Through her Play Trifles, What is Susan Glaspell Trying to Teach us About Traditional Gender Roles - Essay Example

Women in most cases hence were not paid for the services they offered. They were charged with child rearing, cooking and ensuring that the house together with the compound were clean. At the same time women were to provide for the family especially in matters relating to clothing. They had to work very hard to make sure their husbands and children had something to wear hence in most cases they spent quality of their time sewing. Despite them accomplishing this entire task they were thoroughly beaten by their husbands even without a concrete reason to do so.

These women were in real sense oppressed until one of the wives Mrs. Wright decided to free herself from the abuse. She planned to kill her husband and claimed that a stranger did it (Glaspell 11). Women were denied a chance to express leadership skills in several official positions. They were not involved in the process of voting within the society since voting was seen as men’s responsibility. At the same time women were not elected for any position in the Government. They were to listen and obey the men.

In times of mistreatment, women were to keep it to themselves and not complain about it. The talents and abilities they had were wasted at home in the kitchen. Men didn’t allow their wives to exercise such powers in the society assuming that they were not worthy. At the same time husbands were afraid of being manipulated by women (Glaspell 20). Few women had chances to work in offices and in most cases they did low status job such as being secretaries and clerk. Women were paid very little wags to the extent that there was no specific minimum wage for them.

Any important and executive work in the society was associated with men while the tiresome and little paying jobs were left for women. They were rarely given a chance to work as lawyers and physicians (Glaspell). Most women belonged to lower and medium class, this meant that they had to seek for men’s opinions in their duties. In the play we see that women were knowledgeable since the two of them Mrs. Peter and Mrs. Hale were in a position to discover the evidence that Mrs. Wright killed her husband (Glaspell 27).

Since women were devalued in the society they decided to keep the secret in order to protect their fellow woman from the punishment of the law. The society limited the women’s talents and abilities. Minnie was a singer but she was denied a chance to express her talents. She was forced to perform household duties in stead of developing her passion. This made her to develop negative attitude towards her husband hence decided to free herself by committing murder of which she denied. The play shows that women could secretly plan things in order to free themselves.

Women had sixth sense that enabled them to see things that men were not in a position to do see. They thought first hence made many quick discoveries. Having been oppressed for so long women decided to seek for their freedom. They protect each other from mishandling. This instinct made the women to have a different perspective towards the crime that one of them committed. Women planned to withhold the proof that sheriff and county attorney called for so as to set up a case for Mrs. Wright’s alleged crime (Glaspell).

In conclusion societies that discriminate their women normally become underdeveloped since the active participation of their women is under utilized; hence whatever they could have