TRIFLES_Susan Glaspell

EXPLORATIONS OF THE TEXT

2. What clues lead the women to conclude that Minnie Wright killed her husband? 

There were many clues that lead the women to conclude that Minnie Wright killed her husband. The clues are the quilt which was nervously sewn, the empty birdcage and the dead bird. These clues indicate that something has happened to Mrs Wright and she felt uneasy with something. Mrs Peter and Mrs Hale also talks about how cheerful Mrs Wright was before she got married. It shows Mrs Wright was not happy with her married life.

3. How do the men differ from the women? from each other? 

The men in Trifles are considered as having the typical men’s attitude where they always look down on women and overlooked trifle or trivial things. They make fun of women characters in the story as they were talking about trivial things which the men thought were not important and did not relate to the investigation.

Women, however, are different from men where they are very sensitive towards surroundings and even sensitive towards trivial things. The evidence in the story could support my statement where the women were actually solving the mystery and doing the investigation unexpectedly by discovered all the clues hidden which considered as trifles by men characters.

Men were mostly possessed the same attitudes or characters. They did not differ much from each other except for their physical appearance and age. The men in the story share the same thought of looking down on women and making fun of trivial stuffs. They were also egoist as they were denying women’s ability.

 4. What do the men discover? Why do they conclude "Nothing here but kitchen things"?

The men looking around the house for evidence and motif of the murder but they did not discover anything because of their egoist attitude that made them overlooked the trivial things which turned out to be the evidence found by women instead of men. They conclude “Nothing here but kitchen things” and overlook them because the underestimate women and thought that the kitchen was meant for women only. They conclude that nothing could come out from searching for evidence in the kitchen. The different of sexes was clearly shown in the story by Susan Glaspell where men underestimated women’s ability in the society.

~Major Playwrights~

MAJOR PLAYWRIGHTS

ARTHUR MILLER

            Arthur Asher Miller, also known as Arthur Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was born on October 17, 1915 in Harlem, New York. He was a prominent figure in American theatre and best known for bitting criticism of societal problems. His best known play is Death of a Salesman. He received notable awards such as Pullitzer Prize for Drama (1949), Kennedy Center Honors (1984), Praemium Imperiale (2001) and other awards.

            He was raised in a moderate affluent household until his family lost almost everything in the Wall Street Crash of 1929.  After graduating high school, he worked few jobs to save money in order to attend University of Michigan. He has married three times, which was to Mary Slattery and had two children. His second wife, Marilyn Monroe had two miscarriages and he had another two children with his third wife Inge Morth. Miller begins his career with inspiration from his playwright professor, Kenneth Rowe’s approach. He died on February 10, 2005 in Roxbury, Connecticut at the age of 89.

WORKS:-

~ Death of a Salesman (1940)

~ All My Sons (1947)

~ The Crucible (1952)

~ A View from the Bridge (1955)…

"The structure of a play is always the story of how the birds came home to roost."

– Arthur Miller

  

SUSAN GLASPELL

Susan Keating Glaspell or mostly known as Susan Glaspell was an American playwright, actress, director, novelist, biographer and journalist. She was born on July 1, 1876 in Davenport, Iowa to Elmer Glaspell and Alice Keating. She received her education in Davenport High School, Drake University and University of Chicago. In 1899, she graduated with a philosophy degree from Drake University in Des Moines and worked as a journalist with Des Moines Daily News.

Glaspell with her husband, George Cram Cook was the founder of the Provincetown Players (1916-1920), the Little Theatre that promotes American dramatists. Her diplomacy and energy held the group together for seven years. Glaspell is well known as the author of Trifles, one of her famous plays. The play is about two women’s secret discovery of a wife’s murder of her husband. Glaspell is famous for her feminist view in her works. In 1931, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her play Alison’s House. She died on July 27, 1948 in Provincetown, Massachusetts at the age of 72.

Work cited:-

http://www.biography.com/people/arthur-miller-9408335

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jglaspell.htm

http://blogs.shu.edu/glaspellsociety/sample-page/