analysis of Triffles by Susan Glaspell (Essay Sample)

Name Lecturer TRIFLES by Susan Glaspell Date Introduction Over the years, women have struggled to enjoy equal rights as their male counterparts. In a society where male dominance has been the standard narrative. The story of trifles borders on the position of the women in the society. The story is told of murder mystery on a couple, the husband Mr. Wright is accused of murdering his wife. The story is discriminative and highlights the suffrage that engulfed American society in the era of the book. Written by Susan Glaspell in 1916, (Noelia, 76) the play is a one act play that embodies dialogue, theme, character and symbolism to show to help show the discriminatory nature of the society. This paper analyses the play and how the writer successfully uses the mentioned stylistic attributes to achieve her aim. Discussion The characters in the play are john wright, Mrs Wright, attorney George Henderson, the sheriff henry peters a neighbor and a witness. The set is an empty farmhouse where the murder take place. Exposition is witnessed from the start of the investigation when the male displays less than equal attitude on the women. Hales sentiment to the attorney that he didn’t know if john’s wife’s wish would have changed the need for john to buy the telephone. The statement shows that john is the kind of husband who neglects his wife’s wishes. Thus the men expressively show bias in their verbal conversation. (Leon, 148) From the dialogue, it’s discernable that the men through their conversation, do not view their women’s say as important or relevant. When Mrs Peter says one comment on how Mrs Wright was worried about her fruit freezing, the sheriff fires back and women are beat, held for murder but all their worry about is their preserves. All the women are in general agreement. This dialogue portrays ignorance and general disrespect given to women’s comment. From the dialogue the sheriff speaks to the wife as if the women’s role in the home is not meaningful. The golden rule that one should treat others like as one would like to be treated. This rule is consistently not honored in the play and this is the dominant theme in the play. There is evident lack of respect to women as seen when the sheriff kicks the pans underneath the sink after missing a clean towel. The kitchen is deemed a woman’s territory and kicking the utensils is seen as disrespect to the women. Additionally symbolism is evident when Mrs Peter and mrs hale gather belongings for Mrs Wright and they find a dead bird with a rope on its neck. The bird with a rope with on its neck symbolizes the life which Mrs Wright lived with her husband. That after marryi...