Trifles
In Susan Glaspell's play, "Trifles," a main theme is that of gender's roles in society. The women had to take care of the household, while the men's role was as public figure.
The canary is one of the most important symbols in the play, because it represents the freedom of Mrs. Minnie Wright, before and after the marriage. The author describes her as being full of life "She used to wear pretty clothes and be lively, when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls singing in the choir." After 30 years of marriage with John Wright, who made her life miserable, she lost her vivaciousness, and became like a bird trapped in a cage.
The murder itself may be considered a symbol. When Mr. Wright kills the canary, he destroys, in fact, his wife's spirit and joy to live. Then Mrs. Wright murders her husband, to revenge all the unhappy years of marriage.
The quilt pieces are also an important symbol in the play. The differences between men and women are once again illustrated by the way they perceive the quilt. The men see it as trifles that women are occupied with daily "They wonder if she was going to quilt it or just knot it!
[The men laugh, the women look abashed.]," but the women realize that it is an important piece of the puzzle, that helps them in the end to solve the murder.
2. The setting in which the action takes place is an untidy kitchen from John and Minnie Wright's farm, on a cold day of winter. The characters investigate the violent murder of John Wright, the owner of the farm, supposedly killed by his wife Minnie. The first to enter the farmhouse is sheriff Henry Peters, followed by the attorney prosecutor George Henderson. Then neighbor Hale, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale then enter the farmhouse.
The setting has the role to illustrate the differences between men and women. The men tend to be rough and
Peterson and Mrs. Hale try to help their husbands, they didn't take them seriously. Being tired of not be taken into consideration and also of their mocking attitude "Well, can you beat the women! Held for murder and worryin' about her preserves," they help Minnie get away with murder, by hiding some evidence.
3. The definition of the noun "trifle" is "a matter or item of little value or importance." So the title of the play suggests that the action is superficial or unimportant, but the truth is that is quite the opposite. In the play, the wives of Mr. Hale and Mr. Peters are brought to the scene of the crime to retrieve some clothes for the suspect of the murder, Mrs. Wright. They end up finding evidence of the fact that Minnie Wright killed her husband, in things considered useless by the men.
The title also refers to the way that men saw women at that time, as simple housewives concerned by things of little value "Well, women are used to worrying over trifles," while they had important things to handle. The title is ironic and it reveals the differences in thinking between men and women. The broken jars, the pieces of quilt and the empty cage are simple trifles to the men, but it helps the women to find out about who Minnie was as a person and also what drove her to murder her husband.
Antigone
4. The action in "Antigone" took place Ancient Greece, a period during which the Greeks did not believe in the existence of heaven or hell. So regardless of what a person did in his life, they had to be buried with a complicated ritual or their soul was doomed to never be at rest. So by denying burial to a person the soul was damned for all time.
Another important aspect of the burial ritual was that it was one of a few things that women were allowed to do in that period, especially mourning the dead. So this gave women the chance to do something important allowed in society.
When Creon, the new…
In reality, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are even more invested in the investigation than the men, because they demonstrate an attention to detail that the men lack. By the time the men return from their fruitless investigations, the women have determined both why and how Mrs. Wright murdered her husband, and they even come to the decision not to supply the evidence without ever alerting the men. Furthermore,
Trifles Susan Glaspell's one-act play Trifles is frequently anthologized, and for good reason (Makowsky 59; Cerf 103). The play differs from a traditional drama in a number of ways, including its structure and narrative content, but arguably its most important feature is it reveals who its protagonists are and the effect this character choice has on the play as a whole. Although the actions of Minnie Wright constitute the narrative focus
While men ignore the kitchen as containing "nothing but kitchen things," women look for evidence precisely there because it is the only place where women are in control. As Holstein (2003) argues, women do not enter the house of Mr. Wright as a place of investigation but as a home of two human beings who have feelings. For men, what matters is the evidence and if they find one,
TRIFLES by Susan Glaspell In "Trifles" by Susan Glaspell, the characteristics of the women and the attitudes to their men and their own roles in life are gradually illuminated. The intensity of the situation, in effect two women judging the life of the third, absent party, provides a context in which Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peter grow significantly, in character, strength and importance. The principle characters in the play are effectively the
Susan Glaspell's Trifles The title of Susan Glaspell's drama Trifles indicates that it will deal with seemingly small matters: as Mrs. Hale says of the pivotal prop in the stage-play -- "Wouldn't they just laugh? Getting all stirred up over a little thing like a -- dead canary!" (Glaspell 27-8). Yet Mrs. Hale's sense that, if a male audience could see her dialogue with Mrs. Peters in Trifles by Susan Glaspell,
Play Susan Glaspell's play Trifles is filled with moral questions and ethical ambiguity. Throughout the one-act play, each character makes moral and ethical choices that affect the outcome of the investigation. Their moral choices also reveal key things about their characters, their worldview, and their ethical codes. At the center of the play is Minnie Wright and her dead husband John. Death is often a moral matter. If John had committed
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