Susan Glaspell was a playwright who told stories about real women. Glaspell portrayed women in a real way showing their emotions and their struggles. This was an era when men often portrayed women’s characters as stereotypes. Glaspell was brought up in middle class society. Many of her earlier works were based on her upbringing in her hometown of Davenport, Iowa. As Glaspell became older she became more aware of the world around her and of the inequalities that women were suffering from at the time. Glaspell wrote many plays throughout her life and eleven of them were featured in the Provincetown Players. Among the many plays that Glaspell wrote “Trifles” was one of the plays that gained the most recognition.
This particular play opens up in an abandoned kitchen in the home of John and Minnie Wright. There in the house stands Henry Peters (the sheriff), Mrs. Peters (his wife), George Henderson (County Attorney), Lewis Hale (County Attorney), and Mrs. Hale (his wife). They are investigating the murder of John Wright. Lewis Hale tells the sheriff and the county attorney what he saw when he came to the home the night before. Mrs. Wright was sitting in her rocking chair as calm as ever when Mr. Hale came to visit. He had intended on asking her husband about getting a phone. In those times it was possible to get a group line where they could all talk to one another. As he searched the house he found Mr. Wright dead, he had been strangled by a rope around his neck.
While the men search the home the following day the women were left to look around the downstairs alone, the men told them they could take some of Mrs. Wright’s things to the jailhouse. They all noticed how untidy the home was, but the men were more critical. As the men criticized the home over and over you could feel the women becoming defensive. As the story progressed the women began to take on a more sympathetic role for Mrs. Wright. They began searching through the downstairs and found her quilt. It was beautiful, but the last few stitches were done very poorly as if she was nervous. Instead of turning this over to their husbands as evidence, they decided to undo the stitching. They also found an empty birdcage, and when they began searching found the dead bird in a box. When they took a good look at the bird, they realized that the bird’s neck had been broken. The women began putting the pieces together. Mrs. Wright’s husband had not been the nicest man. As a young girl Minnie was lively and loved to sing, but after marrying Mr. Wright her light had fizzled out. The women began feeling sorry for her, and decided to hide the evidence. The men searched the house over and over looking for some kind of evidence or motive, but they could not find any. The women came to realize that Mrs. Wright did kill her husband and in the end they protected her.
Glaspell was much like many famous writers of her time like Kate Chopin. She explored the lives of women, and portrayed them as real people. She looked at the differences between the roles of men and women. Both the women obviously knew the law, but they had so much empathy for Mrs. Wright they hid everything. They felt she has suffered enough and did not feel she should be punished any further.
No comments:
Post a Comment