Accepted Gender Roles in Susan Glaspells`s Trifles. The Motive of Isolation - Essay Example

Accepted Gender Roles in Susan Glaspells`s “Trifles”. The Motive of Isolation Susan Glaspells created her famous play “Trifles” in 1916 when feministic movement only started to develop. The society at that time was very stiff about gender roles and women as well as men were put into strict frames. They were supposed to behave in a certain way, to speak accordingly and to dress following some rules and norms. The position of men was domineering while women were considered as those engaged in mere trifles. The very title of Glaspell`s story helps to understand all the aspects of woman`s position at once: she is not responsible for anything except for the kids and the house, her place is in the kitchen while the destiny of the world and her destiny as well is decided by a man. Therefore, there is no a decent place for a woman in society as she is absolutely dependent on her man`s will. Such situation leads to serious problems in relationships of a man and a woman which are often concealed: domestic violence, injustice, humiliation, isolation of a woman (Hins-Bode 117). In this very story the woman manages to escape the role imposed on her only with the help of a serious crime which is a tragic end. The action takes place in the house where a murder of Mr. Wright, afarmer loving alone with her wife, was committed. One of the men, Mr. Hale, found the wife of the dead, Mrs. Wright a day before sitting emotionlessly in a kitchen and discovered that her husband was killed with a rope. The next day a sheriff with a first witness accompanied by a couple of women, Mr. Hale`s and sheriff`s wives, visit the house where the murder took place. The task of the men is to find any evidence while women have to take some things of the Mrs. Wright who is imprisoned. Little by little using intuition and mere observation women recreate the events of the tragic night and find some direct evidence that can explain the motive of the murder but decide to keep silence sympathizing to the victim. There are obviously two lines of narration in the story-one held by men and the other one is women`s. Men are emotionless, strict, and even somehow ironic about the situation. They seem to know the truth in advance and only need to find some evidence that Mrs. Wright killed her husband. They consider that the main evidence will be possible to find in the bedrooms. They behave in their usual way feeling their dominant position that is why they allow themselves small jokes about the situation. They consider that woman`s virtue depends mostly on her attitude and relation to a man. It is evident in the way Glaspell calls her heroes- only men except for Minnie Wright have names. This means that for a woman the status given by marriage is considered to be more important than her first name. When men enter the house they feel so supreme and then leave women in the kitchen pointing to the fact that there are only trifles there. Moreover, they start discussing Mrs. Wright`s being a bad housewife because of the mess that thy reveal there. They conclude at once that it is woman`s fault because Mr. Wright was a good man. They perceive women as slow-minded and incapable of anything, and do not hide this fact. They also neglect that women have a lot of tasks at home and can be simply unable to do all the housework on their own. The perception of a woman as only a part of a man is what deludes a man. For instance, Henderson speaking to Mrs. Peters suggests that she must be a wife to a law because she is married to a sheriff and that where he makes a mistake. He does not suppose that women are capable of logical thinking, acting, and taking serious decisions themselves. Under such obvious pressure even Mrs. Peters opens her hidden part of identity-the rebellious one. Moreover, this evident patriarchal attitude pushes two women to reflecting over the destiny of Mrs. Wright and the destiny of a woman more seriously. In the dialogue they understand that Mrs. Wright was suffering seriously from bad temper of her husband, from emotional coldness of their family life, and from domestic emotional violence. Mrs. Hale makes a conclusion that all women "(Glaspell 6). go through the same things--its all just a different kind of the same thing”, meaning that all women sometimes suffer from men`s cold attitude. Having realized this fact Mr. Hale starts blaming herself for not finding any time to visit Mrs. Wright and supporting her. Isolation that what makes women feel unhappy in marriage especially when they do not have children. For Mrs. Wright the bird was the substitution of a child and a friend that pleased her. The canary was also a symbol of her youth when she was pretty, attractive and sang in a choir. Mrs. Hale concludes after thinking over Mrs. Wright`s situation that isolation is inevitable part of woman`s world and understands that women have to support each other in such circumstances. Solitude and isolation are the reasons why Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peterson understand Mrs. Wright. But Mrs. Wright was exceptionally lonely because her husband probably forbade her to sing leaving her on her own with her inner world in which he was not interested. Killing the bird her husband underlined that for him her emotions were not significant because it is a man who decides the destiny of a woman. Mrs. Wright who felt encaged all her life in her own house committed a murder. However, despite the fact that her crime is hardly possible to justify, it is impossible not to understand that isolation becomes worse and worse each single day and how it can push a person to a sinful deed. At the beginning of the paly women do not feel anything toward Mrs. Wright, however, in the end they realize how her struggling and her worries are close to their own and try to protect her. They hide the evidence from men (violating the law) and decide to alleviate Mrs. Wright`s life by not telling her about fruit and her home things that were spoiled. This play is not ordinary because it demonstrates how even the most serious crime- a murder can be regarded from another perspective. A wife killed her husband in a sleep, and it seems that it is impossible to justify her actions. But when two women start unfolding the life of the criminal they realize that partially she was a victim and sympathize to her. In the society where a woman is completely deprived of any voice, where her place is determined by a man it turns out that many women live in a complete isolation. This isolation and the obligations imposed by culturally accepted roles make a woman feel encaged in her own house and in her own kitchen. The most devastating is when a woman does not have children, and is left absolutely alone. Nevertheless, all this cannot explain and serve the motif of a murder but still sometimes it is really difficult to know what emotional pain some people can hide deep-deep inside. So not only women have to change many things about social gender stereotypes but men have to get rid of patriarchal views and start treating women equally to avoid such tragedies. Works Cited Glaspell, S. “Trifles”, Retrieved from: http://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=modern_english/uvaGenText/tei/GlaTrif.xml Hinz-Bode, K. “Suzan Glaspell and the Anxiety of Expression”, McFarland & Company Inc. Publishers: Jefferson, 2006. Read More