Trifles by Susan Glaspell vs Araby by James Joyce - Essay Example

Comparison essay Introduction Written by James Joyce, Araby is a short play that he records in first person narration. The extremely entertaining story stars the male narrator whose name the author does not reveal, this stylistic device adds to the suspense in the story thereby encouraging readership. Through this anonymous male narrator, the author addresses a number of important themes in relation to the modern day society. Among other lead characters are the narrator’s uncle and a female character he refers to as a Mangan’s sister. This story is purely fictional. On the other hand, Susan Glaspell writes a story based on real life events entitled Trifles. In the story, she also addresses a number of important themes and creates a direct relevance of the story to the society by the fact that unlike the James Joyce fictional play this is real. Among her key characters are the fictional Mr. and Mrs. Wright, Mr. and Mrs. Hale and other additional characters that support the cast (Glaspell 2). The two plays have a number of both similarities and differences in both the structures, themes and the numerous stylistic devices that the different writers who actually lived in different times express. This is an indicator that in as much as time has changed, the social structures of most societies have remained the same. The societies are indeed different owing to the numerous structural developments but the actual definition of humanity has more or less remained the same. This comes out naturally when the two plays address such issues as human feelings. It is obvious that women are more sympathetic than men are and this has always never changed through time. In the play Araby, the narrator plans to visit the Araby Bazaar to buy a piece of present for a woman he is slowly falling in love with. When he informs his uncle of this, the manly uncle automatically objects to idea pointing out that it “better not be one of those freemason ideas”. The same is logically evident in the play Trifles, which is more of a feminist story as two women, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, understands the motive of their friend Mrs. Wright who is accused of killing her husband. The men in the play including the sheriff and the county attorney give the story a one sided view and immediately victimize the poor woman for an act they consider unforgivable. This is a subjective thought since the law enforcers do not consider any evidence that could acquit the woman. In order to build the feminist aspect of the story, after arriving at the Wrights, the men go through the place and conclude that there “nothing here but kitchen stuff”. They relate kitchen and kitchen stuff to women and are therefore quick to judge that indeed the murderer must be a woman yet the only woman with that amount of access to the house could only be the wife. While the men therefore busy themselves in the egoistic attitude to criminalize the woman, the women in their understanding and sympathetic attitude busy themselves hiding any possible evidence in order to acquit their friend from any possible charges. The same is the case in the play Arby where despite the uncle’s negative attitude, the love and encouraging from the narrator's aunt coupled with the affection expressed to him by Mangan’s sister compels the young narrator to venture out into the Araby bazaar. Another obvious similarity between the two is the fact that they are all short prose plays. They all have the structures of a play, both were adapted in theaters, and the modern day media have adapted both the plays into actual films. In Trifles, the society is male chauvinistic, the author maybe because of her feminine nature addresses this theme so effectively. The men in the play do not appreciate their women. Despite arriving at the crime scene in pairs, the men immediately seclude themselves thereby isolating the women who ironically are more observant than they are. The men busy search for forensic evidence some of which may link Mrs. Wright to the murder (Glaspell 12). They are convinced that the woman murdered her husband and therefore only interested in proving it. In doing this, they criticize the women’s ability to maintain a clean and an orderly house. The women on the other hand get more analytic and immediately realize that Mrs. Wright just like most of them had lived in an oppressing environment. Through the imaginary lead character, the women learn of the difficulties of a housewife, Mrs. Hale’s comment of Not having children makes less work- but it makes a quiet house reveal the pain that must have led Mrs. Wright to kill her husband. In a joint sympathy, they all hide the evidence that could link Mrs. Wright to the murder. The pain that Susan Glaspell addresses in this play is synonymous to that James Joyce expresses in his play the Araby only that the context differs. In the play, the children live happily oblivious of their surroundings, which the writer states, “Leaves much to be desired” the low life neighborhood exposes the children to a number of challenges but in their childhood innocence they fail to notice. However, their parents and guardians feel this. It is painful to raise a child in a poor neighborhood and in the protective nature of the narrator’s uncle; he strives to keep him out of danger by denying him a number of childhood experiments. Both the plays address the challenges presented by the transition. The children in Araby are coming of age and are therefore becoming more aware of their sexuality. This transition presents a number of challenges to the children especially the fear of facing the opposite sex. They have a number of questions they wish answered but the poor society is willing to provide none, they therefore seek to find some of these answers on their own. This compels the young narrator to approach Mangan’s sister. He immediately scares stiff and has no word today to the fair woman. The same is applicable in the Trifle play where the women are struggling to break from the men’s oppressive hold. In order to gain the freedom, Mrs Wright kills her husband and in the spirit of togetherness, the other women conceal her crime. In retrospect, the two plays present different contexts and therefore run different plots. However, the similarity in the stories comes out naturally in the issues they address and the manner in which they do these despite the obvious time difference of the two plays. This therefore validates the thesis statement that while the context and the environment have changed through time, the definition of humanity and the nature of human life have thus far remained unchanged. Work cited Glaspell, Susan. Trifles: A Play in One Act. Los Angeles, CA: Baker's Plays, 2010. Print. Read More