Trifles by Susan Glaspell Analyzed as Feminist Drama

Susan Glaspell and the Playwright's Theatre

American drama studies often neglect the influence of female writers and focus primarily on playwrights such as Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, and Arthur Miller. However, women often worked in collaboration with their male playwright counterparts and, in fact, helped to establish and propagate various dramatic movements in the United States. Among these influential women playwrights was Susan Glaspell, who along with Eugene O'Neill, George "Jig" Cram Cook, John Reed and Louise Bryant, Max Eastman and Ida Rauh, and Edna St. Vincent Millay helped to establish the Playwright's Theatre in Cape Cod (Reuben, 2011). The Playwright's Theatre produced and presented 16 of O'Neill's plays, 11 of Glaspell's plays, and a total of 93 works by more than 50 writers during six seasons spanning from 1916 to 1921–1922 (Reuben, 2011). One of Glaspell's plays performed during this time was Trifles (1916), which is not only based on a murder trial Glaspell covered as a journalist, but is also a prime example of feminist literature.

Defining Feminist Drama: Competing Frameworks

In "American Drama, Feminist Discourse, and Dramatic Form: In Defense of Critical Pluralism," Patricia R. Schroeder (1993) analyzes women within the context of modern American drama and examines the different approaches to what can be defined as feminist drama. Schroeder (1993) points to several characteristics of drama that allow a play to be classified as feminist. She argues that for some, a play's content and subject matter are sufficient for it to be considered feminist (p. 105). Schroeder (1993) cites Megan Terry and argues that feminist literature arises from "the creation of powerful, autonomous women" (p. 105). Other writers, such as Karen Malpede, argue that feminist literature is about "women surviving and creating new and human communities out of the wreckage of the past" (Schroeder, 1993, p. 105).

However, these two definitions of feminist literature are not fully applicable to Trifles (1916), because Glaspell does not create a play about women overcoming social constraints, nor does she demonstrate how women create new communities and relationships out of the past. On the contrary, Trifles (1916) demonstrates the consequences of being unable to overcome the obstacles created by social conventions. While Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are the only vocal female characters in the play, the plot does not center on them but rather on Mrs. Minnie Wright, who was seemingly driven to murder her husband. Furthermore, the play focuses on Mrs. Peters's and Mrs. Hale's failure to create a new and human community that was inclusive of Mrs. Wright — one that could have served as an outlet for her frustrations and potentially prevented Mr. John Wright's murder.