The Trifles of Femininity - Research Paper Example

The “Trifles” of Femininity Outline Introduction Thesis statement: In this story, the social beliefs of the time are reflected in the men’s attitudes making it clear to the other women why Mrs. Wright, in a moment of insanity, killed her husband. Social beliefs of the time period Patriarchy quote from Kramarae The constrained woman Insanity quote from Frick Men’s attitudes Male attitudes quote from Angelfire Men in the play’s attitudes toward the women Evidence of their lack of understanding Women’s truths The evidence found by the women How they piece together what happened Why they come to the conclusion they did Conclusion The “Trifles” of Femininity Throughout recorded history, women have been considered the weaker of the two sexes. Traditionally, the valued female is one that requires protection and guardianship. She is not considered physically capable enough to secure her own welfare and not mentally capable of appropriately considering her available options. Her place has been firmly established within the home and anything that occurs outside that home is generally none of her business. Further, it is often up to the men closest to her to decide how much interaction she will have with the outside world and just how well or how poorly she is to be treated even within the home. Many women struggled with these constraints, knowing themselves to be far more capable than they were permitted to be and often snapping under the pressure of her constraints. Women who snapped either by leaving their families or engaging in some form of insane activity were considered hysterical or insane and were thus brought even more sharply within the boundaries of her male-defined world. These are the types of women who are often seen gracing the pages of late nineteenth and early 20th century writers. One such example is the unseen female character in Susan Glaspell’s short story “Trifles”. In this story, the social beliefs of the time are reflected in the men’s attitudes making it clear to the other women why Mrs. Wright, in a moment of insanity, killed her husband. Whether it was her father, her brother or her husband, the closest male relative in a woman’s life had total control over her body, behaviors and activities in this strongly patriarchal society. “Patriarchy is the system which oppresses women through its social, economic and political institutions. Throughout history men have had greater power in both the public and private spheres. To maintain this power, men have created boundaries and obstacles for women, thus making it harder for women to hold power” (Kramarae & Treichler, 1985: 236). During this period in history, it was considered that a man who treated his woman harshly was somehow justified by her troublesome nature, even if that nature was not immediately apparent to outsiders. Women who struggled against these ideas were considered to be mentally ill. “Mental illnesses during the Victorian era revolved around the empowerment of men … Women were denied tasks such as reading or social interaction due to a fear of becoming a hysteric. Women were further forced into the stereotypical passive housewife role” (Frick, 2002). Numerous forms of treatments were devised and widely sanctioned to bring these women back into proper submission. “Cures included bed rest, seclusion, restrictions to bland food, restraint from mental activities (such as reading), daily massage, and sensory deprivation. Though these treatments do not seem too appalling, they were comparable to solitary confinement and would often drive a woman to further insanity” (Frick, 2002). Even women who showed no signs of hysteria were often treated with this kind of isolationist approach by their men as a preventative measure to the eventual insanity that was thought to afflict most women. This general attitude toward women caused many men, such as those seen in Glaspell’s short story, to consider women’s issues as exceedingly unimportant. Although there was a large contingent of women finding strength and voice in the educational institutions of the east and in the suffrage movement that was taking place at that time, there was an almost equally strong reactionist movement that reinforced old concepts of women that the men in Glaspell’s story reflect. “Because women were thought to be small brained, emotionally unstable, and irrational, voting would cause them added stress which they would not be able to handle” (The Women’s Movement, 2010). This attitude regarding the state of women’s minds is reflected throughout the story as the men continuously discount the contributions the women might have to make to the investigation. Mr. Hale mentions specifically that “women are used to worrying over trifles” (Glaspell, 1913) without taking the time to consider the associated issues with the problem of broken jars – the length of time and effort involved in jarring fruit jam, the difficulty involved in cleaning up the mess, the trouble in attempting to rid the house of the vermin attracted by the mess or the ire of the man she lived with should they run out of needed supplies before the next growing season. Just to be sure these elements are considered by the reader, the ladies talk about this effort later in the story: “She’ll feel awful bad after all her hard work in the hot weather” (Glaspell, 1913). As the women attempt to pass the time until the men are ready to leave, they take a look at the quilting that Mrs. Wright was working on, not knowing the men are on their way back into the room. Rather than acknowledge that the women have nothing more important to do at the moment, the men actually make fun of them for wondering about how Mrs. Wright planned to finish her quilt, a common concern among women as quilting was normally considered one of their allowable social activities. While the men laugh about the ‘trifles’ that the women are concerned with – Mrs. Wright at the prison worried about her preserves breaking in the cold and the two women in the kitchen noticing the quilt work Mrs. Wright had been working on – it is these trifles that tell the story of what happened. Through their observations of the little details available to them in the kitchen, it ends up being the women who figure out the clues to the dead man’s murder. As they piece together the clues that were left behind Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale realize Mr. Wright was killed by his wife in a strangely fitting punishment for the crimes he’d inflicted upon her for years. As these two women set to work gathering a few things for Mrs. Wright’s comfort in prison awaiting investigation and trial following her husband’s death, in bed by strangulation with a noose around his neck, they begin to piece together the puzzle. While the men search for burglary motive, the women find Mrs. Wright’s quilting blocks and discover all the evidence the men need: “Here, this is the one she was working on, and look at the sewing! All the rest of it has been so nice and even. And look at this! It’s all over the place! Why, it looks as if she didn’t know what she was about!” (Glaspell, 1916). Tucked deep inside the sewing basket, the women find a fancy box intended for scissors. When they open it, they instead find the body of a small canary with its head twisted around backward. As the women discuss the clues, they realize “Wright wouldn’t like the bird – a thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that, too.” Although the women realize that a crime must be punished and that Mrs. Wright must have been driven mad by the harsh treatment of her husband, between them there is an almost unspoken agreement that Wright’s harsh treatment of his wife, keeping her in isolation and silence, was also a crime that deserved punishment. Because they understand that the men wouldn’t understand things this way, they choose to keep their knowledge of the murder to themselves. Thus, the short story reveals the tremendous pressure felt by women who are kept isolated from the rest of society and strictly controlled in their behaviors. While the death of the song bird may have seemed merely a ‘trifle’ to the men, the women understand it as a symbol of the larger problem inherent in the patriarchal worldview. Mrs. Wright’s murder of her husband was a desperate action after he killed the last good thing in her life. Suggesting that the authors do not hold to the view that women are weak and must be controlled but rather that this issue of control is what drives them mad is the fact that Mrs. Wright is, in the end, presumed to get away with her crimes. Mrs. Wright, unless the men can find evidence of a proper motive, cannot be found anything but innocent of killing her husband by those who cannot understand the ‘trifles’ of female life. Works Cited Frick, Katie L. “Women’s Mental Illness: A Response to Oppression.” Women’s Issues Then & Now: A Feminist Overview of the Past Two Centuries. (2002). Glaspell, Susan. “Trifles.” (1916). Kramarae, Cheris & Treichler, Paula A., with assistance from Ann Russo. A Feminist Dictionary. London, Boston: Pandora Press, 1985. “The Women’s Movement: 1880-1950.” Angelfire. (2010). November 29, 2010 http://www.angelfire.com/ca/HistoryGals/Wesley.html Read More