First & Last Name
Professor Martin
English 1302 – WW2
17 April 2006
Trifle This!
It is an ongoing mystery: how do the good guys always win, even when they are inferior to their adversary?  Just when it looks as if the villain is going to come out on top, the little guy, usually perceived as weak, does something miraculous and triumphs.  Is this merely coincidence, or is there a reason behind the continued success of the humble?  Many of the struggles that the simple-hearted encounter can be found in stories, plays, and literature.  In Susan Glaspell’s Trifles, Minnie Wright lived as subordinate under the shadow of a male-dominated society, of which, she and her husband were both a product.  While the men in Trifles are scurrying to find the clues, the women, truly holding the power, unite and fight back in a passive-aggressive fashion and triumph over the suppressive obstacle of male-power.  Through acknowledging the source and effects of male-power, the interpretation of symbolic key elements, and the persuasive tactics of the author, Susan Glaspell, anyone who reads Trifles will be left confidently knowing how and why Minnie Wright prevailed as she did.
In the early 1900’s, society was organized around the power of men, giving reason to why the needs and concerns of women were dismissed and seen as irrelevant.  Providing insight to such a matter is the fact that the power rests with the males.  One reason for this could be that males give themselves the power, and it starts early.  A glimpse at present psychological factors concerning boys and girls support such a claim, which mirrored the psychological factors in men and women in the early 20th century.  Overall self-esteem is the key, and girls rate themselves lower than do boys, notably during adolescence (Ormrod 96).  With the tendency to overestimate their abilities, boys, who grow to be men, empower themselves, whether it is slightly false or not (Ormrod 118).  No room is left for girls to possess any kind of power, which fuels this male-driven society and a structure characterized by women’s submission to men.  This self-derived power can be detected within the dialogue between the males and the females in Susan Glaspell’s Trifles.  With a solid tone of shared superiority between himself and the County Attorney and Mr. Hale, the Sheriff remarks, “They wonder if she was going to quilt it or just knot it! (The men laugh, the women look abashed)”  (Glaspell 1296).  Such context exposes the perceived inferiority that is bound to women.  The very items with which women spent much of their time were simply dismissed as trifles, as spoken through the Sheriff: “Nothing here but kitchen things” (Glaspell 1293).  Mrs. Hale, when talking to the County Attorney, tries standing up for herself, unknowing that she is tampering with male power.  But it serves to be futile, as he does not even entertain such acts of boldness, and quickly puts an end to her bravery with a simple, “Ah, loyal to your sex, I see” (Glaspell 1294).  Living as inferior to her husband, Minnie Wright endured a life that at best could be described as melancholy.  
The setting within the story echoes such a notion: “The kitchen in the now abandoned farmhouse of John Wright, a gloomy kitchen, and left without having been put in order – the walls covered with a faded wall paper” (Glaspell 1291).  As one discovers after reading the play that Minnie Wright has murdered her husband, the instant reaction is to label Minnie as evil and impulsive.  The reader feels, at best, hardly sympathetic toward Minnie, as anyone who murders his or her spouse is wrong.  Plus, the only logical reasoning to back up her action rests in the sole fact that her husband killed her bird.  Sad and cruel, yes, but no reason to kill her husband.  However, peering into Minnie’s mind, as well as further examining the setting – her house – may allow some sort of explanation for the calamitous and puzzling act of murdering her spouse.  
Being subdued by her husband, Minnie Wright lost her self-identification.  Based on this implication, Minnie had her reasons for murdering her husband.  Hidden within the story almost as clues are some pieces of physical evidence that serve to rationalize this decision.  The fruit stored within the cabinet was something of significance to Minnie, in which she put much time and effort into preserving.  Yet Mr. Hale’s response discards Minnie’s sentiment and reinforces the societal standard in which men possess all the power: “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles” (Glaspell 1293).  The dirty roller towel along with the half-wiped kitchen table support Mrs. Hale’s comment about the Wright house: “It never seemed a very cheerful place” (Glaspell 1294).  These inhospitable imperfections seem to shout out that Minnie did not enjoy her surroundings or anything she did.  She frankly had no feeling of fulfillment.  Mrs. Hale’s comment provides reinforcement: “She didn’t even belong to the Ladies’ Aid.  I suppose she felt she couldn’t do her part, and then you don’t enjoy things when you feel shabby” (Glaspell 1295).  Stemming from such lack of purpose is Minnie’s mindset and how unhappy she is with her life, which is keenly exhibited in her sewing that was discovered by Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters.  “And look at this!  It’s all over the place!  Why, it looks as if she didn’t know what she was about!” (Glaspell 1296).  Minnie’s unhappiness is only intensified as her connection with people, and the outside world is controlled by her husband.  Rejecting the offer for a shared telephone line with their neighbors, the Hales, John Wright further suffocates his wife’s natural rights to communication, as Hale shares his testimony to the County Attorney: “I spoke to Wright about it once before and he put me off, saying folks talked too much anyway, and all he asked was peace and quiet…” (Glaspell 1292).  Hale also notices John Wright’s disinterest in his wife’s opinions, when he reports, “…though I said to Harry that I didn’t know as what his wife wanted made much difference to John ---” (Glaspell 1292).  This control over Minnie’s social life left a severe and lasting wound – the feeling that she was inferior.  Resulting from this inferiority, as imposed by men, specifically her husband, Minnie felt useless and insignificant – nothing more than a trifle.  And things only got worse as her husband put an end to the future and all of the suppressed contentment, joy, and peace that Minnie held on to.  John Wright had once and for all silenced any remaining hope for his wife when he killed her bird.
Minnie Wright used to be the average girl who enjoyed herself.  She even used to be happy: “I heard she used to wear pretty clothes and be lively, when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls singing in the choir” (Glaspell 1295).  It is obvious that Minnie had a simple and untroubled heart before she married John Wright, who forced the burden of misery and feeling of insignificance upon her.  Laid bare was Minnie’s vulnerability and unhappiness, and to somewhat ease this oppression sparked remorse, she bought a pleasant and song-filled canary.  However, this would not last because Minnie’s husband killed the bird, as discovered by Mrs. Hale: “No, Wright wouldn’t like the bird – a thing that sang.  She used to sing.  He killed that, too” (Glaspell 1299).  Giving vital importance to the bird is the fact that Glaspell intended the bird to not only make Minnie happy, but to symbolize Minnie herself (Bourn).  Seeming as if she observed this planned relation, Mrs. Hale remarks, “She – come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself – real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and – fluttery” (Glaspell 1298).  Conquered and caged up, Minnie Wright had taken all that she could handle.  After John had 
“ – wrung – its – neck,” Minnie decided not to quilt it, but to “knot it,” and wring John’s neck (Glaspell 1298).  Bringing to a halt all of her feelings of insignificance and woe, Minnie Wright discovered her understated power and seized her opportunity to be free.  Little did Mrs. Peters know that when she noticed the bird cage’s condition, “Why, look at this door.  It’s broke.  One hinge is pulled apart” (Glaspell 1297), that Minnie Wright had flown free from her oppressive life, which was outlined in insignificance, characterized as nothing more than trifles (Bourn).  Sympathetic to Minnie’s position are Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale.
Both of these ladies understood what it meant to be a woman living within a society that is fueled by male power.  Mrs. Peters, the Sheriff’s wife, certainly understands what it meant, as the County Attorney upheld the fact that the possession of power lied with the men when he asserted, “For that matter a sheriff’s wife is married to the law.  Ever think of it that way, Mrs. Peters?” (Glaspell 1300).  One who also lived in the shadow of her husband was Abigail Adams.  Even with the steep obstacle of power standing in the way, she cut straight to the heart of the matter.  She used the only power that she had as a woman; the power to see past an ego.  Remaining within her submissive boundaries that would not meddle with the male role as power holder, she was able to speak truthful words that embraced the attention and more so, the power, of John Adams, her husband.  While John was in Philadelphia serving in Congress to help draft laws concerning the colonies’ freedom, Abigail pleaded to him to keep in mind the importance of women’s rights:  
I long to hear that you have declared an independency--and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation. (Adams)  
Abigail Adams was able to prove her point while also staying within societal context.  She tactfully expressed her hidden power, and furthermore, all women’s power, which would come into conflict with men’s power if women were wrongfully oppressed.  Mrs. Peters was also faced with a conflict regarding males and their power-driven egos.  While talking with Mrs. Hale, she reminisced about a childhood horror which, much like Minnie Wright’s case, showed a side of cruelty and violence.  “When I was a girl – my kitten – there was a boy took a hatchet, and before my eyes – and before I could get there --- (Covers her face an instant.)  If they hadn’t held me back I would have -- -- hurt him” (Glaspell 1299).  Inspired by this emotion, the ladies took a stand for their sex.  
To further understand the source of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peter’s capacity to sympathize with Minnie, consider the words that God spoke to Samuel when he was in pursuit of David to anoint him as king: “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.  Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7).  In concordance with the all-powerful God of Israel, the actions of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters showed that they possessed the ability to see past the surface.  Upon finding Minnie’s dead bird, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters decided to hide it, thus giving the reader the assumption that there would be a lack of evidence to prove that Minnie was responsible for her husband’s murder.  In a similar situation, a reader would not likely approve of this action, however, if trained by the author, it may be a different story, which is exactly the case with Trifles, through the dialogue of Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale.  Glaspell conditions the reader to accept a sort of emotional lens, as the males’ suppressing power is felt and observed from a female’s perspective in the play Trifles.  Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters see past an unlawful act and look at Minnie’s heart, which enkindles a feeling of sympathy for her and her position.  Inspired by this sympathy, the women were actually able to stay quiet about the evidence with ease as nothing was expected of them because of their low status (Holstein).  Through Glaspell’s constant and thorough conditioning as delivered by these wives’ emotional conversations, the reader is persuaded to look the other way concerning the murder and comes to accept Mrs. Hale’s and Mrs. Peter’s decision to conceal the evidence. By the women’s choice to do this, it is almost as if they are getting back at the men, as if they are taking a sort of passive-aggressive jab at their elevated egos.  They are proving that they do themselves possess power and that they are not insignificant.  Through the power within the females’ unity, it is discovered that what was always dismissed as trifles turned out to be not so trifling. 
Men and power have always gone hand in hand.  Because of this, women are perceived as less important and in the extreme case, as in Susan Glaspell’s Trifles, as insignificant. Through the acknowledgment of the source and effects of male power, an understanding of certain key objects and their symbolic meaning, and Glaspell’s conditioning by way of Mrs. Peter’s and Mrs. Hale’s sympathy for Minnie, the reader comes to accept Minnie’s unexpected and brutal act as necessary.  In Glaspell’s Trifles, societal unequal distribution of power plays a significant role in why Minnie Wright, who like the “little guy,” is falsely perceived as inferior. Through the aid of her fellow females, a miraculous wonder took place for all to see that Minnie Wright was destined to come out on top, and this goes to show that not even the greatest of power plays could restrain the often forgotten true inner power that women possess. 

Works Cited
“Abigail Adams.”  Literary Biographies.  Student Resource Center.  Thompson 
Gale.  7 April 2006 <http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SRC>

Bourn, Bryan D.  “A Feminist Criticism of Susan Glaspell’s Trifles.”  26 March 2006                 
<http://www.hongik.edu/~yhyo/glaspel.html>.
Glaspell, Susan.  Trifles.  Making Literature Matter: An Anthology for Readers and Writers.  

Ed.  John Schilb and John Clifford.  Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003.  1290 – 1301.

Holstein, Suzy Clarkson.  “Silent justice in a different key: Glaspell’s ‘Trifles.’”  The Midwest 

Quarterly 44.3 (2003): 282.  Student Resource Center.  Thompson Gale.  13 April 2006  

<http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/SRC>

Ormrod, Jeanne Ellis.  Educational Psychology: Developing Learners.  New Jersey: Pearson 
Education, Inc, 2006.
The Student Bible, New International Version.  Zondervan.  Michigan: Grand Rapids, 1996.