The Symbolism of Gender Roles in Trifles Play
The Symbolism of Gender Roles in Trifles Play
Academic level: Master’s
Essay type: Memoir
Size: 2 pages ~ (985 words)
“Gender equality not only liberates women but also men from prescribed gender stereotypes” – Elle Macpherson. These days, after many years of fighting for equality, in most of the world, people are considered more or less equal regardless of their gender. Of course, no country has achieved full gender equality yet due to significant disparities facing women in legal, economic, and social mediums. Still, the situation with gender roles and perception tends to be significantly better than it was at the beginning of the 20th century and earlier in history when society was highly patriarchal and women were treated with little importance. For decades, the traditional “female” roles were a wife, a mother, and a housekeeper, whereas the standard “male” role was the breadwinner in the family. These roles are prominently seen in literature works published before the late 20th century.
“Trifles,” a one-act play written by Susan Glaspell and first performed in 1916, is one of the classic examples of literature that takes a look at traditional gender roles. Through hidden symbolism in Trifles Susan Glaspell covers important timeless themes of social inequality, marriage as a primary tool for oppressing women, traditional gender roles and expectations for both men and women, the pursuit of justice, the gender bias in the justice system, and the fluidity of one’s identity based on the expectations and prejudices of others looking at it.
Exploring gender roles in the play, the first thing we can see is how Glaspell sets different contexts for interactions between the Trifles characters depending on their genders. The play’s plot is set in the farmhouse of John and Minnie Wright the next day after John Wright is found strangled in his bed and his wife Minnie is arrested. To investigate the case and find evidence of Mrs. Wright’s guilt, three men arrive at the farmhouse–The Sheriff, Henry Peters, the County Attorney, George Henderson, and Lewis Hale, the neighbor who discovered Mr. Wright’s body. The men are accompanied by two women–the Sheriff’s wife, Mrs. Peters, and the neighbor’s wife, Mrs. Hale.
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Glaspell instantly sets the scene for gender inequality in Trifles by demonstrating that men came to the farmhouse to investigate the crime, while women were only there to collect some clothes and belongings of Mrs. Wright to take to her in jail. Then, starting exploring the crime scene from the kitchen, men only notice Minnie's poor housekeeping by seeing dirty towels, unwashed dishes, and other signs of a mess. When Mrs. Hale tries to defend Mrs. Wright, men only joke that she's being “loyal to her sex,” thus, dismissing any concerns that women may have. Further exploring the kitchen, they find exploded jars of canned fruit, after which Mrs. Peters remarks that Minnie had been worried about them exploding. After this, Mr. Hale states that “women are used to worrying over trifles,” and men leave women to continue discussing “trifles” while they take care of “serious” things and continue the investigation outside. The Trifles symbolism shows us how unseriously men actually treated women, thinking that all they bother about is nothing more than a trifle.
By painting traditional gender roles in Trifles this way, Susan Glaspell shows us that men of that time mainly treated women in a dismissive and condescending manner, typically belittling their abilities and neglecting their concerns. They laugh at women’s attention to small household details, such as a half-finished quilt of Mrs. Wright, finding them trivial and unimportant. Yet, this particular attention to small details is what eventually leads women to solve the mystery.
Looking out for more clues, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale notice a birdcage with a door that has been violently ripped off and no bird inside. They base their suggestions on logic, sympathy, and understanding, thinking that Mrs. Wright must have been incredibly lonely and bought a canary to keep her company. This is the kind of tiny details that men wouldn’t notice or would likely leave without attention due to their bias and belittling approach to women. Searching further, the two women find a red box with the body of the dead bird with a broken neck inside of it among Minnie’s sewing material. They conclude that Mr. Wright must have strangled the bird and Mrs. Peters recalls a time when a cruel boy killed her kitten in her eyes. Both women agree that Minnie must have felt even lonelier after her bird was killed, which is a clear motive. However, though they first believe that the law must punish the murder of John Wright, eventually, Mrs. Hale hides the bird’s body in her pocket when men return and continue mocking them at their attention to such unimportant things as whether Minnie is going to “quilt it or just knot” her unfinished quilt. At the end of the play, Mrs. Hale responds to the County Attorney’s sarcastic question that Minnie is going to “knot it,” representing the resolved moral dilemma and the stance women took on the case. The decision to protect Minnie shows women’s deep disagreement with the aforementioned Trifles gender roles. In the course of the investigation, Mrs. Hale recalls that Minnie used to be just like her canary–she wore fancy clothes and used to sing beautifully until she got married, which represents the true oppression women faced in marriage.
Lastly, exploring gender roles in Trifles by Susan Glaspell, we should also pay attention to the hidden symbols in the play. The unfinished quilt symbolism lies in the suppressed creativity Minnie Wright faced in her marriage, whereas women’s considerations of whether she will “quilt” or “knot” likely represent Minnie’s innocence or, accordingly, guilt in the murder. Birdcage symbolism lies in Minnie’s oppression and stifled existence in her own marriage with subsequent liberation. Through such symbolism in Trifles, the author reinforced the pressure placed on women of that time by men and standardized gender roles, as well as their will for life and liberation.
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