Trifles Susan Glaspell's Trifles and Term Paper

While men ignore the kitchen as containing "nothing but kitchen things," women look for evidence precisely there because it is the only place where women are in control. As Holstein (2003) argues, women do not enter the house of Mr. Wright as a place of investigation but as a home of two human beings who have feelings. For men, what matters is the evidence and if they find one, they will charge Minnie with murder, no questions asked. They need facts, evidences, and just follow the procedure. But women want to understand the motives and why a woman would want to avenge her own husband.

Although women discover the truth, they see Minnie as a victim rather than a perpetrator. A conversation between Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, discussing the character of Mr. Wright, is of particular interest here. Mrs. Peters says, "They say he was a good man." Note that she does not confidently say "he was a good man" but says that "they say he was a good man." She has doubts over the words of men and suggests that she knows what it is to be like in a condition Minnie was. Mrs. Hale responds: "Yes -- good: he didn't drink, and kept his word as well as most, I guess, and paid his debts. But he was a hard man, Mrs. Peters. Just to pass the time of day with him. (Shivers.) Like a raw wind that gets to the bone" (Glaspell, 2003, p. 1900). In other words, both women can sympathize with Minnie. And they approach the issue with a capacity to look at the behavior of human beings rather than an intention of investigating a crime scene. As Holstein (2003) argues, the men's vision of "knowing narrows their focus, and in this case leads to a type of blindness as to what has occurred at the farmhouse." Had they discovered the evidence, they would have followed "their strict, legal path" while "women's alternative path . . . leads them to withhold it [their discovery of evidence] because they recognize that they are bound up in the texture of events just as Minnie Wright is" (p. 287). The gendered perspectives lead the characters into different directions. Men are soullessly looking at a crime scene whereas woman are looking at human beings and can empathize with Minnie.

Although there are many themes explored in the story, the main theme is related to gender. Glaspell critiques male chauvinism and suggests that their arrogance has blinded them to the realities of life. Women may be considered to have an "inferior" intelligence but in real life they have a capacity to see what men cannot.

References:

Glaspell, S. (2003) Trifles. In Baym, N. The Norton anthology of American literature (pp. 1893-1903). New York: W.W. Norton.

Holstein, S. (2003). Silent Justice in a Different Key: Glaspell's 'Trifles.'. Midwest Quarterly, 44(3), 282.

Kolodny, a. (1980). A map for rereading:…