Trifles' by Susan Glaspell - Essay Example

Summary on ‘Trifles’ ‘Trifles’ is a one act play written in 1916 by Susan Glaspell. Glaspell’s play gets loosely based on a true event as when she was a young reporter, she got to cover a murder case in a small town in Iowa. The play’s plot develops around the murder of John Wright in his home that he shared with his wife Minnie Wright. John got strangled in his sleep and Minnie is held as a suspect in jail (Glaspell 3). The play’s title provides a clue to its main theme. The play provides a look at the perceived role and place of the woman in society at the time.

The play is a mockery of men’s perceived arrogance and attitude towards women at the time and it thus focuses on gender relationships and power between the sexes. The play’s main characters are the sheriff- Henry Peters, the county attorney- Mr. Henderson, Lewis Hale, Mrs. Peters, and Mrs. Hale. The male characters in the play get blinded by their pursuance of cold, hard, and material facts to the case. As the men traverse the Wrights’ house in search of evidence, they make fun of what the women are doing.

They are prejudiced in their belief that nothing of value to the case could become found in places of the house where Mrs. Wright spent most of her time (Glaspell 18). However, the women are actually piecing up the main events that led to the murder of Mr. Wright by his wife. The female characters accidentally locate various pieces of evidence to the murder which they hide from the male characters. The women get to locate a dead bird that was strangled in a similar manner as Mr. Wright in his wife’s sewing box.

By hiding the evidence they found, the women appear to empathize with Minnie’s plight and appear to be in solidarity.Works CitedGlaspell, Susan. Trifles. New York: Bakers Play, 2010.