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

The Battle of the Sexes in Susan Glaspells Trifles Well, wowork force are used to sorry over trifles, (Glaspell 957) remarks crime horizon eyewitness Mr. Hale in Susan Glaspells bunco play Trifles. As this quotation blatantly demonstrates, literature has had a prolonged history of gender bias, both in terms of adequate design of wo manpower as authors and as formidable, strong characters. In this reference to his and the sheriffs wives, Mr. Hale presents the eristical conflict that will prove prevalent, if latent, throughout the course of this work. In the play, the male characters are regarded as intellectually superior 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 female characters with ample cunning to on the QT and humbly triumph over male condescending. The action of Glaspells play is execute by a mere five players, three of whom are men - a fact which in itself demonstrates the establishment of women as a minority, regular in such a small sampling. The county attorney, Sheriff Peters, Mrs. Peters, eyewitness Mr. Hale, and Mrs. Hale are drawn together in a dismal and atmospheric farmhouse to canvass the murder of Joe Wright, whose wife is the prime suspect. Even in the plays most fundamental introduction, we are presented with a marked distinction between the mens and womens perspectives. The men immediately perceive the house as a crime scene and as such feel compelled to interview Mr. Hale about lucubrate of his visit and officiously search for smoking-gun evidence as to the killer?s motives. Conversely, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters comprehend the environment as something more inti... ...e women remain silent, withhold information from their husbands for the sake of an unhappy mistreated woman whose loneliness and isolation are not terribly far-removed from their own. In her article, Holstein refers to Trifles as a cheapjack play (Holstein 282), and I believe that to be an excellent choice of description. Trifles solely 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. work CitedGlaspell, Susan. Trifles The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Bedford/St.Martins Boston 2005. Holstein, Suzy Clarkson. Silent Justice in a disparate Key Glaspells Trifles. Midwest-Quarterly A Journal of Contemporary Thought (MQ). 44.3 (2003 Spring) 282-90.