Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles” dwelled on the investigation of the murder scene of Mr. Wright. In the beginning of the play, Mr. Wright was found dead in the upstairs bedroom with a rope hung around his neck. Lewis Hale recalled how he discovered Mrs. Wright acting bizarrely, and that she told him that her husband was murdered while he was sleeping. Mrs. Wright’s strange behavior and body language caused Mr. Hale and the Sherriff to believe that Mrs. Wright was the main suspect in her husband’s murder. There are three significant reasons for Mrs. Wright’s strange behavior. Mrs. Wright’s relationship, lifestyle, and the patriarchal dominance during that era caused Mrs. Wright to act inappropriately.…
“Trifles” was a very mysterious play. This play was written by Susan Glaspell. It does not explain why the two women helped Mrs. Wright. It does not mention any information about them being friends with her, so why would they help her? Mrs. Wright basically was tired of her husband’s ways and abuse and retaliated by murdering him. He was said to have killed her kitten years ago and in more recent terms, he killed her bird.…
Since the 1900’s, women have struggled with gender roles in society that leaned more in favor of men. Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles, reflects on this struggle by blatantly separating the ideas, opinions and actions of the men and women in the play. As the title Trifles suggests, the men in the play view the two women’s concerns as unimportant and frivolous in comparison to the “real” work the men have to do. Glaspell’s characterization of the sheriff, Henry Peters, the attorney, George Henderson, and the neighboring farmer, Mr. Hale, portrays them as typical men of the time who decide to take charge because, as men, that is their duty and only they know what can be done and how to go about discovering the truth. They only take along Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters to collect some things for Mrs. Wright, never taking a moment to think that from a woman’s perspective, the answer to the murder could be found.…
The novel based on actual events "A Night of a Thousand Suicides" by Teruhiko Asada, took place in an Australian prisoner of war camp, during World War II. The story involves captured Japanese soldiers planning an escape from an Australian POW camp. The soldiers knowing that a successful escape was most unlikely were faced with the reality of certain death. The battle came not only from their captors but mostly from within themselves. The struggle within came from their loyalty to their country, obedience to their leaders, and their own desire to die with honor. The views a Japanese solider and an American have on the value of human life greatly differs.…
1 )Audience: From reading this sort excerpt from "Quiet", what inferences can you make about the intended audience of the book?…
Trifles, by Susan Glaspell is a well-known play throughout the English community. It is a suspenseful murder mystery that pulls citizens of a town together to try and seek justice after a homicide has occurred. This play begins with the audience learning that John Wright, a humble farmer, has been killed while he was asleep. His wife, Minnie Wright, has a very strange way of handling this grief and becomes the main suspect. During this play five characters, two women and three men, search the Wright home for clues, evidence, and a possible motive for the murder. It ends with the women finding a shocking discovery that they choose to hide from the men.…
Susan Glaspell was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, actress, novelist, and journalist. Glaspell wrote the play Trifles which tells the story two investigations being conducted over murder of John Wright. While the male characters of the play conduct an “official” investigation the female characters find themselves inadvertently conducting their own “unofficial” investigation. However this is not a run-of-the-mill murder mystery play, in which the focus lies solely on discovering the culprit and the culprit’s motive. Glaspell uses her story to also present a unique perspective of a controversial issue during her time, including the theme of female identity, primarily between women. During the time period in which Glaspell lived, the idea of fighting for women’s…
The problem begins with public perception. Buresh & Gordon point out a fundamental disconnect. The public trusts and respects nurses as caregivers but does not understand the professional standard or practice of nursing (Buresh & Gordon, 2006). Buresh & Gordon movingly quote Joan Lynaugh, nurse historian, “Most people know they can’t get into a hospital without a doctor. What they don’t know is…
The significance of the title of the play, “A Jury of Her Peers” is fitting because it is about a woman that is going to be judged for the murder of her husband by her peers. How her life was with him was going to give her motive for her actions. The play, titled “Trifles”, written by Glaspell is also significant to the story because it explains how a small thing like the bird being killed relates to Mrs. Wrights life. The bird was a literary metaphor. The bird singing brought happiness to Minnie’s house and life. When her husband strangled the bird he had also strangled Minnie by not allowing her to make friends outside the house. “Trifles”, is a better title for when the story was written, but not so much for today’s times, because this…
The Webster’s Dictionary definition of trifle is: something that does not have much value or importance (“trifle”). When one looks at the title of Susan Glaspell’s short play, at first they may think that it is as the title implies; unimportant or the story being told is for nothing more than entertainment. Upon further examination and consultation of critical sources, the reader is able to tease out a deeper meaning. The play, Trifles, written by Susan Glaspell is an intricately weaved narrative on gender roles and home life as it was in early 1900s.…
"Trifles" is a play which was written by Susan Glaspell in 1916. The play takes place in the empty farmhouse of Mr. and Mrs. Wright. The county attorney George Henderson, the sheriff Henry Peters and his wife, and Mr. and Mrs. Hale, neighbors of Mr. and Mrs. Wright all go to the farmhouse to investigate the crime scene. Throughout the book Susan Glaspell uses a lot of symbolism. One example was the a dead bird that the women find. Hoping to find a motive for the crime the men go upstairs to the bedroom where Mr. Wright was murdered. While the women stay downstairs and look around the kitchen. The women come across a bird which symbolizes Mrs. Wright. The bird becomes the motive for Mrs. Wright to kill Mr. Wright.…
“...Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented” This means that if you continue to stay silent, people will continue to be tormented, if you don’t stand to make a difference, the world will remain the same.…
"Trifles," a one-act play written by Susan Glaspell, is a cleverly written story about a murder and more importantly, it effectively describes the treatment of women during the early 1900s. In the opening scene, we learn a great deal of information about the people of the play and of their opinions. We know that there are five main characters, three men and two women. The weather outside is frighteningly cold, and yet the men enter the warm farmhouse first. The women stand together away from the men, which immediately puts the men against the women. Mrs. Hale's and Mrs. Peters's treatment from the men in the play is reflective of the beliefs of that time. These women, aware of the powerless slot that has been made for them, manage to use their power in a way that gives them an edge. This power enables them to succeed in protecting Minnie, the accused. "Trifles" not only tells a story, it shows the demeaning view the men have for the women, the women's reaction to man's prejudice, and the women's defiance of their powerless position.…
Susan Glaspell’s Trifles is a play about a murder mystery that is loosely based on an actual murder case that the author covered while working as a reporter for the Des Moines Daily News (Ben-Zvi 143). Since the play is written in 1916, a time when the boundaries between the private and public spheres are beginning to break down, it strongly reflects on the culture-bound notions of sex roles and gender. Back then, women are thought to be concerned about insignificant issues that hold little to no importance to the true work of society, also known as trifles, just as the title of the play suggests. In 2008, Ghost Ranch Productions, with director Pamela Walker, who plays Mrs. Wright herself, produces Trifles, a film adaptation of Glaspell’s famous play. Through the creative use of literary elements and some small alterations to the plot, dialogue, and setting, Walker effectively demonstrates the play’s major theme of gender differences in the film.…
According to Maalouf, a person shouldn't have to define himself or his identity to people if he were exposed or raised according to different cultures. It is unfair to him- as it is to other people- to have to choose between certain aspects of his identity, or even hide those facets and "save" them for a different gathering or group of people who can cope with those different sides "The identity cannot be compartmentalized" .…