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?
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