Amal A High School * Petah-Tickva

4/5pt Literature Requierements

About Susan Glaspell and Trifles

Susan Glaspell (1876-1948)

Susan Glaspell is an interesting example of the late nineteenth-century woman

writer, raised in the local color tradition, who radically altered her life and art
after her marriage and moved east. She "came of age" about the same time
American writing moved from regionalism to modernism and she helped found
the modern movement in American drama. Once her experimental period was
over, she returned to fiction and to her earlier themes--much more maturely
presented. Whether her retreat back to regionalism was because her husband
died or because she felt more secure in the older tradition, no one can say.

Major Themes, Historical Perspectives, and Personal Issues

1. Regional : The play conveys the brutal experience of being a farm wife in
Iowa during the latter half of the nineteenth century.

2. Sexual : In this play women are pitted against men--Minnie against her
husband, the two women against their husbands and the other men. The men
are logical, arrogant, stupid; the women are sympathetic and drawn to
empathize with Minnie and forgive her her crime.

3. Mythic : The setting--a lonely, bleak, cold landscape; the main characters
are never seen on stage and assume a shadowy, almost archetypal presence;
the struggle between them is echoed by the antagonisms between the two
women and three men on stage; the result is that a brutal murder is forgiven
because of the more terrible tragedy beneath it.

Significant Form, Style, or Artistic Conventions

This play presents most of the qualities of local color writing: exact detail,
local speech and customs, a strong sense of place. It avoids some of the
excesses of that genre: idealization of character, emphasis on the unique and
colorful aspects of the locale, and sentimentality. The demands of the one-act
drama, its compression, single set, limited characters, tight plot, single mood--
all protect the play from the excesses of its convention and enhance its
virtues.
We should also note that the play carefully distinguishes between the affairs
of men and the concerns of women. The men intrude on the woman's world,
dirtying her towels, scoffing at her knitting and preserves. As we move into
the kitchen, the men are left out and the awful details of Minnie's life are
revealed to Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, so that when the men return, we see

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The English staff team© 2002-2006
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 Amal A High School * Petah-Tickva
4/5pt Literature Requierements
how blind they are and we, the audience, accept their decision not to
reveal Minnie's motive.
Original Audience
We know the play was based on an actual trial Susan Glaspell covered as a
reporter in Des Moines. In this sense, the play was written for a midwestern
audience to dramatize the terrible life of a farm wife, isolated and dependent
on her husband for her physical and emotional needs, with the occasional tragic
consequences the play depicts. But the play was written after Susan Glaspell
had left the Midwest, after she had lived abroad, married, and moved to
Provincetown. She had time to ponder the implications of the event and see
the tragedy in larger terms, so she was able to transform a journalistic story
into a universal drama.

And now…….a few questions about the play:

1)How does the physical location of the characters help develop the theme?
2)Who are more fully developed, the two women or the three men? Explain and
show examples.
3)Indicate several ways Susan Glaspell conditions the audience to accept the
final decision.
4)What are the advantages and disadvantages of local-color writing?
5)Examine the one-act play form to see what can and cannot be done with it.
6)What point is made by showing the house in disarray (bread in the pan,
towels unchanged, etc) the day after the murder?
7)What do we know about John Wright? And about his wife?
8)What do we learn about the relationship between John Wright and his wife?
9)How are the women’s actions different from the men’s in the play? What
interests the men? The women?
10)What may the bird be a symbol of? Are there any similarities between the
bird and Minnie Wright?
11)Mr. Hale says, “Well, women are used to worrying about trifles.” What
trifles are important in the play?
12)Do you feel that the situation and the characters in this play are
believable? Give reasons for your answer.

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The English staff team© 2002-2006
D:\2006\schl2006prep\Lit\intsvRdng\4-5ptLvlLit\SusanGlaspellAndTrifles.doc