Susan Glaspell - Trifles

Susan Glaspell’s life experiences play out through her writing. This story was based on an actual murder case she covered while working as a young reporter in Des Moines, Iowa. She lived during a time when women were still limited on the “freedoms” they actually had. This gave her the initiative to express her feelings and desires through her writing.
In this story “Trifles,” there is a definite distinction between the role of women and men. From the beginning, Glaspell immediately shows in her characters gender distinction by listing the men with their first and last names as well as character explanation. The women are just named by their married names.
In this story, Mr. Wright has been murdered and his wife was immediately arrested for the crime. As the sheriff, county attorney, and the neighbor come to make sense of what happened, they are accompanied by the sheriff’s wife and the neighbor’s wife. Mrs. Wright has apparently strangled her husband by using a rope thought she claims she didn’t do it. As the men are there to make sense of the murder and to find a motive, the women come across several things that give reason to the murder. Mr. and Mrs. Wright had no children, so it was evident that Mrs. Wright was entrapped in her own lonely life being caged by her husband. Mrs. Wright had once had a canary, but when the women find it dead in a pretty box with its neck twisted and broken, they figure it had been done by Mr. Wright and maybe this was one of the contributing factors causing her to murder her husband. The women also know that Mr. Wright made Mrs. Wright unhappy for many years, so they inadvertently find no fault in her and help to cover the things they have accidentally came across that gives them reasoning to know she did indeed kill her husband and why. The men seeking hard to find evidence find none and the women keep their findings to themselves, even though one of these women is the sheriff’s wife. This may go to show that she lives in her own life of control and confinement as well as her experiencing as a child when a boy killed her cat with a hatchet just as it is assumed that Mr. Wright is probably the one that killed Mrs. Wright’s canary causing her to kill him.
There is an evidential showing of male dominance in this story and it shows how women are just the property of their husbands and have no individuality. Many women have lived this way and some still do today. I am just thankful that I now live in a society that men and women are seen more equally and have the same opportunities in life.