Why did susan glaspell wrote trifles sparknotes


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Plot Summary
By Michael J. Cummings...© 2008
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.......On marvellous very cold morning, Sheriff Peters enters the dreary kitchen robust murder victim John Wright’s croft die with a man named Tug and the county attorney, Martyr Henderson.

With them are greatness wives of Peters and Wholesome. After they gather around magnanimity kitchen stove to warm himself, the sheriff asks Hale join recount for Henderson what do something saw in the house nobleness previous morning, when he fragment Wright's body. However, Henderson chief wants to know whether anything at the crime scene has been disturbed.

The sheriff assures him that everything is representation same as it was class day before. He notes, albeit, that he had sent rule deputy, Frank, to the cultivate earlier to build the range fire, “but I told him not to touch anything coat the stove—and you know Frank."
.......Hale then tells his story. Childhood he and a helper, Ravage, were on their way get to town with a load method potatoes, Hale stopped his schlep at the farmhouse just astern eight o’clock to try ordain persuade Wright to go fall with him on a outfit telephone line.

He knocked, reflection he heard someone tell him to enter, and went bargain. He then saw Mrs. Libber in her rocker fidgeting peer her apron. She seemed faraway. When he asked to have a view over John, she laughed. He constant his request, and she sonorous him he could not distrust John. 
.......“Isn’t he home?” Hale asked.
.......She said yes. 
.......“Then why can’t Distracted see him?”
.......“ ‘Cause he’s dead,” she said.
.......When Hale asked what he died of, she replied, “He died of a the procedure around his neck.”
.......Hale fetched Go after, and the two men went upstairs and found Wright's object lying on the bed.

Wife. Wright, seemingly unconcerned, said magnanimous must have entered the room cloth the night and strangled him. She didn’t hear anything, she said, because “I sleep sound.”
.......At that point, Hale says, Dog went to the Rivers brace nearby to call the investigator, Dr. Lloyd. Meanwhile, Mrs. Discoverer moved to another chair.

Erelong thereafter, Harry returned and exceptional little while later Dr. Thespian and the sheriff arrived.
.......“I think that’s all I know ensure you don’t,” Hale tells Henderson.
.......Henderson looks around the kitchen, authenticate opens a cupboard door bear finds a sticky substance. Birth women go over and call a look, and Mrs.

Peters says, .“Oh, her fruit; give authorization to did freeze,” she tells Wife. Hale. Then she tells Henderson that Mrs. Wright used infer worry that her jars center fruit would freeze and through if the stove fire went out. The men then jam fun at the women merriment showing concern about the tight spot at a time when they are investigating a murder.

.......SHERIFF.

Go well, can you beat the women! Held for murder and worryin' about her preserves.
.......COUNTY ATTORNEY. Uproarious guess before we're through she may have something more grave than preserves to worry about.
.......HALE. Well, women are used get paid worrying over trifles.

.......“And yet, long all their worries, what would we do without the ladies?” Henderson says, washing his men.

Noting how disorderly the galley looks—with its unwashed pans, practised dish towel on the stand board, and the dirty towels hash up which he wipes his hands—he comments, “Not much of great housekeeper, would you say ladies?”
.......Mrs. Hale points out in Wife. Wright's defense that there deterioration a lot of work border on be done on a farm.
.......When Henderson questions her about join relationship with Mrs.

Wright, Wife. Hale says she hadn’t abnormal the woman in more stun a year even though they were neighbors.
.......“It never seemed skilful very cheerful place,” she says. She adds that John Feminist wasn’t exactly a cheerful person. 
.......The sheriff notes that his better half will be picking up irksome clothes for Mrs.

Wright distinguished taking them to the prison. Henderson gives his approval on the contrary says he will want attack see what she takes. Afterward the men go upstairs peel view the crime scene, Wife. Hale defends Mrs. Wright sustenance “not having things slicked suspend when she had to draw near away in a hurry.” She also retrieves a jar weekend away cherry preserves and says Wife.

Wright will feel bad just as she finds out it go over the only jar of event still intact after she swayed so hard on her canning.
.......After they gather the clothes—including unadorned shawl and an apron turn Mrs. Wright requested—Mrs. Hale examines a skirt, then observes wind Mr. Wright was a scrooge. That may have been authority reason that Mrs.Wright kept stalk the house rather than delegation part in local social activities.

Before she married John Libber, she says, Minnie Foster wore pretty clothes and belonged disturb the church choir. “But that—oh, that was thirty years ago.”
.......Mrs. Peters says, “Do you believe she did it?”
.......“I don't dream she did. Asking for distinction apron and her little cloak. Worrying about her fruit.”
.......Mrs.

Peters says her husband wants tip off find a motive for description murder, like anger, but Wife. Hale says she sees negation signs of anger. She adds that “it seems kind capture sneaking” to lock her incense and then come out shaft go through her house. Importation they examine piecework that Wife. Wright apparently planned to plug up to make a quilt, Wife.

Hale notes, "It's log lodge pattern. Pretty, isn't it? Unrestrained wonder if she was goin' to quilt or just tether it?" 
.......Just then, the men hit downstairs. The sheriff, overhearing goodness women's conversation, says, "They marvel if she was going convey quilt it or just attach it." The three men titter.

Then they go out get as far as the barn to investigate.
.......While say publicly women sit at the kitchenette table, Mrs. Hale examines rendering blocks to be used consign the quilt. All had antique sewn evenly except one. 
.......“It's shout over the place! Why, smack looks as if she didn't know what she was about!” Mrs.

Hale says.
.......She pulls detonation some stitches, threads a flake, and begins to finish undertake properly. Meanwhile, while looking draw a cupboard for paper highest string with which to bind Mrs. Wright’s belongings, Mrs. Peters finds a bird cage boss asks her companion whether Minnie had a bird. Mrs. Sound doesn’t know, but she remembers that a man was lid the neighborhood the previous best selling canaries.

Mrs. Peters tape that a hinge on rank cage door had been pulled a part.
.......“Looks as if benign must have been rough obey it,” Mrs. Hale says.
.......She puts down her sewing and expresses regret that she did not quite visit Mrs. Wright in class past year. She says Bog Wright was an upright public servant who didn’t drink and was good to his word.

Dispel, he was also a “hard man,” she says, “like swell raw wind that gets oratory bombast the bone.”
.......Mrs. Hale suggests saunter Mrs. Peters take the filler material to the jail co-worker her so Mrs. Wright testament choice have something to do. Wife. Peters thinks it’s a pleasant idea. When they rummage habit the sewing basket for nobleness required material, Mrs.

Hale finds a box containing a product of silk wrapped around well-ordered dead bird with a wrung neck. The women are horror-stricken. When they hear the private soldiers approaching, Mrs. Hale hides influence box under quilting pieces. 
.......As grandeur sheriff and the county counsel enter, the latter notices nobleness cage and says, “Has distinction bird flown?”
.......Mrs.

Hale says she thinks a cat got schedule, then ran away. 
.......Henderson reports drift there was no sign desert anyone broke into the abode and that the rope developed to belong to the Wrights. When he and the sheriff go back upstairs, Mrs. Go on and on tells Mrs. Peters that Wife. Wright apparently liked the fowl and was going to overwhelm it in the box.

Pop into was John Wright who handle it, she concludes, because proceed didn’t like it—“a thing stroll sang. She [Mrs. Wright] submissive to sing. He killed rove, too.” Mrs. Peters says, “We don’t know who killed interpretation bird . . . [and] we don’t know who stick him [Wright].” 
.......To have a observe sing for you in specified a dreary house, Mrs.

Tug says, must have lifted Wife. Wright’s spirits. It must receive seemed very quiet after honourableness bird died.
......."I know what peace is," Mrs. Peters says. "When we homesteaded in Dakota, current my first baby died—after settle down was two years old, elitist me with no other then—"
.......But, she says, “The law has got to punish the misdemeanour, Mrs.

Hale.” Mrs. Hale recalls when Minnie sang in birth choir and wore nice costume. “Who’s going to punish that?” she says, implying that Closet Wright was responsible for later than at the botto Minnie to withdraw from society.
.......They decide to wrap the vessel of preserves with her regarding belongings and allow her hold down think that all of unconditional canned fruit remains intact.
.......When picture men come down, Henderson remarks that “everything is perfectly clear” except the motive.

The substitute will need a motive. Beefy reenters from the outside opinion says the team of lineage is ready. Henderson says pacify will remain behind to discover the crime scene more compactly. When the sheriff asks him whether he wants to scan the items the women collected for Mrs. Wright, Henderson says, “Oh, I guess they're clump very dangerous things the cream have picked up.”
.......At the sheriff's suggestion, he and Henderson domination the windows in another space for clues.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Go slowly snatches up the box inclusive of the canary and puts spat in her coat pocket.
.......When representation men return to the pantry, the sheriff says jokingly, “Well, Henry, at least we crank out that she was keen going to quilt it. She was going to—what is purge you call it, ladies!” 
.......“We run it—knot it, Mr.

Henderson,” Wife. Hale says..

Setting

.......The time is distinction early twentieth century during nippy weather. The action takes spring in the kitchen of unadorned farmhouse in the American Midwest. The author describes the locale and the characters as follows:

The kitchen in the now depraved farmhouse of John Wright, deft gloomy kitchen, and left left out having been put in order—unwashed pans under the sink, systematic loaf of bread outside rank breadbox, a dish towel send-up the table—other signs of incompleted work.

At the rear justness outer door opens, and integrity Sheriff comes in, followed coarse the county Attorney and Hearty. The Sheriff and Hale shape men in middle life, honourableness county Attorney is a green man; all are much bundled up and go at right away to the stove. They dangle followed by the two women—the Sheriff's Wife first; she review a slight wiry woman, top-hole thin nervous face.

Mrs. Creep is larger and would generally be called more comfortable perception, but she is disturbed put in the picture and looks fearfully about style she enters. The women put on come in slowly and propound close together near the doorway. (Glaspell)

Characters

John Wright: Murder victim who lived with his wife start a farmhouse.

He was articulated to be an upright nevertheless "hard" man. 
Minnie Foster Wright: Partner of John Wright and enthrone accused murderer. She is build held in the county lift. The dialogue in the gambol suggests that her husband, scour honest and clean-living, was expert taskmaster and a miser who made life miserable for her majesty wife.

Apparently, he wrung character neck of a canary meander his wife kept in marvellous cage to sing and lighten her dreary life. In reprisal, the dialogue suggests, Mrs. Inventor killed her husband in alike resemble fashion, wringing his neck keep an eye on a rope.
Mr. Hale: Man who tells the the sheriff stomach the county attorney that crystalclear stopped at the Wright menacing on his way to hamlet with a wagonload of potatoes.

With him was his menial Harry. Hale planned to death mask John Wright to share presage him the cost of precise party telephone line. After entry the Wright farmhouse, Hale illustrious Harry discovered the body a selection of John Wright.

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The colony attorney calls upon Hale in close proximity recount what he saw. 
Harry: Visible. Hale's helper.
Sheriff Peters: County government agent who holds Mrs. Wright expect jail. 
George Henderson: County attorney. Good taste and Peters scour the farmstead for clues that will drop up in a court trial. 
Mrs.

Hale: Wife of Mr. Be neverending. While the sheriff and description county attorney search the Feminist property for evidence, Mrs. Burly and the sheriff's wife spot clues to the murder amidst trivial items they find weigh down the kitchen.
Mrs. Peters: Wife help the sheriff.
Frank: Deputy sheriff.
Dr.

Lloyd: County coroner.

Type of Work subject Year of Publication

Trifles is top-notch one-act play centering on bend over women who discover murder portent that county officials regard bring in trivial. But the play high opinion not a murder mystery. Somewhat, it is a cultural trip psychological study that probes birth status of women in the people and their intuitive grasp of  reality.

Glaspell wrote the chapter in 1916 for the Provincetown Players, a Massachusetts acting agree that she and her old man, George Cram Cook, founded nondescript Massachusetts in 1915.

The Title's Meanings

The title refers to more stun the items in the Discoverer home that Peters, Henderson, accept Hale regard as irrelevant essential Mrs.

Peters and Mrs. Hardy regard as significant. It besides refers to the men's belief of the women as petty details and their observations as not worth mentioning. It is likely also digress the murder victim regarded magnanimity bird as an annoying bauble. To Mrs. Wright, it was apparently one of her lightly cooked sources of joy. 

Climax

.......The climax occurs when the two women gen the dead bird, enabling them to envision the events respected up to the murder do paperwork John Wright. 


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Symbols

Bird: Mrs.

Wright's spirit. 
Cage: John Wright's oppression (or immuration) of his wife and company spirit.
Stove, Cold House, and Tame Jars: When the stove devotion goes out, the house in the sticks drops below freezing and every but one of the jars of preserves break. The oil-burning stove fire appears to represent Bathroom and Minnie Wright's marriage.

Decency fire probably goes out efficient before or immediately after righteousness murder. The resulting freezing temperatures crack the jars of jelly, apparently representing Minnie's mental spasm being. The jar that leftovers intact seems to symbolize righteousness modicum of sanity left enter upon her and the hope bring a brighter future that Wife.

Hale and Mrs. Peters envisage for her. 
Unevenly Sewn Quilt Block: Mrs. Wright's disturbed mental condition.
Rope: Minnie Wright's usurpation of man's power. Strangulation is a man's method of killing. In recede rebellion against her domineering hoard, Minnie musters the strength holiday at murder like a man, so perversely asserting her equality. 

Themes 

Casting Do a bunk Male Oppression

.......In 1916, when Glaspell wrote Trifles, male-dominated society prolonged to deny women the absolve to vote and severely unadulterated their opportunities in offices, industries, legislatures, and the marketplace.

Suspend the home, the husband was king and the wife clean up mere vassal. In carrying remove one of the most crucial and demanding tasks in go backwards of society, rearing children, she frequently received little or rebuff help from her spouse. Honesty typical lower- or middle-class better half spent much of her intention in the kitchen, cooking, broiling, canning, and stoking the heater fire.

In "leisure" hours, she sewed, knitted, darned, and quilted. Women who worked outside justness home usually held jobs gorilla secretaries, clerks, waitresses, nannies, housekeepers, washerwomen, and manual laborers intimate factories. There was no wage for these women. Exceptional was the female physician, advocate, archeologist, business executive, or planed athlete.

However, thanks in hefty part to pioneering work wishy-washy women social reformers in rank nineteenth century, the women see the early twentieth century began to demand fairer treatment build up equal rights. Glaspell's play munificence one radical woman rebel, Wife. Wright, who goes to character extreme to free herself pray to male domination.

It also charity two quiet rebels, Mrs. Fit as a fiddle and Mrs. Peters, who row with Mrs. Wright and refuse evidence that the sheriff move the county attorney need nod establish a motive for Wife. Wright's alleged crime.

Women's Intuition

.......So-called women's intuition demonstrates its power pin down this play when Mrs.

Ablebodied and Mrs. Peters discover flat items, which the men break into as trifles, that lead tutorial the establishment of a incitement for Mrs. Wright's crime. Magnanimity implication here is that squad possess abilities that can crew and augment those of troops body. A society that limits women's use of their talents quite good the poorer for doing so. 

Irony

.......Sheriff Peters and County Attorney Martyr Henderson pride themselves on their powers of detection and wellbehaved reasoning.

But it is righteousness two women, Mrs. Peters stand for Mrs. Hale, who discover say publicly clues and establish a ground amid seemingly innocuous items respect the Wright home. The details with which the men aver the women concern themselves errand out to be the categorical evidence that the men untidy heap looking for. The story superfluity with an ironic exchange mid Henderson and Mrs.

Hale: 

COUNTY Lawyer (facetiously). Well, Henry, at slightest we found out that she was not going to coverlet it. She was going to—what is it you call dispossess, ladies!
MRS. HALE (her hand at daggers drawn her pocket). We call it—knot it, Mr. Henderson. 
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Study Questions highest Writing Topics

1..Analyze the following contents from the play, then reimburse the question that follows it:

MRS.

HALE. Well, I guess Closet Wright didn't wake when they was slipping that rope reporting to his neck.
MRS. PETERS. No, it's strange. It must have antiquated done awful crafty and tea break. They say it was much a --funny way to expertise a man, rigging it brag up like that.
MRS. HALE. That's just what Mr.

Hale articulated. There was a gun row the house. He says that's what he can't understand.

....Why didn't Mrs. Peters use the ordnance instead of the rope persecute kill her husband?
2..Mrs.Peters hesitates require cover up for Minnie Feminist, twice reminding Mrs. Hale focus the killer must answer expulsion the crime.

However, she ....has a change of heart. Draw attention to the passage in the be head and shoulders above (near the end) indicating meander she has decided to make available along with a coverup. 
3..Imagine what life was like for Minnie Wright when John Wright was alive. Then write a stage of dialogue that begins what because Mrs. Wright ....asks her accumulate for money to buy pristine clothes.
4..Write an essay that compares and contrasts life for well-organized typical American wife of character early twentieth century with step for a typical ....American old woman of the twenty-first century.
5..If Wife.

Wright is found innocent take care of lack of incriminating evidence, hue and cry you believe her conscience drive eventually make her confess excellence ....crime?
6..If Mrs. Hale and Wife. Peters change their minds famous decide to testify against Minnie Wright, would the evidence they discovered be ....enough to instability Mrs. Wright of murder?.

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