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In contemporary society, we usually regard everybody as an equivalent person who is entitled to equal rights. However, this point of view did not exist at the turn of the twentieth century. Men dominated nearly every aspect of society, and women were often overlooked. Gender-specific roles have positioned women in the kitchen throughout history, preparing meals, baking bread, and canning fruits and jellies. A woman was also supposed to care for her husband and be a great mother to the children (Real 12). In this light, the paper describes how symbolism, setting, and irony were used in outlining the theme of gender roles and how women are not taken seriously in the play Trifles by Susan Glaspell.
First, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale conclude that Mrs. Wright meant to knot the quilt. This knot is notable since it resembles the knot on the rope around Mr. Wrights neck that Mrs. Wright tied (Glaspell 19). Furthermore, using the terms knot it as the final uttered lines points at this significance and offered the womens choice to defend Mrs. Wright and conceal their uncovered proof a solid finality. The men on the spot dismiss Mrs. Wrights suggestion of knotting the quilt as a simple error in her quilting technique (Glaspell 119). It represented the households domestic atmosphere since it is a technical term for crochet that the men are not certain of its meaning. Compared to the mens rejection of the female experience as irrelevant, this stresses the importance of womens experiences and how they are perceived.
Second, the plays title is ironic to send a message to the reader that things are not as they seem. That said, the depiction of masculinity follows strongly behind the representation of domestic positions in this play. The men leave the woman to talk trifles in the kitchen as they move outside to perform the serious examination of the case (Glaspell 20). The plays heading denotes that men undermine womens issues, demonstrating how men usually disregard womens concerns. For instance, the male characters view the house and the womens interests as a concrete environment with no linked emotions (Glaspell 20). Eventually, as the men ignore the womens worries, their minor concerns lead them to crack the case.
On the other hand, the setting of the play reveals how women and men view Mr. Wrights home from different angles. The men in this play are entirely unaware of Mrs. Wrights emotional aggression at her husbands hands. In this scenario, though, the women serve as Mrs. Wrights unauthorized kitchen tribunal. The women discover signs of domestic violence and conclude that this is why Mrs. Wright murdered her husband. However, even though they eventually hide the facts, it is evident that women were able to find out the truth from the kitchen setting.
Furthermore, there is a depiction of how women are viewed differently by men through the setting. For example, the women and men in the play view the environment from divergent perspectives from the start (Abd-Aun and Haneen 169). On the one side, the men appear at a crime scene to discover the cause of Mr. Whites death. Besides, the men perform the investigation methodically but find little evidence to use contrary to Minnie. This can be demonstrated in how the county attorney handles his examination by questioning essential witnesses, including Mr. Hale (Real 13). The men believe they have done a proper analysis and believed never missing something significant.
However, regardless of their process, they do not gather any helpful information that might link Minnie Foster to Mr. Wrights death. Conversely, the women treat the environment as though it were their own home as they attempt to put themselves in Minnie Fosters shoes. They got Minnie Fosters dead bird in her sewing basket (Huber 30). Conversely, the women realized that Minnie brutally strangled the dead bird during their further inspection and linking the act to Mr. Whites killing (Glaspell 21). Nonetheless, Glaspell attempts to challenge the gender-centered sexism that distinguishes against the female sexual characteristics by presenting women as more rigorous and intelligent even though they are perceived as not being qualified or equipped, thus representing men as inept.
Consequently, Trifles is perceived to be an early illustration of gender identity drama. That said, gender equality as a subject cannot be interpreted only as the composers or her protagonists appeal for womens rights. Instead, it may be a metaphor regarding female conscience, the thoughts, and expectations correlated with a female characters femininity. For instance, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, the two female protagonists, empathize with Mrs. Wright and recognize her reason for hiding the facts against her (Glaspell 19). Besides that, the mens cold, unsympathetic examination of material evidence has blinded them.
In conclusion, the plays setting, irony, and symbolism were used by Glaspell in outlining the theme of gender roles and how women are viewed differently. That said, the title Trifles as used by Glaspell symbolizes gender roles and how women were never taken seriously in the play by men as worthless creatures. Besides, the setting is used by Glaspell to prove that women are never as little as men perceive them. For instance, the women manage to find the evidence against the suspect from the kitchen, a place believed by men only to contain womens things.
Works cited
Abd-Aun, Raad Kareem, and Haneen Ali Haleem. The Woman as the Other in Glaspells Trifles, Hansberrys A Raisin in the Sun and Kanes Blasted, International Journal of Arabic-English Studies vol. 20, no. 2, 2020, pp. 169-186.
Glaspell, Susan. Trifles. New York, NY: Frank Shay, the Washington Square Players, 1916. Print, vol.1, no.2, pp. 19-25.
Huber, Daniel. Some linguistic lines of thinking on Trifles by Susan Glaspell (the play and its film adaptation), American Theatre Lab, 2017, pp. 30-40.
Real, Noelia Hernando. Trifles by Susan Glaspell. How to Teach a Play: Essential Exercises for Popular Plays, Methuen Drama, vol. 3, no.10, 2020, pp. 139-141.
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