Analysis of the Play Trifles by Susan Glaspell - Research Paper Example

Trifles In any human society, the gender roles are well-defined and the members of the society are expected to lead their lives in accordance to those roles. Since ages, women are regarded as the homemakers whose sole duty is to look after the household works and men are responsible for earning the livelihood for the family. This assignment of roles led to the development of an attitude in men that women’s duties can be performed with ease and do not require special skills. Men stereotypically think that women may not have the abilities to correctly judge the things that are important and which are inconsequential. So they ignore the suggestions of women while dealing important issues. It is this thinking of men that is depicted in the play Trifles by Susan Glaspell through the element of symbolism. In the play, the women succeed in finding the evidence or props which reveal the murderer of Mr. Wright while the men overlook this evidence as ‘trifles’. Along with the plot and characters, props aid in conveying the message of the play to the audiences. Trifles is one such play which effectively utilizes props to put across the message of the story. As the story revolves around the murder of one of the characters, Mr. Wright in mysterious circumstances, the props utilized in the play are crucial for figuring out the motive of the murder. In this paper we will analyze how props work as symbolic elements in the play enhancing the action and convey the message of the story. Background Trifles is a one act play first performed in 1916 at Massachusetts. Trifles was made into a short story “A Jury of Her Peers” one year after it was staged. It is based on a real life murder trial case of a farmer’s wife, Margret Hossack that took place in a small town Iowa, where Glaspell as a young journalist covered this incident for Des Moines News. This play was written in the second decade of the 20th century, the period during which women were considered or stereotyped as ‘trivial’ by men, who always felt that women pay more attention to matters that were little or of no importance. This play is about the mysterious murder of a Farmer named John Wright, who is gruesomely strangled to death in his bed room with a rope around his neck and his wife Mrs. Wright is taken into custody as the prime suspect in the crime. This plot is investigated by a young man George Henderson, the county attorney and the sheriff Mr. Henry Peters. As they leave the kitchen they ask the two ladies Mrs. Peter’s and Mrs. Hale to carefully examine the room for clues while collecting Mrs. Wright’s clothes that had to be handed over to her in the prison. The women slowly start seeing many things like the dirty table; unfinished quilt, etc., which subtly reveal the unhappy lonely life Mrs. Wright was leading. When Mrs. Peters notices the cold preserves, Sheriff ridicules the women for worrying about the preserves. “Well, can you beat the women! Held for murder and worryin' about her preserves”. (Glaspell 38). Hale also adds that women are concerned about trifle things, “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles.” (Glaspell 38). Mrs. Peter’s and Mrs. Hale are annoyed by these comments and feel sorry for Mrs. Wright. Importantly, they imply how it is crucial evidence against Mrs. Wright, thus leading them to find out many more evidences or props likes this. Props as Symbolism When the character of Mr. Wright was killed by his own wife, Mrs. Wright, few men from the police and legal side converge on the Mr. Wright's house to find evidences of motive and the actual murder. That is, apart from the personal confession by Mrs. Wright, the male officers have no other materials to back up the case. So, when they search and observe the house they were not able to find any clues. But a group of women consisting of neighbors of Mrs. Wright finds many evidences to corner on Mrs. Wright and find the motive. The props are the clues which reveal Mrs. Wright’s motive for murdering her own husband. The first prop that catches the attention of the women is the jar of fruits; Mrs. Wright’s preserves. One of the women, Mrs. Peters finds it very unusual that Mrs. Wright has left her fruits cold. “Oh, her fruit; it did freeze. She worried about that when it turned so cold. She said the fire'd go out and her jars would break.” (Glaspell 38). This prop shows that Mrs. Wright was preoccupied with some other thoughts which made her to neglect her preserves. The next prop which aids the women in understating Mrs. Wright’s state of mind is the quilt which Mrs. Wright was sewing. One of Mrs. Wright’s neighbors, Mrs. Hale tries to predict whether Mrs. Wright was going to quilt or knot it. “Pretty, isn't it? I wonder if she was goin' to quilt or just knot it? (Glaspell 41). When she examines the quilt carefully, she finds something strange in the pattern of sewing. “Mrs. Peters, look at this one. Here, this is the one she was working on, and look at the sewing! All the rest of it has been so nice and even. And look at this! It's all over the place! Why, it looks as if she didn't know what she was about!” (Glaspell 41). The women realize that Mrs. Wright was very nervous and that was the reason for her messy sewing. The suspicion of the women is further intensified when they see an empty birdcage in the cupboard. When Mrs. Peter asks Mrs. Hale whether Mrs. Wright had a bird, Mrs. Hale replies she had no knowledge about it. But Mrs. Peter exclaims that is was amusing to find a bird cage in Mrs. Wright’s house. “Seems funny to think of a bird here. But she must have had one, or why should she have a cage?. I wonder what happened to it?” (Glaspell 42). The empty cage makes Mrs. Hale think that Mrs. Wright had a bird but was killed by her cat. But when Mrs. Peters replies that Mrs. Wright had no cat, the audiences are provided with one more inkling that points towards Mrs. Wright as the culprit. The hinge of the cupboard door is also broken which shows that someone has handled it roughly. The final prop which solves the mystery is the dead bird in the box. When Mrs. Hale searches for scissors in Mrs. Wright’s sewing box, so that she can take the quilt to Mrs. Wright to keep her occupied in the prison, she finds a fancy box. In the box, there is a dead bird wrapped in a piece of cloth. When the women see that the bird’s neck was twisted by someone, they figure out who had killed the bird and Mr. Wright. And when the County Attorney inquires Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters whether Mrs. Wright was going to quilt or knot the quilt, Mrs. Hale replies “We think she was going to--knot it.” (Glaspell 43). The knot stands for the knot of the rope which was utilized for killing Mr. Wright. Although the props in the play may seem like trifle things, they help to understand the plot of the story. The motive for Mr. Wright’s murder is revealed through these props. The jar of the fruits and the quilt prove that Mrs. Wright was nervous about something. The empty birdcage and the dead bird resolve the conundrum of Mr. Wright’s death. The women grasp that Mr. Wright had killed the bird which provided comfort to lonely Mrs. Wright and in retaliation, Mrs. Wright had strangulated Mr. Wright with the rope. “Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters encounter the "trifles" in Minnie's kitchen one by one and hide the most important one, the bird with the wrung neck, they decide about the case and. moreover, about Minnie's future.” (Keller 14) Thus, the props in the play enhance the action of the play and aid in sending a message to the audiences. The motive behind Mr. Wright’s murder and the real killer is exposed through these props. Although the men mock the women for worrying about trifle things, these are the trifles which lead to the real murderer. The props are an essential part of the plot and without them the author would find it difficult to present Mrs. Wright as the killer of her husband. Conclusion Throughout the play, the men underestimate the findings of the women and never look at them as clues which point towards the murderer. “The men consider themselves superior and their task infinitely more important than any of the Trifles that concern the women” (Ozieblo 69). The views of men about the women prove the fact that they considered women as useless beings who were bothered by trifle matters. The finding of the evidence by the women in the play is symbolic of their expediency. The men think that women are inept in solving the mystery of Mr. Wright’s murder but they are proven wrong by the women. The women not only locate the real murderer but they also hide their discovery from the men. Thus, more than a murder mystery, Trifles portrays the cultural status of women. Even though the women were looked down and criticized by the male characters it is they who succeeded in solving the murder mystery through insignificant elements and became significant to the audience. Works Cited Glaspell, Susan. Trifles. Cambridge University Press, 1987. Keller, Mathias. Symbolic Realism in Susan Glaspell’s 'Trifles'. GRIN Verlag, 2007 Oakley, Ann. Essays on Women, Medicine and Health. Edinburgh University Press, 1993. Read More