Trifles: A Feminist Play

Susan Glaspell became known as a feminist writer after the release of her play "Trifles." The story takes plays in an old farmhouse, the home of Mr. Wright, who has just been strangled to death in his sleep. A few men, the sheriff, county attorney, and a neighbor, are investigating the scene, certain that Mrs. Wright was the killer, but unsure of her motive. Two of their wives wait downstairs. As the story unfolds, Glaspell focuses more on the women in the story than on the men who are trying to find clues to the murder. The women simply wait downstairs and, ironically,solve the mystery. Glapell's feminism becomes more apparent throughout the story with the representation of the men, portrayal of the women, and the solving of the mystery.

The men in "Trifles" hurry about the house playing and replaying what they imagine to be the scene of the murder. They leave their wives downstairs to collect a few of Mrs. Wright's things for her as they deal with the important things. They mock the women downstairs for worrying about "trifles". But what they do not know is that it is such "trifles" that enable the women to solve the mystery.

The two women of the story, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, are left downstairs to collect Mrs. Wright's things to take to her Ianthe jail. As they talk with each other they reveal more about the life and character of the dead man's wife. The reader discovers that Mrs. Wright was once a beautiful young woman who sang in choir and was happy, and that her husband took that away from her. Mrs. Wright was not a happy woman, she was oppressed by her husband. He took the life out of her. While looking around, the women discover what appear to the men to be trifles, but are in fact clues to the mystery of the death of Mr. Wright.

Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters together unravel the mystery of Mr. Wright's death. In packing up Mrs. Wright's things they discover vital evidence. But they also discover an insight to the life of the murderer. They, as women, are able to sympathize with her and thus in a sense justify her wrong-doing. They see that her husband took away her life and that she retaliated, after many long years, and took his life from him. Ironically, the men upstairs are examining such things as windows.

This play is about more than the murder of Mr. Wright. It is about women. It is about oppression. It demonstrates that men are not always the stronger or smarter of the sexes, but quite often just the opposite. For, as the men in this story mock the women, it is the women who solve the mystery of the husband's death. Through this, Susan Glaspell hints that women are indeed superior to men, in many ways.