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  • Essay / How Susan Glaspell Depicts Women in Her Play, Trifles

    In 1916, Susan Glaspell chose to publish a controversial play called Trifles. The play investigates the murder of a man, the main suspect being his wife. This literary work, like others at the time, was ridiculed for its feminism. What makes the play bold is that it shows how women are neglected by a male-dominated society and capable of accomplishing a goal outside of their family environment. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"?Get the original essaySusan Glaspell was a journalist, novelist, and playwright who lived from 1876 to 1948. Unlike many women of her era, Glaspell was able to attain a college degree and hold steady employment outside the home. She was an active citizen in the early 1900s, when the women's rights movement was at its height and society was constantly changing. Glaspell received a Pulitzer Prize for his writing, and his writing was both unique and influential. Glaspell, although not a direct member of the women's rights movement, did her part to support their cause. After being assigned the task of reporting on the murder of a man whose wife of 32 years murdered him with an axe, Glaspell wrote Bagatelles. Her writings are a clear defense of women and a plea for equality at a time when it did not exist. Glaspell was a woman ahead of her time, as she did not fit the housewife image that defined women at the time. She said and wrote what was on her mind, regardless of the indignation it might arouse in some. The text of Bagatelles presents the reader with five characters, three men and two women. As the men search for evidence that Mrs. Wright killed her husband, one of them remarks that "women are in the habit of worrying over trifles." The “trifles” shown here, a few cans of fruit gone bad, help women discover the evidence men are looking for. Additionally, the male characters assume that nothing in the kitchen could indicate the murder. The kitchen is the woman's place; they retire to the “man’s places,” the barn and the bedroom. Another key piece of evidence the women discover, a piece of unmade quilting, is ridiculed by the men in the room. They joke about the stupidity of women and the simple-mindedness of a woman when faced with important work. Once again, this article proves to be a crucial indicator of the events leading up to John Wright's death. After discovering the final clue, a dead canary wrapped in silk, the women choose to hide all the information they have discovered from the men, who have come to a disconcerted halt in their search for evidence to convict Mrs. Wright. The women eventually understand their comrade's motivations and collectively agree that men have no right to hold her responsible for murder when the circumstances motivating that murder are those that afflict all oppressed women in a society defined by their male counterparts. The audience for this text would have been men and women in 1916, when the National Women's Party was created and a presidential election was held. These two instances cultivated an audience for the play surrounded by the ideas of feminism, gender equality, and women as voices in the law. Suffragists would have taken a liking to the play, while many anti-suffragist men and women might have been dismayed by further publicity of these ideals. This piece, like.