Trifles
In Susan Glaspell's play Trifles (1163), she tells a story of mystery and intrigue, surrounding an apparent murder. The setting is in the early twentieth century and it appears to be cold, maybe late fall or the dead of winter. Either way the mood is chilling; cold like the death that has set the tone of the play. Although a death or a murder had taken place, Glaspell was not trying to make it the main theme. The main point she was leading to was the plight that so many women faced during this time in history. Glaspell illustrates how in the early twentieth century women were second class and some time were treated as such even by the men they were married to.
Women in the early to mid twentieth century were mainly relegated to the house. The upkeep of the house and maintenance of their husbands was or the most part their only job. Their job was thankless and that sometimes-bordered on slavery. Mrs. Wright was lively and happy before her marriage. The two female characters in the play even talk about the beauty of her voice before marriage, and how she used to sing in the church choir. Over the years her husband Mr. Wright seemed to break her down and transformed her into somebody to meet his own needs. The only thing that seemed to make her happy was a bird, a sweet singing canary that may have turned out to be a breaking point in Mrs. Wright. When Mrs. Wright found the bird dead, she snapped and killed her husband. Mrs. Wright found a way to free herself from the prison that Mr. Wright had kept her in, through murder she escaped.
Mrs. Wright was not the only one Glaspell was trying to make a point for the suffrage that women endured in the early twentieth century. She cleverly makes her point through the other two female characters in the play, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale. In the beginning of the play the men make comments on the cleanliness of the house, Court Attorney:
not much of a housekeeper, would you say,...
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