays Glaspell produced while with the Provincetown Players was “Trifles”, her most popular and anthologized work (Ozieblo).

Glaspell got her inspiration for //Trifles// while she worked for the Des Moines News covering a story about a woman in prison for the murder of her husband. It is in //Trifles// that Glaspell began mastering the one-act-play, as well as, the technique that years later would be known as her trademark: having the character most central to the play never appear on stage ( Ozieblo).

In 1922, Glaspell and Cook sailed to Greece where after two years of travel Cook suddenly died. Less than a year later, upon her return to the United States, Glaspell married Norman Maston, a marriage that lasted only six years. It was after her divorce to Maston that Glaspell threw herself into her quest for social change. The early 1930’s epitomized Glaspell’s dedication to social change. Soon after winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1931 for //Alison’s House// a play based on the life and experience of writer Emily Dickinson, Glaspell joined the radical feminist club Heterodoxy, which consisted of twenty-five female members, one of which was Charlotte Perkins Gilman (Ozieblo). This group focused on gaining economic, sexual, political, and professional freedom for women. Not much later Glaspell became the Midwest Director for the Federal Theatre Project in 1934 (Reuben).

Glaspell died in 1948 at 66 years old. Glaspell is credited with writing thirteen plays, fourteen novels, and 50 short stories, articles, and essays (Ozieblo)

Ozieblo, Barbara. __Susan Glaspell: A Critical Biography__. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. http://academic.shu.edu/glaspell/aboutglaspell.html

Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 8: Susan Glaspell." //PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide//. [|URL:http://web.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap8/glaspell.html]