Trifles by Susan Glaspell

Research paper on Trifles by Susan Glaspell

Joseph Song

ENGL-1302 English Composition II

April 30, 2017

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The play I chose to research on is Trifles by Susan Glaspell. Susan Glaspell is an amazing thought-provoking play writer of an authentic early feminist writer, 1“born in 1882 in Davenport, Iowa.” She grew up in a small, conservative, middle-class town in the Midwest, which had a powerful influence on her. Her evolution from regional focused compositions to modernism was made possible and achieved by her geographical relocation to the east coast. Following her graduation 2“from Drake University” she found there to be copious boundaries and restraints for women in the work place. She expressed her resentment of these boundaries, and promoted the feminist movement in her fictional and dramatic writings in many arenas: novels, journalism, short stories, and plays. Her most famous writing was the play Trifles. Glaspell use of sympathetic female characters was a genius way to show feminist issues.

After leaving the work place she returned home to focus solely on her writings. Glaspell 3“grew restless with the numerous restrictions on women and became inspirited by the avant-grade social, political, and cultural movements happening in the United States and Europe.” While she disliked the way woman were treated, her life changed a bit when she met George Cram Cook. Cook is probably the greatest influence of her life. His wealth and influence provided her entrance into social clubs which were surrounded with progressive, itinerant thinkers. These clubs and the support of her husband lead the Cook’s to establish the Provincetown Players. This group of actors performed her plays and moved her to the forefront as a drama playwright. The Provincetown Players were responsible for bring Trifles to life for

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audiences. Crazy thing about Trifles is that Glaspell wrote Trifles very differently from the standard writing styles of that time. One thing is that she assigned the main characters in Trifles to females which was not common at the time. This caused much controversy by her main

character alone. Her writings 4“are sensitive psychological portraits of a society where women's struggle to connect with each other impedes their ability to achieve equal social footing with men.” The controversy chatter brought from Susan Glaspell’s play probably played a big part in the advancement of women’s rights and gave it that push for a social change.

Trifles was actually 5“wrote in ten days for the Provincetown Players, who produced the play in 1916. It’s inspiration was a murder trial she had covered while working as a reporter for a Des Moines newspaper before moving to the Northeast.” She also utilized her foundation and background in creating the settings for Trifles. She projected the feeling of a small Midwestern rural town in each script. While Trifles is merely a one-act play, the setting was well established. The women in the house speak so innocently the main character Mrs. Wright. She was revealed as a hard-working, reserved, innocent woman. Many examples of a Midwestern woman were given in the detailed description of the kitchen. Little is known of Susan Glaspell’s childhood, the kitchen may have been of one she remembered from her youth. It was expected and traditional for women to maintain the home most especially the kitchen. The woman notice how pretty Mrs. Wright’s jars of jelly were and how she will be devastated if the jars were destroyed

by the cold of winter. The women decide not to 6“tell her her fruit was all gone”, because the

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cold had bust the jars. The female characters also notice several different things that the men missed in this play. This made it very obvious that the women were superior to the male character. She wrote this in a time-period where higher authority was only given to males. Susan Gaspell’s writing and plays were causing outrage and was shocking the people at the time.

Susan Gaspell’s play trifle was a game changer in different ways