Trifles — Susan Glaspell: Differences between Men and Women
Trifles is a play written by Susan Glaspell. Trifles is a play which based on a murder trial that Susan had covered when she had been a reporter. Reasons why differences between men and women become a theme of this play and how gender stereotypes affect the theme will be discussed.
Differences between men and women is a theme of the play named Trifles because of their different ways to find and think of murder evidence. Male characters in the play find the murder evidence by taking a look at places and big things such as gun or rope around a house but kitchen. For example, The male characters ignore to investigate female stuffs such as kitchen which is a place of murder evidence. As the county attorney tell other men that they should go to the upstair first because he does not think that things in the first floor of a house including the kitchen can be the murder evidence, so it shows that he does not see women things like the kitchen is important. It could be implied that men are not careful like women because the women’s carefulnesses are just trifles for them. Therefore, the ways that the men find the murder evidence are just looking at only big things such as rope. On the other hand, the female characters in the play find the murder evidence by discussing motives and possibilities of causes causing Minnie killed Mr.Wright and taking a look at the kitchen. According to the play, Mrs.Peter discovers a bird cage in the cupboard and a bird in a sewing basket. Then, Mrs.Hale realise that Minnie’s husband killed her only friend — the bird. Immediately Mrs.Hales knows that Minnie killed her husband because her bird is killed. The ways that women talk about the murder shows that they are more careful than men. Therefore, the ways that the women find the murder evidence are discussing what happened to Minnie and carefully take a look at everything. As a result, pieces of evidence from the play support that the play’s theme is the differences between men and women because of the ways they find the murder evidence.
Gender stereotypes affect the theme of the play because of different roles in the 19th century. As men were expected to work outside and look after business things meaning they have more rights and freedom to do anything than women, so the men in the play always stereotype women that they are trifles because they always concern over little things. According to the play, Hale says that women are used to worrying over trifles illustrating the men’s stereotype toward women. Meanwhile, men are seen as authorities or having more power than women. For example, men do not allow women to go for investigating the evidence with them because they do not think that women are helpful for their work since women are always supposed to look after the family and houseworks. Thus, these gender stereotypes affect the theme — differences between men and women because of the gender roles in the 19th century that made them had different thoughts.
In sum, the differences between men and women are a theme of the play named Trifles because of their different ways to find and think of the criminal evidence. The gender stereotypes affect the theme by the gender roles in the 19th century that made them have different ideas.
