Character and Growth of Women in Glaspell's Trifles

Introduction: Women at the Center of Trifles

In Trifles by Susan Glaspell, the characteristics of the women and their attitudes toward their men and their own roles in life are gradually illuminated. The intensity of the situation — in effect, two women judging the life of a third, absent party — provides a context in which Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters grow significantly in character, strength, and importance.

The principal 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 comes from the men. It is 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 regarded as the woman's sole domain — the kitchen — which Elaine Hedges calls "the limited and limiting space of [the] female sphere."

Physical Characteristics and Dramatic Function

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 Glaspell'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.

Relationships with Men and Early Acts of Defiance

The relationships 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 all the more powerless in her absence; she is introduced through a critical male character, Hale. The women appear accustomed 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 directly addressed, though even then it is to defend Mrs. Wright.

However, the first thing Mrs. Hale says when the men leave is bold and distances her immediately from them: "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 at this stage, speaking of the men's "duty" and "the law." Eventually, though, the women flagrantly obstruct the men's work, guided by their own sense of duty, law, and judgment.

Conclusion: The Significance of Trifles

The original play's title, Trifles, refers to the dismissive way in which a woman's work was viewed. The play demonstrates forcefully that this dismissal was unjust — that the smallest details of a woman's life can be crucial, and can in fact be a matter of life and death.