The Battle of the Sexes in Susan Glaspells Trifles Essay -- Feminism

The Battle of the Sexes in Susan Glaspells Trifles Well, women are used to worrying over trifles, (Glaspell 957) remarks crime scene witness Mr. Hale in Susan Glaspells short play Trifles. As this quotation blatantly demonstrates, literature has had a lengthy history of gender bias, both in terms of adequate representation of women as authors and as formidable, strong characters. In this reference to his and the sheriffs wives, Mr. Hale presents the argumentative conflict that will prove prevalent, if latent, passim the course of this work. In the play, the masculine characters are regarded as intellectually boss to their wives, who are patronized as rather childish for their concern in domestic detail. In Trifles, Glaspell makes a feminist leap as she portrays her young-bearing(prenominal) characters with ample cunning to secretly and humbly triumph over male condescending. The action of Glaspells play is executed by a mere pentad players, three of who m are men - a fact which in itself demonstrates the institution of women as a minority, even out in such a wasted sampling. The county attorney, Sheriff Peters, Mrs. Peters, eyewitness Mr. Hale, and Mrs. Hale are drawn together in a dismal and atmospheric farmhouse to investigate the impinge on of Joe Wright, whose wife is the prime suspect. dismantle in the plays most rudimentary introduction, we are presented with a marked annotation between the mens and womens perspectives. The men immediately perceive the house as a crime scene and as such feel compelled to discourse Mr. Hale about details of his visit and officiously search for smoking-gun tell as to the killer?s motives. Conversely, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters comprehend the environment as something more inti... ...e women remain silent, withholding information from their husbands for the sake of an unhappy mistreat woman whose loneliness and isolation are not terribly far-removed from their own. In her arti cle, Holstein refers to Trifles as a deceptive play (Holstein 282), and I believe that to be an excellent choice of description. Trifles only superficially masquerades as a murder mystery Glaspell has, in actuality, crafted a battle of the sexes - a veritable war between men and women, so imperceptible and silent that not even the characters really know that it exists. Works CitedGlaspell, Susan. Trifles The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Bedford/St.Martins Boston 2005. Holstein, Suzy Clarkson. Silent evaluator in a Different Key Glaspells Trifles. Midwest-Quarterly A Journal of coeval Thought (MQ). 44.3 (2003 Spring) 282-90.