“Trifles” and the American Experience
Brian J. Moye
English 202
Anne Marie Fowler
April 15, 2013

“Trifles” and the American Experience

Susan Glaspell’s one-act play “Trifles” was written in 1916. It was written based on real events. When Glaspell was a reporter, she covered a murder case in a small town in Iowa. Later, she wrote this short play which was inspired by her investigation and what she observed. Glaspell used irony, symbolism, and setting in her creation of the authentic American drama, “Trifles”, to express life for women in a male-dominated society in the early nineteen hundreds.
Glaspell identifies the inferiority of women by using body language throughout this play. From the very beginning, they are in some …show more content…

Wright was no longer in her life.
The unevenly sewn stitches on the quilt block that Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters found symbolized Mrs. Wrights’ emotional and mental state at the time when she was nervous about what she was going to do. As her thoughts centered on what Mr. Wright had done to her bird and the thoughts of committing the act of murder set in, the stitches became more loose and uneven on the quilt block. The men just made fun of the ladies looking at quilt pieces and the stitches, not thinking that any clues could be found from something that a woman found interesting.
The rope Mrs. Wright used for the murder made her feel powerful and somewhat equal to, and not below her husband any longer. The rope made her feel strong. The bird gave back to Mrs. Wright something that she was missing in her lonely life. She missed singing in the choir since this was not allowed by her husband, Mr. Wright. She would sing with the bird, and this annoyed Mr. Wright. The one thing that gave her the little bit of joy she had in her life was now gone. Mr. Wright had strangled her companion, her pet bird. Mrs. Wright had put up with this treatment far too long, and now she was going to be strong enough to rebel against her husband.
The notion of a party telephone symbolizes the question of justice. Mr. Wright did not want his wife communicating with others. In the end, Mrs. Hale realizes that Mr. Wright has committed the greatest crime, the crime