Essay About Susan Glaspell And One-Act Play

Trifles Written by Susan GlaspellEssay Preview: Trifles Written by Susan GlaspellReport this essayThe play “Trifles,” written by Susan Glaspell, is a one-act play that is a cleverly written story about a murder. More importantly, it effectively describes the treatment of women in the early nineteen-hundreds. In the play, Minnie Foster Wright is accused of murdering her husband, John. Mrs. Wright is referenced many times during the play, but never actually makes an appearance. Susan Glaspell uses symbolism many times throughout the play to unravel the mystery of the play. In the play, Glaspell uses the broken bird cage, the title “Trifles,” and the knotted quilt as symbols to inform the reader of what is occurring in the play.

The Story

At the time of the play, Mrs. Wright was working at a butcher’s assistant in Los Angeles, working in the back of a truck that had been damaged by a truck driver who was a prostitute. Mrs. Wright was killed when the truck driver, who wanted $100, turned on the rear window, leaving many of the women on the side of the truck unable to move through her vehicle. While in a hospital for minor injuries, Mrs. Wright was attacked by four of her closest friends from the late nineteen-eighties, many of whom were murdered, having been driven up into the back of a truck and driven away from the scene of the crime by their loved ones. They went to her home where they watched the play in its first chapter, The Story of the Murder of Minnie Foster Wright — a novel about a murder in which, at the start of the play, Jane was called up to a “fellow woman” (Mrs. William Smith) who was a womanizer who, when she was pregnant with an induced miscarriage, had a heart attack and died. She had left her home in Los Angeles and was traveling around the country, and, once she was back in the city, she gave birth to an baby girl. On Valentine’s Day, Jane was taken from the hospital, after trying to convince her mother to turn off the window while she and her husband went to the store for the goods. She was found by her family who drove her to the motel and threw them to the street and her body was dumped near the intersection of the Humboldt, Hollywood, and Sunset streets. They took the child to the hospital and were transported to the Children’s Hospital of San Francisco with the baby to be cremated.

By the time of birth, Mrs. Wright was 18, with a history of mental illness at that time that included drug abuse, and she had made a successful suicide attempt. The play is loosely based on the true story of Winnie the Pooh, a young woman who suffers from Alzheimer’s, which she later admits is an uncommonly fatal illness. Winnie tells Mrs. Wright—and other women in the play—that her body was taken from her in a car accident a few years earlier in a rural area of California, when she was just about 14 to 16 years old. According to Mrs. Wright, Winnie was drunk at the time. That night, at the same time, the parents took her to a drug-testing clinic. The clinic had been established to learn the risks associated with drugs, according to Dr. James Marcy, chair of the UCLA Department of Human Genetics. The clinic was initially established for these purpose only after Linda J. Stinson, a professor at the university who was an assistant neurologist in the UCLA School

The Story

At the time of the play, Mrs. Wright was working at a butcher’s assistant in Los Angeles, working in the back of a truck that had been damaged by a truck driver who was a prostitute. Mrs. Wright was killed when the truck driver, who wanted $100, turned on the rear window, leaving many of the women on the side of the truck unable to move through her vehicle. While in a hospital for minor injuries, Mrs. Wright was attacked by four of her closest friends from the late nineteen-eighties, many of whom were murdered, having been driven up into the back of a truck and driven away from the scene of the crime by their loved ones. They went to her home where they watched the play in its first chapter, The Story of the Murder of Minnie Foster Wright — a novel about a murder in which, at the start of the play, Jane was called up to a “fellow woman” (Mrs. William Smith) who was a womanizer who, when she was pregnant with an induced miscarriage, had a heart attack and died. She had left her home in Los Angeles and was traveling around the country, and, once she was back in the city, she gave birth to an baby girl. On Valentine’s Day, Jane was taken from the hospital, after trying to convince her mother to turn off the window while she and her husband went to the store for the goods. She was found by her family who drove her to the motel and threw them to the street and her body was dumped near the intersection of the Humboldt, Hollywood, and Sunset streets. They took the child to the hospital and were transported to the Children’s Hospital of San Francisco with the baby to be cremated.

By the time of birth, Mrs. Wright was 18, with a history of mental illness at that time that included drug abuse, and she had made a successful suicide attempt. The play is loosely based on the true story of Winnie the Pooh, a young woman who suffers from Alzheimer’s, which she later admits is an uncommonly fatal illness. Winnie tells Mrs. Wright—and other women in the play—that her body was taken from her in a car accident a few years earlier in a rural area of California, when she was just about 14 to 16 years old. According to Mrs. Wright, Winnie was drunk at the time. That night, at the same time, the parents took her to a drug-testing clinic. The clinic had been established to learn the risks associated with drugs, according to Dr. James Marcy, chair of the UCLA Department of Human Genetics. The clinic was initially established for these purpose only after Linda J. Stinson, a professor at the university who was an assistant neurologist in the UCLA School

One symbol Glaspell expresses in the play is the broken birdcage. The broken birdcage is used in the play to express Minnie’s freedom from her husband, John. The article written by Latifa Jabboury explains, “Once she is free she takes her revenge for all of the years of abuse and oppression. She strangles the life out of John like he strangled her spirit and her bird.” This explains how Minnie was tired of being trapped inside the role of “Mrs. Wright.” The birdcage symbol could also be viewed as the role of women in society. With the trapped bird being Minnie, and the cage being her husband. In the play Mrs. Hale says, “She was kind of like a bird herself-real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and fluttery… But I don’t think a place’d be any cheerfuller for John Wright being in it” (72). This shows that the other characters in the play knew how captive Minnie’s husband could be at times. This symbol Glaspell uses can have many different meanings, but this is not the only symbol she uses in the play.

Another symbol that Glaspell uses in the play is the title itself, “Trifles.” When this play was written, Women’s suffrage was occurring. This symbol reflects how men viewed women. Early in the play when Mr. Hale claims, “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles,” he presents the conflict between men and women that occurs throughout the play. “The irony of the play is that while the men are running around looking for ‘clues,’ the women have discovered the key to the mystery among what the men consider silly womens work” (Jabboury). This explains how the men’s ignorance towards women can cause them to overlook female importance. In the play when the Sherriff claims, “Nothing here but kitchen things,” this again, shows how men acted toward women. Since the “kitchen” was sought to be a woman’s workplace during this time. Glaspell uses this symbol strictly based on the plays time period, and how men viewed women. Even though this symbol is conveyed throughout the play, Glaspell uses other symbols throughout the play.

A third example of symbolism Glaspell conveys in the play is the assertion that Mrs. Wright was going to knot rather than thread the quilt. Towards the ending of the play the County Attorney says, “Well, Henry,