There is no question that women have struggled over many years to be seen as equals by their male counterparts. Years of struggle and oppression continued throughout time, but the oppression took different forms over the course of history. Susan Glaspell wrote, “Trifles” which explores a woman’s status in society during the 1920s and the political leanings that perverted society at the time. The play demonstrates how women were subjected to mental abuse and viewed as intellectually inferior as dictated by American society and politics. “Trifles” exposes how political leanings in the government favored and enabled a patriarchal society as well as displaying how the Women’s Rights movement was beginning to combat these prejudices.
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Hale and Mrs. Peters, but Lewis Hale, the sheriff George Peters, and the County Attorney George Henderson play an important role in serving as the male attitude during the time period. When paying attention to particular .mannerisms and attitudes of the County Attorney the reader can truly gauge how sexist the environment was in the 1920s. One of the first signs of sexism appears from the County Attorney’s remarks towards the two ladies about the housekeeping. He notes that Mrs. Wright was not much of a housekeeper and turns to the ladies for their opinion because in the setting this was one of their common roles. Hale even states that, “women are used to worrying over trifles” (965). This refers to Mrs. Wright worrying about her preserves while she is detained in jail for suspected murder of her …show more content…
“Trifles” draws upon the history of 1920s America. The Roaring Twenties was a time of great growth and prosperity. The woman’s rights movement was not it full force at this time, but it was enjoying some growth and establishing a solid foot in the minds of both male and female Americans. “Trifles” uses symbolism to represent the women’s right movement. Gaspell uses Mrs. Wright to symbolize the women’s rights movement. She was oppressed like the majority of women during the 1920s, but as most women she was beginning to stand up for her rights just like all women who supported the women’s rights movement. Her loss of voice is symbolic of the right to vote that women did not have in the early 1900s. In the play evidence suggest that Mrs. Wright murdered her husband and although imprisoned, she has gained her freedom by killing her husband. This is synonymous with women fighting back against men to gain their right to vote in 1920 essentially regaining their “voice” in government. The killing of John Wright represents the death of prejudice attitude since men were beginning to tolerate women in all aspects of society. One sign that women were gaining ground was the fact that they were allowed to be at the crime scene. It is peculiar that the men even allowed the women to be there. The author attempts to balance this out by making the women’s reason to be there is to collect things for
With the use of these symbols, the author showed how the unfair treatment of women at the time, made it difficult for women to secede and break free from their husbands in the 20th century. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters found Mrs. Wright’s cage and pondered about whether or not she had a bird. Mrs. Hale said, “Maybe she did. She used to sing really pretty well herself.” The singing bird resembles Minnie Foster, caught in Mrs. Wrights cage, surrounded by an atmosphere that represents her miserable life, caged up by her husband, the one who has leverage over her joy, restricting her from blooming.
She successfully creates an obvious theme through her use of men belittling women and continuously reminding the women in the story, and the readers, of the “insignificance” of their domestic realm. The men in “A Jury of Her Peers” consistently mock both Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters for the way they care about the things that women were forced to worry about being involved in. While the men are observing the kitchen in Mrs. Wright’s home the women are discussing how Mrs. Wright was worried about her jarred fruit bursting in the cold. Mr. Peters
In nearly all historical societies, sexism was prevalent. Power struggles between genders mostly ended in men being the dominant force in society, leaving women on a lower rung of the social ladder. However, this does not always mean that women have a harder existence in society. Scott Russell Sanders faces a moral dilemma in “The Men We Carry in Our Minds.” In the beginning, Sanders feels that women have a harder time in society today than men do.
In the time that “A Jury of Her Peers”, was written women did not have many rights. They also did not have many opportunities to do other things outside their home. They're expected stay home cook clean and take care of the children to their husband came home. Mr. and Mrs. Wright did not have any children nor did she take care of house very well. Her neighbor even told the sheriff this.
A Definition of Justice Equality is the well-known problem faced by women. It is the issue of how women have been treated differently from men who act as if they have a higher social position. Besides the equality issue, there is another problem faced by many women: mental abuse at home. The husbands are not literally abuse their wife, but how they act have made their wives live in agony. Subsequently, when the women as the oppressed party who have been treated unequally cannot demand such abuse to be punished since it is not written in man’s law, they will seek their own justice.
The work is not yet complete, and is evident by looking at the domination of women throughout the centuries, specifically the 19th and 20th century, which was the height of the women’s rights movement. By analyzing two literary works from two different eras, “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in the late 19th century and “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” written by Adrienne Rich in the mid-20th century, one can conclude that while there have been improvements to women’s rights, there is still discrimination prevalent. Although set in two different time periods, the main
The setting takes place the majority of the time in the kitchen of Mrs. Wrights home which is described as “dirty” and “gloomy”. The men see the dirty and gloomy kitchen as a sign that Mrs. Wright wq as a bad housekeeper, which in their mind translates to her being a bad woman in general. “Dirty towels! Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies? There’s a great deal of work to be done on a farm…
Authors, especially female authors, have long used their writing to emphasize and analyze the feminist issues that characterize society, both in the past and the present. Kate Chopin, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Susan Glaspell wrote narratives that best examined feminist movements through the unreliable minds of their characters. In all three stories, “The Story of an Hour”, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, and “A Jury of Her Peers”, the authors use characterization, symbolism, and foreshadowing to describe the characters’ apparent psychosis or unreasonable behavior to shed light on the social issues that characterized the late 19th century and early 20th century. Penning many stories that demonstrate her opinions on the social issues of the era,
In Susan Glaspell's play “Trifles,” there is a difference between the men and women’s way of perceiving evidence to Mr. Wright’s murder case. The men spend most of their time searching for solid evidence upstairs where Mr. Wright's murder takes place. However, the women spend most of their time in Mrs. Wright’s kitchen. Instead of seeking tangible evidence, they inspect the condition of the items and acknowledge how they have been muddled around. Different perspectives lead to a variety of discoveries such as the women’s way of perceiving evidence.
“ A Jury of Her Peers,” a short story, and “Trifles,” a play, both provide the same story line of finding out the culprit in a early twentieth century murder scene but also differentiate by delving into different aspects on how to showcase the narrative. Both stories center around finding out if Minnie Wright murdered her husband and if she did, her motives for doing so. While the men in both stories simply care about finding out the culprit of the murder, the women fit their stereotypes by fiddling over small details but in the end piece the details together to look at the bigger picture. In “ A Jury of Her Peers” Martha Hale takes the stand as the dominant character of the play revealing how women must take their own stand during
Trifles the Challenge The play, Trifles, places both men and women in sharp contrast to one another in relationship to their roles and social position in the society. While men occupy the important positions such as the Sherriff and the county attorney, women are basically attributed to no more than playing domestic roles. Indeed, even in the investigation of Mr. Wright’s murder, men are playing the core role of investigators while women are simply left in the kitchen to play the minor of collecting things requested by Mrs. Wrights. The social stereotypes of men playing important roles than women in the society is set and advanced by the setting of the play.
The women began to pity Mrs. Wright as they knew her before she married to Mr. Wright. The females felt pity, where the men just accessed the situation at hand. After the women examine the empty bird cage they remember the way that Mrs. Wright use to sing and compared her to her former self as Minnie Foster. “Trifles,” introduced the masculinity here from the Sheriff’s side instantly putting his instinct into saying that there was a murder that happened at the farmhouse, was caused by Mrs. Wright without any hesitation. He didn’t look into the sadness, or let the depressing home get to him as much as what his intentions and his well-being come into play before his
Susan Glaspell (1876 – 1948) was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright actress, novelist, and journalist. She graduated from Drake University in 1899 during which it was difficult for women not only to vote but also to get a university degree . Women in the early 20th century were still fighting for their rights. After her graduation Glaspell worked as a reporter for the Des Moines Daily News that provided her a great wealth of knowledge and inspired her starting writing that is composed of nine novels, fifteen plays, over fifty short stories. In her writings, Glaspell dedicated her efforts mainly to portray feminist issues such as woman’s struggle for proving her identity in a patriarchal society, the relationships between daughters
This novel is also autobiographical. Throughout history, women have been locked in a struggle to free themselves from the borderline that separates and differentiate themselves from men. In many circles, it is agreed that the battleground for this struggle and fight exists in literature. In a