Feminist Drama Trifles by Susan Glaspell

Trifles by Susan Glaspell

· Early 20th century feminist drama

· Women have no rights inside of marriage.

· Women’s concerns are ignored by the male-dominated legal system.

· Spousal abuse is tolerated within marriage.

· Minnie loses her voice (song) inside of marriage like a caged bird.

· Her husband kills her bird, an implicit threat that she will be next.

· Women understand the trifles (clues) that men do not.

· Minnie strangles her husband, after losing her own voice.

· The women save Minnie from being hung for murder but feel guilty that they did not do more before it was too late.

· The play is a call for female empowerment and a defense of female self-defense in abusive marriages that is radical even today.

Questions to Ask:

· How have things changed since the first production of Trifles?