Literature Analysis: Susan Glaspells' "Trifles"

7/26/2019 Literature Analysis: Susan Glaspells' "Trifles"

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Andrew Moulton

November 30, 2014

LIT 315 20th

Century American LiteratureSouthern New Hampshire University

Jamie Marchant

5-3 Literary Analysis of Susan Glaspells Trifles

Dramatic irony is a writers device for increasing tension in a plot. In effect, the audience

knows something crucially important that the characters in the play do not. The dramatic irony of

Susan Glaspells play Trifles is that while conversing in the kitchen it is the women worrying

over trifles (255) who determine the motive for Minnie Fostersmurder of her husband, while

the Sheriff and Attorney, in investigating for definite things (262) that would convict a woman,

like two preening and posturing hens in a barnyard, spend their time on aspects of the case

peripheral to the solving of its riddle. Readers understand that it is the men, and definitely not the

women, who worry themselves with trifles.

As defined by the male characters in the play, trifles are little things (258), pastimes such as

worryin aboutpreserves (255) or piecing a quilt (258) that take up a womans time in the

rural 1920s. According to the men of this play, these things are small and of little concern when

weighed against, for example, a murder charge. As it is suggested in Trifles, the concerns of

women are frequently brushed aside as insignificant to the concerns of the bustling men in their

lives.

There are two worlds in Glaspells Trifles: that of the men and that of the women. Men

determine the framework for life and it is the women who must remain silent and endure the

frameworks injustices. Statements such as the law is the law (258) suggest the futility of a

woman fighting against the male-centered society. And as a result, like oil and water these

worlds do not mix, they do not share, they do not confide their secrets- they remain separate and


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isolated. The definite thing (262)that the Attorney was searching for could have been found

had there been any communication, any trust, between the sexes. Instead, in a conversational tic

that is suggestive of the manner in which women are subjugated to on a daily basis, the Attorney

is frequently hastening to the point, saying, Lets talk about that later (254). He does not listen,

nor does he read between the lines and the female characters respond accordingly. At the last

possible moment Glaspell uses the hyphen to redirect their answers. I think she was going to

knot it (260) says Mrs. Peters of the quilt that Minnie had pieced out. Readers can understand

that Mrs. married to the law (262) Peters was considering sharing the information that she and

Mrs. Hale had discovered about the dead canary. For a reason that readers are left to interpret,

she decides against sharing her information with the Attorney because he has established that he

is untrustworthy.

The lack of communication persists through to the plays conclusion, and in an ironic twist of

power where a womans life is held in balance, it is the women, and not the men, who decide to

judge Minnie Fosters crime. Through intuitive understanding of how silent a house can become

after the death of a loved one, and the reading of contextual clues in the kitchen such as a broken

bird-cage (259) and a dead canary, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale determine that Minnies

innocence far outweighs her crime. In solidarity with Minnies plight and in the absence of the

men, Mrs. Hale suggests that Mrs. Peters bring the only remaining jar of cherry preserves to

Minnie to prove that all of her fruitjars haventbroken with the cold. The jars have all broken of

course, but Minnie will never know until she is free that the reality is otherwise, and perhaps she

will even read into the message and understand that Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters have arranged the

finer details. Readers understand that yet again, pecking the dirt of their insular barn yard, the

men will overlook this subtle and coded message, and remain ignorant to the tight knit


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community of women that encircle and sustain their lives. This is the irony of Susan Glaspells

Trifles, as clich as the Attorney had made it sound, what would we do without the ladies?

(255) it is the unrecognized women who maintain the smooth functioning of society.

Works Cited

Glaspell, Susan. "Trifles." Baym, Nina and Robert S Levine. The Norton Anthology of American

Literature. Ed. Julia Reidhead. 8th. Vol. C. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.,

2012. 253-262. Print.

Marchant, Jaime. Module Five: American Playwrights.Lit 315, Blackboard.27 November

2014. Lecture.

Documents

Literature Analysis: Susan Glaspells' "Trifles"