Kelvin Amadi

Dr. Pace Peggy

English 102
14 April 2014
Feminist Criticism about Womens Oppression
Susan, Glaspell joins the league other female playwrights to make her voice heard about
how women were treated at the turn of the century. Women had a subordinate role in the
American society at that time. Hence, men are perceived as superiors. Susan, Glaspells one-act
play, Trifles is a good example of the stereotype that a male knows best and that the females
are mere trifles. The main theme of this play is womens oppression which is expressed by
mens point of views of women.
Susan Glaspell shows in her play how women were not secured at the period in which
patriarchy is practiced in American. She uses Mrs. Wright as an example of a hysterical woman
who cannot contain the coercive ethos of will and control she suffers as an epitomized ideal
woman in her marriage. It is interesting to know that, the beginning of the play sets the feeling
that the men are setup to be protagonist; however they become antagonistic towards the women.
In the play, the male characters enjoy praising the women with a voice full of sarcasm. Susan
Glaspell uses three quotes in her play to depict how men minimize the importance of women in
the American Society in the nineteenth century. The first denigrating comment about women was
say by the sheriff when he says that there is nothing worth looking at the kitchen as it is just
kitchen things (1.1.25). The second belittling is seen when Mrs. Peter points out that a jar of
Mrs. Wrights Preserve would break once the fire fir goes out (1.1.27). The sheriff again says,
well, can you beat the woman! Held for murder and worryin about her preserves (1.1.28).
Although what the sheriff said might mean that the preserves was not too important compared to
solving a murder case. But preserves can also symbolize anything that women worry over that
men see more as trifles. The third quote suggest that women must do whatever men (their
husband) requires because they dont have a choice. This is seen when the county attorney says
a sheriff wife is married to the law (1.1.44) and Mrs. Peter who is a slight wiry woman with a
thin face (1.1.1) tries to fulfill that role by saying Mrs. Hale, the law is the law (1.1.70). The
men criticize Mrs. Wrights housekeeping skills. The county attorney calls it a nice mess
(1.1.26). Their altitude annoys the women especially Mrs. Hale, who hates to have men coming
into her kitchen, snooping around and criticizing (1.1.49).
Mary Shanley points out that Husband and wife occupied separate spheres and each had
distinct, but complementary functions to perform; In addition to bearing children, middle-class
women directed, and working-class women performed the work involved in maintaining the
household, care of the children, sewing, cooking and cleaning (Victorian). Trifles has really
showed that the domestic ideology and its coexistent gender oppression somehow did not render
women powerless. Although one of the determinant structures of experience that have
differentiated women from men has been their assignation to the domestic sphere. Today female
educators, activist and politicians are working to undo the traditional stereotypes that women
only belong to the domestic sphere.
Mary Crawford and Roger Chaffin suggested in their cognitive research on gender that one
reason that the differences between women and men are not readily apparent is because women
learn to read and understand from a male point of view, a possibility suggested by muted group
theory which describes situations in which a group of people exist in asymmetrical power
relationship (Crawford). Relating this situation to Trifles, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are the
members of the muted group, yet they stand at a good position with comprehensive view, not
only because they are both but because they have mastered the rules defined by a male world;
this is seen at the end of the play when the women deciphered that something must have
happened for the kitchen to be in disorder.
Throughout the nineteenth century, both North and South America, women played a variety
of roles that defined the contours of their lives, such as mother, neighbor, daughter, seamstress,
wife or church member (Dillion). Because Victorian gender norm restricted most womens
energies to home, the roles nineteenth century women played in the welfare of a family and
house hold were often the most important. Marriage offered women an opportunity to be
recognized in the society but yet with a submissive and domestic character. The nineteenth
century had so many dichotomies. For southern plantation women, these contradictions were
often glaring; wives might have to assume ignorance of their husbands extramarital affairs with
slave women. For women, north and south, marriage legally erased them through much of the
nineteenth century (Dillion). Although, in Trifles, it is never mentioned that Mr. and Mrs.
Wright had a slave, but it is known that Mr. Wright is a farmer; he is also aggressive and
indifferent towards Mrs. Wright. According to Mrs. Hale who has known Mrs. Hale before she
got married, says She used to wear pretty clothes and be lively, when she was Minnie Foster,
one of the town girls singing in the choir. (1.1.36). But all this lost when she marries Mr.
Wright. Mrs. Hale says this because she also is in the same situation and is also aware of the
oppression to which rural life condemns women.

First, was the disordered kitchen, but the climactic moment is when the women discovers
Mrs. Wright sewing basket and the quilt she was piecing. Here, one can sense that Glaspell
wanted to laud the women for their daily home practices and skills they have. Because Mrs. Hale
knows how to quilt, she quickly noticed the mismatched sewing was not just because Mrs.
Wright does not know the art of sewing but, the messy stitches of her quilts or knots are an
evident replication of her knotting her husband which could have resulted from a gendered
metaphor for abuse and exploitation. Also, after the women found the bird cage and the dead
canary, they concluded that Mr. Wright who was a hard man (1.1.344) has killed the bird. This
signifies the death and silencing of the singing voice of Mrs. Wright. This depicts the ways by
which men dominated the society to remain in power. The women understand how horrible life
must have been for Mrs. Wright; probably because their lives are not as great as they might like
them to be either because they themselves are also submissive in their patriarchy society. Mrs.
Hale and Mrs. Peters decides that Mrs. Wright is worthy of their protection.
In all, Susan Glaspell tells her audience how women in rural American communities are
treated at the turn of the century. She also tells her audience how ignorant men are for treating
women as trifles because of their gender.





Works Cited
Crawford, Mary and Roger Chaffin. The Readers Construction of meaning: Cognitive Research
On Gender and Comprehension. Gender and Reading: Essays on Readers, Text, and
Contexts. Eds. Elizabeth A. Flynn and Patrocino P. Schweikart. Baltimore and London:
The John Hopkin University Press, 1986. 3-5.
Dillon, Lisa. "Women And The Dynamics Of Marriage, Household Status, And Aging In.
Victorian Canada And The United States." History Of The Family (Elsevier Science) 4.4
(1999): 447. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Apr. 2014
"Separate Spheres: Victorian Constructions of Gender in Great Expectations." Separate Spheres:
Victorian Constructions of Gender in Great Expectations. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Apr.
2014.
Susan, Glaspell. Trifles. Literature: Reading to Write. Ed. Elizabeth Howells.
New York: Pearson, 2010. 336-347. Print.