Gender Roles in Trifles - Essay Example

Gender Roles in Trifles Trifles is a play based on a murder mystery; however, Susan Glaspell has put it in such a way that it transcends the convectional presuppositions in a mystery. At its core, lies a moral and social commentary based on the psychological perceptions of the men and women involved in trying to solve the mystery as well as their interactions based on traditional gender roles. In a story, gender roles are often used describe and reflect certain truths about human reality, trifles is one of the plays that are blatantly focused on the interactions between the two genders (O Neil). Trifles provide commentary in a setting where women were being forced to subordinate themselves to men and their affairs and ideas were often marginalized in the presence of “more important” masculine issues. In the patriarchal society, women’s issues were often considered of a marginal importance, the writer examines this with a view of highlighting the negative impact the subservience forced upon them. The play commences with a murder investigation after Mr. Wright is found strangled with a rope in his bedroom; his wife, Mrs Wright, who was alone with him is arrested and taken to jail as the main suspect. From her jail cell, she requests her three friends who are also wives of the investigating officers to fetch her apron and a shawl from her house; the women and their husbands go to the house, which the husbands ransack in search for evidence of the crime. On the other hand, the women go through Mrs Wrights personal belongings, men scorn the women’s actions, which they see as irrelevant and naive since they are going through “trifles”. However, the women ultimately discover the simple details and clues that the men in their many searches missed or ignored, this minor details end up providing the conclusive proof of Mr Wright’s crime. As soon as the story begins, the difference in the male and female characters is made apparent in their address, disposition, and attitude towards each other and the subject of the search. The men for instance are introduced by their job titles such as county attorney, sheriff, and the women on the other hand, are referred to as Mrs Hale and so on. This is manifest criticism of the fact that a woman’s identity is defined in relation to her connection with a man, her husband and not so much the role she plays as an autonomous human being. A man on the other hand is addressed by either name or title, conversely, men are viewed as complete wholes and their identity is tied to the important roles they play in society and they are unequivocally considered as more independent than women are. The women are homemakers, when they come to the house, it is primarily to fetch the belongings Mrs Wright had asked of them, thus to them the farmhouse was not just a crime scene but also a home. They sat in the kitchen, went through the drawers and took note of the broken glass and bread left on the counter; contrariwise, the men have come with the single-minded purpose of discovering evidence from a crime scene (O Neil). Their endeavor to find evidence is designed to be thorough, and centered completely on the crime not the facts that may have preceded it, they come looking for signs of a break in although they later discover the rope used to kill Mr Wright belonged to his house. Their technical and impersonal approach however brings out radically different results from the women’s, they were able to figure out she may have killed her husband but they did not know why. The women on examining the trifles however were able to come up with a logical explanation and discovered the woman had been quite disturbed before she committed the crime. Men’s tyrannical status is also explored in the description of my Wright who is described as a hard man; the women speculate that he did not like the birds singing although his wife did. This lead to his snapping its neck, the women notice that the manner in which the bird and the man died were not markedly different. From this, one gets the idea that when the needs of men and women are diametrically in opposition, the man will get his way even if it means using brute force to achieve this with no consideration to the woman’s feelings. In the play men silence women since, when the women are in the company of their husbands, they speak in low tones so men may not hear their “trifle” discussions. One can then allude that the Mr Wright silenced Mrs Wright by denying her the music of her bird and thereby distorted her life; this is because marriages; especially during the time the play is set were designed to empower men over women. Therefore, using this power, Mr Wright changed his wifes’ nature, since while she may not have been capable of murder before, his actions towards her may have indirectly contributed to his death, as it was a reaction from her. Thus, according to this play the unequal condition of marriage that subordinates woman forces her to be subjected to treatment that is not natural to her as an independent and mature human being. This can be considered in the context of Mr Wright’s atrocities, such unnatural actions can then translate into strange results such as his murder by his wife. Men’s attitude towards women in the play is openly patronizing and condescending and judges them subjectively as women and little else (O Neil); the men have clearly no respect for the deductive and detective skills of women. They point out how silly it is for women to concern themselves with trifle things such a fruit and do not stop to consider these may be the key to solving the mystery, as they even criticize Mrs Wrights poor housekeeping skills. The women do not agree with such accusations since they knew she was dragged out of the house swiftly without time to collect a shawl let alone clean up her kitchen. In the play Mrs Wright is portrayed as a woman who had sacrificed all for the sake of her husband, in order to maintain the status quo, she embodies the contradiction that is society’s expectation of women. She is alienated and isolated both emotionally and physically, but she is expected to act like the perfect wife; even when the men are aware of her speedy removal from her home, they still find it justifiable to criticize her for things that have gone bad as result of her absence. Theorist argue that in traditional literature, the female readers are forced into participating in action in which they are inherently excluded, however, by tackling the gender issue so overtly, Glaspell allows the female reader to easily identify with the female characters in the play. Moreover, women are engaged in doing feminine things; looking through household goods, noticing the seeing a rotten fruit in the kitchen and as well as the dead pet. Men on the other hand focus on looking for evidence of outside entry clearly convince that a woman cannot be responsible for such an aggressive ergo masculine crime. Thus, because of this attitude and subjective preconceptions of the crime, the men overlook evidence that would have been crucial in reconstructing the crime scene. Despite their discoveries, the women keep silent and do not share with their men what the latter had missed; the same silence that Mr Wright sought to impose on his household by “killing” the music. It is evident that the devotion of the women characters lies with each other and the struggle to survive a patriarchal and oppressive society, which propagates the myth that women should be seen not, heard. Indeed silence is considered feminine as opposed to action, which is seen as masculine; ironically in their masculine way, the men were unable to come up with a single clue as to why the woman killed her husband. Women on the other hand in their passiveness not only pieced together the story but also concealed the evidence without the men’s knowledge. The county attorney and the rest of the men appear ignorant and to some extent stupid since in their self-confidence, they are ignoring the true facts of the case that are in the wide open in pursuit for lofty masculine theories which bear no fruit. At the end of the day, “trifles” illuminates the role of women and men in a patriarchal society and the problems and confusion that ensue, because of women being treated as if they are inferior to men by virtue of their sex. In case Mr Wright had been more accommodating, his wife would not have been driven to kill him and had the “Lawmen” paid more attention to the famine and softer aspects of the crime scene they would have been able to piece together evidence to explain why the woman killed her husband. Works Cited Glaspell, Susan. "Trifles”. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008: 1368-1377. Print. ONeil Caitlin. “The Roles Within Glaspell's Story; Trifles. Yahoo Voices. 2008. 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