Literature concepts and applications

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 three women, Mrs. Hale, Mrs. Peters and Minnie Foster-Wright. This is contrary to the opening lines, during which the bulk of the dialogue and the perspective on events is from the men. It not until the men retire upstairs to seek clues, and the two sexes are physically separated, that the women are revealed to be the focus of the play. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are then shown in their more natural context: without the presence of male company and in the room of the house which was regarded as the woman's sole domain, the kitchen, which Elaine Hedges calls:

The limited and limiting space of [the] female sphere.'

In terms of physical characteristics, we are provided with little information about the women. As Leonard Mustazza explains:

Of the women themselves, we know almost nothing beyond their general appearances...Mrs. Peters, the sheriff's wife, is "a slight wiry woman [with] a thin nervous face."..Mrs. Hale, the witness's wife, is larger than Mrs. Peters and "comfortable looking," '

We go on to learn from a wistful Mrs. Hale that Minnie was considered attractive in her youth, she "used to wear pretty clothes and be lively." However, it is the dramatic function of the women that is more important. As Mustazza's examination of Gaspell's prose adaptation, "A Jury of Her Peers" discusses, this title makes explicit the fact that the women are in fact jury and judge for the absent Minnie, it is their views and relationships that hold the greatest meaning in the play.

The relationships that are initially introduced are between the women and their men. Specifically, Mrs. Hale, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Wright are wives first and foremost, and Mrs. Wright, or Minnie, seems more powerless in her absence; she is introduces through a critical, male character, Hale. The women appear used to the men working without their involvement, as the opening dialogue takes place without their interruption and they do not speak again until they are addressed, albeit to defend Mrs. Wright. However, the first thing Mrs. Hale says when the men leave, is bold and distances her from the men:

I'd hate to have men coming into my kitchen, snooping around and criticising"

She then rearranges the pans they have moved, taking control. Mrs. Peters is revealed to be more timid and subservient, talking of the men's "duty" and "the law." Eventually, the women flagrantly obstruct the men's work, believing in their own duty, law and judgements.

In terms of how the women view their own daily roles, this is revealed initially in response to the way it is viewed by the men. Hale states, dismissively and carelessly:

Well, women are used to worrying over trifles."

The women then exhibit an important physical, uniting reaction, stepping closer together. The women's view towards their work is also clarified by the sympathetic way in which they discuss Minnie. Mrs. Hale defends the messy kitchen against her husband:

There's a great deal of work to be done on a farm."

In doing so, she swings the focus, the sad details of Minnie's kitchen becomes symbolic for the hardship of women's lives. In her essay, Elaine Hedges agrees, emphasising the demanding and under-valued nature of 19th century women's work, quoting that:

it] consisted of tasks "more arduous and demanding than those performed by men." '

The women fully recognize the shared trials of the female condition in the "trifles" and this enables them to read Minnie's kitchen clues with real empathy and unravel the truth of her existence.