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Ashley Snarr
Brother Williams
English 335
3 July 2014
A Battle of the Sexes
Men need to feel important, have a sense of purpose, and know they are the protectors of
women; but this does not mean men have power and control over women. When studying Susan
Glaspell’s play, Trifles, critics explain that there is a difference in men and women, and what is
morally right and just is brought into question through the characterization of the men and
women in the play.
Glaspell’s Trifles is based on a trial of Mrs. Hossack, who murdered her husband with an
ax while he slept. This trial shook Glaspell. It made her question the relationship of men and
women and what it is that can make a person do the things they do. Glaspell then relates this new
question when she shows, in her play, the first difference of men and women. Mr. Hale is
explaining that the reason he comes over is to see if Mr. Wright would buy a telephone, he states
“I thought maybe if I went to the house and talked about it before his wife, though I said to Harry
that I didn’t know as what his wife wanted made much difference to John” (Glaspell 744). Even
from the beginning of the story, Glaspell is showing that Mrs. Wright’s opinions are not valued.
John Wright is not justified in how he treats his wife, but to the men it does not really seem to
matter; it made no difference. This is what Glaspell is questioning. What makes a man think it is
just to have complete control over the woman? Glaspell goes on in her play to characterize the
difference of men and women as Mrs. Wright is described as looking “scared” after asking what
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her husband wants (Glaspell 745). At this moment, one does not have a strong basis to go on, but
it can be believed that Glaspell wants the reader to assume that Mrs. Wright is scared because of
Mr. Wright. In the Hossack trial, the court argued that the family life of the Hossacks should not
be introduced since “harmony had been established for over a year” (Ben-Zvi). Describing Mrs.
Wright as being scared and highlighting Mr. Wright’s lack of concern for Mrs. Wright’s
opinions, shows the struggle of the home life that were not shown in the original trial. Glaspell
believes this to be necessary. Kristine Hinz-Bode explains that Glaspell’s characterization of
men “often play a vital part in the writer’s ongoing argument of cultural determination versus
personal freedom” (qt. in Disclosing Intertextualities). Mrs. Wright and Mrs. Hossack do not
have personal freedom in their home, and Glaspell shows this with the emphasis on their scared
nature.
Another difference showcased of how women and men view things, is when Mrs. Hale
and Mrs. Peters describe the Wright home in the way that “it never seemed very cheerful”
(Glaspell 746). The women know it is because of the way Mr. Wright treats Mrs. Wright, but the
men blame the home for not being cheerful on Mrs. Wright. For example, the County Attorney
blatantly states, “No, it’s not cheerful. I shouldn’t say she had the homemaking skill” (Glaspell
746). The men see Mrs. Wright needing to be the perfect homemaker; the kind where her house
is always clean with dinner on the table. They believe it to be her fault that the house is not
cheerful, not the fault of the husband who never lets her have an opinion or be herself. Here the
difference of how a man thinks versus how a woman thinks is very apparent, because the women
know why the home is not cheerful. Mrs. Wright was being oppressed, but in the mind of the
men, they cannot see any other possible reason other than Mrs. Wright is an awful housekeeper.
In Suzy Clarkson Holstein’s critical article, “Silent Justice in a Different Key: Glaspell’s
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Trifles,” she explains that, “ an exploration of the play reveals a fundamental difference between
the women’s actions and the men’s, a difference grounded in varying understandings of the
home space.” For the men of the play, the character of a woman is to stay quiet and do her duty
as the proper house wife. They believe she is happy to clean and bend to the will of her husband.
For women, they need to be heard and loved; a woman is not merely there to do housework.
As the play goes on, the characterization of the men and women continue to offer the
audience reason to question the difference in men and women and how this is just by showcasing
the trifles of the Mrs. Wright. Mrs. Peters simply states how Mrs. Wright was afraid of her fruit
freezing, and in retort the Sheriff exclaims, “Well can you beat the women! Held for murder and
worryin’ about her preserves” (Glaspell 745). Here a significant difference in men and women is
shown for the simple reason that the women do not think of beating Mrs. Wright for worrying
about her jars. The sheriff stating this connotes a problem because it indicates the little respect he
has for a woman and how silly he sees them. Also the word “beat” brings a harsh connotation
and a hard view of the sheriff, as the women are seen as soft for their worry of Mrs. Wright’s jars
freezing. There is more to the silly trifles though; it is with those trifles that the reason for
murder is known. Hinz-Bode explains that, “the three men who arrogantly discard the women’s
world of ‘kitchen things’ as a world of trifles, remain unsuccessful in their own officious search
for clues” (55), again showing the difference of the views of men and women. To the Sheriff, he
is okay with beating her for being a woman and worrying over little trifles that will actually help
him with his case; but for the women, they find these trifles as the answers to everything. In
Schoenberg’s criticism of Glaspell, he explains that the play’s title “undermines the notion that
women’s skills are better suited to trivial or mundane tasks.” The Sheriff of the play sees the
women being silly for worrying over something so trivial but it is that very thing that could be
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the only joy Mrs. Wright can feel; those trifles are the very things that will help the men finally
understand Mrs. Wright and the case.
The men then separate from the women to go find clues as to why Mrs. Wright would kill
her husband. The women have the womanly task of grabbing a few things for Mrs. Wright . In
Karen Akayla-Gut’s criticism of Trifles, “ she explains how “the men search for clues in the
barn, in the bedroom, in the higher spheres…and the world outside the farmhouse, and they
allow the women in the kitchen no relevance” (Susan Glaspell: Essays on her Theater and
Fiction). The men are given the higher places where they assume that they will find the answers,
and they are best suited. Mean-while the women are paid no attention to, because once again,
they are only there for the trivial task of grabbing things for Mrs. Wright. With the criticism by
Akayla-Gut, it can be seen that the men are being put above the women. The higher spheres
connote that women are lower than men; or in other words, not as good as the men. Akayla-Gut
then goes on to explain that, “it is precisely their unwillingness to perceive the potential
relevance of the kitchen, the world and pattern of women, that excludes the men from
understanding what has happened” (72). The women are able to see the events that lead Mrs.
Wright to go crazy and her motive for murder, but the men cannot see this. They cannot
comprehend how such trivial things can be the exact things that tell a story. Akayla-Gut helps to
emphasize the difference of men and women by explaining how men cannot see the simple
things women can, and men need to be in the higher sphere where they believe they belong.
They believe they understand more than the little womanly trifles.
Glaspell is deliberately using the small things only women tend to do as the biggest clues
to the motive of the murder that the men are not willing to see. As the women are looking
around, they start discussing how Mrs. Wright used to be, “she used to wear pretty clothes and be
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lively when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls singing in the choir” (747). Minnie is a
very pretty and cheerful name; she sang and wore pretty dresses which paints a very different
picture than the scared and quiet Mrs. Wright. It is interesting to note the way the women said,
“when she was Minnie Foster” which connotes how Minnie lost her identity and her pretty and
cheerful nature when she married Mr. Wright. Akayla-Gut states:
the significant world for men is elsewhere, but for women it is in the ordering of the
scraps of information around the square of marriage and total dependence of the wife
upon her husband for all physical, emotional, and spiritual fulfillment as well as
validation as a human being (74).
Minnie Foster is no longer Minnie after she marries. Minnie lost her identity because she now
lives for her husband and needs his validation. As Akayla-Guts explains, Minnie has now
become dependent on her husband and needs his love and support, but she is not given that. Mr.
Wright is depriving Minnie of any fulfillment which is what drives Minnie to murder. Glaspell is
clever in showing that both men and women need fulfilment in their lives, but the difference is
that Mr. Wright (the man) does not see Mrs. Wright needing any fulfilment (the woman).
Glaspell goes on to show the difference of men and women and how they can see and
understand things by having Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale continue to look through Minnie’s things.
Here is when the bird-cage is found. Critics claim that this little piece of evidence is what helps
to really understand Mrs. Wright. The cage is damaged and looks as if someone has roughed it
up. At first the bird-cage seems of no importance, but then Mrs. Hale explains that Minnie used
to be like a bird herself, “real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and fluttery” (Glaspell 750).
With women like Minnie who are sweet but timid and fluttery, men see them as an easy person
to take advantage of, and believe that the woman will easily submit to their will. Hinz-Bode
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relates that the division between the genders has led critics to read Trifles as a “statement about
feminine consciousness, the feelings and perceptions associated with a female character’s
identity as a woman” (55). The significance of the bird cage is that Minnie has attached to her
bird, and relates to the bird. Minnie is now invested, so when Mr. Wright murders the bird
Minnie associates that with herself and how he has taken her life from her. Minnie is
characterized before her marriage as sweet and fluttery, a lively thing; a bird, and as soon as she
is married, her identity is lost.
Soon after the women find the cage, they find a box where a canary is wrapped in silk.
The poor bird had been strangled, and they start to wonder what happened. Mrs. Peters explains
that when she was younger, a boy took a hatchet to her cat, and she was so angry she could have
hurt him. Glaspell uses this characterization of Mrs. Peter’s, to show that women are capable of
anger and hurt too. Knowing this, one can start to assume why Mrs. Wright had killed her
husband. The curiosity of why he was murdered by being strangled versus being shot with the
gun in the shed is resolved. The reader understands that Minnie is asserting her anguish and
power over her husband. Hinz-Bode explains that today Trifles is seen “as propagating the
essentialist feminist view of a female human nature in need of empowerment” (56). Minnie
needed to feel empowered again after everything. The women compare the bird to Mrs. Wright
and how Mr. Wright had strangled and choked the life out of her, “No, Wright wouldn’t like the
bird-a thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that too” ( Glaspell 751). Mrs. Wright killed
Mr. Wright as a way of feeling empowered after he has killed everything inside her. Mr. Wright
does not want his quiet and stillness to be broken, and so he takes that away just like he takes
away Minnie’s spirit and voice. He choked the life and voice out of the bird just as he had with
his wife; so in response, she choked his life and voice out of him.
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One thing that is seen as interesting about the play is that the two women decide to keep
the reason of Mrs. Wright’s murder to themselves. Akayla-Gut wants to know, “when even a
Sheriff’s wife is willing to become an accessory after the fact to a murder because she seems to
agree to its inevitability, it is necessary to ask some basic questions” (71). Some of the basic
questions asked are: what is it that the women have in common that they build a bond with, and
what do generations afterward have in common with these women that make this decision seem
as inescapable? The three women have each felt oppressed at one point by their husbands or their
situations, “I know how things can be-for women. We live close together and we live far apart.
We all go through the same things-it’s all just a different kind of same thing” (Glaspell 751). The
reason the women are able to understand Mrs. Wright is because they feel the suppression too.
They go through similar things, but they never let on or tell anyone, which is not right. The
reason generations afterward can relate is because each of us as human beings have the
opportunity to be oppressed/abused or to oppress someone. The suppression of a woman still
happens in society today. Ben-Zvi explains that while Glaspell covered Margaret Hossacks case,
the case Trifles was based on, “she discovered the inconsistency of the legal system that
excluded women from judicial decisions but judged them nevertheless” (71). This can be seen in
Glaspell’s play where the men sent Mrs. Wright off to jail and decided she was guilty before all
of the evidence. Yes, they try to find a reason, but their main focus is not to understand but to
condemn. They do not care so much as to why she did it but how. Hossack had reason for her
murdering her husband, but the court never really want to hear her. All they want is the
opportunity to condemn her. Ben-Zvi explains “Glaspell’s need to change the ending of the trial,
to empower women and rectify an apparent unjust situation, is both a criticism of the legal
system and an indictment of the social and romantic conventions of society” (71). Glaspell
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changes the ending of her story to give the women a voice and be empowered for once. Unlike
with Hossack’s case, this is her opportunity to thwart the justice system and show the world that
the ways of society are not correct.
In Martha Carpentier and Barbara Ozieblo’s book, “Disclosing Intertextualities: The
Stories, Plays, and Novels of Susan Glaspell” they explain, “It is the tension between shadow
self and pure self that informs the majority of Glaspell’s works, and it is clear in her readings of
the struggle for the survival of the fittest, the pure self must intuitively act for freedom if
meaning is to be invested in human experience” (32). Minnie Foster is her pure self when she is
Minnie, but as soon as she is married she became a shadow version of herself. She became the
shadow version when she let her life become consumed with her husband and her fear. Mr.
Wright is asserting his power over her, and she has to find her pure self in order to be truly free.
In order to do what she believes, she has to murder him. It is survival of the fittest at its finest.
Glaspell uses her play to show not only that women have a right to be heard, but also that women
need to be their true selves in order to be free. Minnie finally became free when she empowered
herself and took her life into her own hands. The other two women became free and empowered
themselves when they kept the little trifles of clues to themselves and stood with Minnie.
Glaspell’s play challenged the ways of men and women. She states after being questioned
by a reporter about her play that, “of course I am interested in all progressive movements,
whether feminine, social, or economic, but I can take no active part other than through my
writing” (qt. in Wright). Glaspell’s Trifles definitely shows the difference in men and women and
how each have something to bring to the table, and how one cannot suppress the other. Through
her characters, she is showing how there needs to be a progressive movement with how men and
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women think, the roles they play in their own lives, and what is morally right or just when it
comes to the suppression of a person’s life.
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Works Cited
Ben-Zvi, Linda. Susan Glaspell: Essays on Her Theater and Fiction.Michigan: University of
Michigan Press, 2002. 1-75. Web. 26 June 2014.
Carpentier, Martha C., and Barbara Ozieblo. Disclosing Intertextualities: The Stories, Plays, and
Novels of Susan Glaspell. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1995. 35-201. Web. 28
June 2014.
Glaspell, Susan. Trifles. 8th ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton& Company, 1979. 742-52.
Print.
Hinz-Bode, Kristina., and Akayla-Gut. Susan Glaspell and the Anxiety of Expression. North
Carolina: McFarland and Company, 2006. 1-55. Web. 28 June 2014.
Krstovic, Jelena. “Susan Glaspell (1882-1948): Short Story Criticism.” Literature Criticism
Online. 134 (2010): 1-43.Web. 1 July 2014.
Ozieblo, Barbara. "Suppression and Society in Susan Glaspell's Theater." Susan Glaspell: Essays
on her Theater and Fiction 1.5 (1995): 105-22. Web. 28 June 2014.
Schoenberg, Thomas Trudeau J., and Lawrence J. Trudeau. "Susan Glaspell (1876-1948)."
Twentieth Century Literary Criticism 175 (2006): 49-161. Web. 28 June 2014.
Wright, Janet Stobbs. "Law, Justice, and Female Revenge in 'Kerfol,' by Edith Wharton, and
Trifles and 'A Jury of Her Peers,' by Susan Glaspell." Atlantis: Revista de la Asociación
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Española de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos 24.1 (2002): 225-44. ProQuest. Web. 1
July 2014.