24 pages • 48 minutes read
Susan GlaspellTrifles
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1916A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Patriarchal Dismissal of Women
In a sexist, patriarchal society, men continually underestimate the intelligence and capabilities of women—and ultimately sabotage themselves in so doing. This theme is most saliently iterated through the titular idea of "trifles." The male characters in the play consistently dismiss both the women's conversation and their possessions as trifles—not knowing that it is within these purported trifles that the answers they seek lie. If the men took both Mrs. Wright’s suffering and possessions into real consideration, then their blustering “hard work” might have borne fruit. Instead, the men are content to rely upon their suppositions and assumptions about the inconsequential triviality of women and domestic work in order to attend to details at the farmhouse that they, as men, deem important or promising. It is this willful ignorance that gives the women a perfect opportunity to piece together the crime, mostly unmolested, and to smuggle the crucial piece of evidence out of the farmhouse.
Women's Affairs as "Trifles"
Domestic life and items—as well as the strength and labor required to keep a home—are habitually dismissed by men as insignificant trifles. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale share an immediate affinity for and understanding of one another because of their shared experiences as women and wives. They respect the work and struggles attendant to each of their respective lives—and to the life of Mrs. Wright—because they know that running a farmhouse requires significant skill and strength. For instance, they know that the flame in the kitchen must consistently stay lit in order for fruit preserves to come out. They know that the nutritious and wholesome foods they prepare for their families require planning, intelligence, and diligence to successfully come to fruition.
The men in the story, however, have no such affinity or respect for the women—one of them being Mr. Peters’ own wife—because they see the women's work as trifling, insignificant, unskilled, and unintelligent. Still, it is the women's intelligence and intimate insight into Mrs. Wright’s life—a byproduct of their shared experienced of being dismissed, unappreciated, and abused—that ultimately solve the crime.
The Sisterhood of Women
Through a common experience of oppression under patriarchy, women form a secret sisterhood. This theme is most exemplified by the majority of the action of the play: the secret and undisturbed—and then surreptitious—exchange between Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale. While the men bluster about, condescendingly dismissing the women and going about their “important business” (which turns up nothing), the two women quietly put the motive for the crime together after discovering the piece of evidence the men miss. This all literally occurs under the noses of the County Attorney and Sheriff because they are so busy deriding and dismissing women, they miss the crucial piece of evidence. It is precisely this dismissive derision that produces a solidarity between Mrs. Hale, Mrs. Peters, and Mrs. Wright.
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By Susan Glaspell
