Differences Between Men and Women in Susan Glaspell's Trifles

In the play "Trifles," in everything from the things they notice to the things they say, men and women behave completely differently. The men seem to have no time for the women and feel that they are focusing on the smaller and unimportant elements of the crime scene or the "trifles" as the name of the play states. Author Susan Glaspell clearly shows the inferior position of women in early twentieth-century America as well as the differences between men and women.

One way Susan Glaspell shows the inferiority of women in this play is through body language. They stand close together. "The women have come in slowly and stand close together near the door" (Glaspell). From the very first part, they are somewhat timid in their place. As the drama goes on, each time the men seem to criticize Mrs. Wright, the women move closer together physically. This shows the bond of women in understanding how they are viewed by men. In this play, the characters can empathize so much with Mrs. Wright that they end up hiding the evidence of the murder (the dead bird) and take justice into their own hands by letting her off the hook. This is also why the play was entitled "A Jury of Her Peers." Women in this play understand what life is for other women. The men completely do not understand. They assume that their way of solving the crime is the best way and are completely uninterested in all the "clues" that the women turn up. They are also completely uninterested in emotional response, which the women are in tune with. They feel sorry for Mrs. Wright that her preserves have been broken. One of the women remembers how hot it was on the day she made her preserves. They feel sorry for the death of the bird as they remember how terrible it was to have something you loved taken away from you.

The trifles in this play that the women see as important, the men make fun of. For example, when the Sheriff reaches up into the cupboard and comes away with a sticky hand, the woman express sadness that her fruit (preserves) had frozen. Rather than recognizing all the hard work that went into making those preserves, the Sheriff exclaims, "Well, can you beat the women! Held for murder and worryin' about her preserves" (Glaspell). He deems their concerns unimportant. Again the women look closely at the quilt and are made fun of. "They wonder if she was going to quilt it or just knot it. (The men laugh, the women look abashed") (Glaspell). According to the men, this is just another mere trifle that the women are concerned about. However, again, the women notice that suddenly the stitches change, and they wonder what happened to upset her so. They can see the evidence of turmoil in her quilt. They actually see the evidence of unhappiness and troubled times everywhere in this house.

The men also seem to blame the women for everything. When the County Attorney criticizes the housekeeping of Mrs. Wright, and Mrs. Hale defends her saying housework is hard on a farm, the County Attorney minimizes this. When Mrs. Hale confesses that this home was not a happy place, saying that Mr. Wright was a terrible man, the County Attorney again minimizes this statement. "No--it's not cheerful. I shouldn't say she had the homemaking instinct" (Glaspell). He blames everything on Mrs. Wright. Women are the ones in charge of making a home happy by cooking and cleaning and raising children and tending to their men.

Another way that Glaspell demonstrates the position of women in twentieth-century America is through symbolism. The bird is one such symbol, a symbol of the way Mrs. Wright was before Mr. Wright. "She--come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself--real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and--fluttery. How--she--did-change" (Glaspell). Marriage to this "hard man" is what changed her. They understand what it is to loose vitality because of a man. Mrs. hale recalls the kitten that a boy killed in her youth. Mrs. Peters recalls what it was like to lose her baby, and how still the world became after that. They recognize that this bird meant everything to Mrs. Wright. "If there'd been years and years of nothing, then a bird to sing to you, it would be awful--still, after the bird was still" (Glaspell). The women understand how horrible life must have been for her, probably because their lives are not as great as they might like them to be either. They understand the endless sacrifices that women make for them, and the way these sacrifices change the very nature of who they are. As Akalay-Gut states in Studies in Short Fiction, "Minnie's existence and her behavior are determined by her man who makes the rules she lives by. In this respect all three women are the same. Their behavior varies only because different men motivate different behavior" (Akalay-Gut). The women understand this fully.

The men never once question their way of doing things. They are looking for something "big" in the house, some big clue. The women, on the other hand are looking at the smaller things and thinking about the emotional impact of the smaller things. The men dismiss their methods knowing that they will never find anything that way. Even at the very end, when the men have found nothing, they make fun of the women once again. "(Facetiously). Well, Henry, at least we found out that she was not going to quilt it. She was going to--what is it you call it, ladies!" (Glaspell). Those poor, uneducated women who were concerned with the mere trifles of the play are actually the ones who solved the mystery and know exactly what went on in this house.

Akalay-Gut, Karen. A Jury of her Peers: The Importance of Trifles. Studies in Short Fiction. Winter 1984. Volume 21. 1-9.

Glaspell, Susan. Trifles.