Susan Glaspell

8.3                                              Susan Glaspell

 Susan Glaspell was a playwrighter who told stories about real women.   Glaspell portrayed women in a way that expressed their struggles.  Men often sterotyped women as they always have done.  Glaspell was borned in a middle class family.  Many of her earlier works were based on her upbringing in her hometown of Davenport, Iowa.  When Glaspell was older she became more aware of the world around her and of the inequalities that women had suffered.  Glaspell wrote many plays throughout her life and eleven of them were featured in the Provincetown Players.  Among the many plays that Glaspell wrote “Trifles” a play that gained the most recognition. This particular play starts in an abandoned kitchen in the home of John and Minnie Wright.  There in the house is Henry Peters (the sheriff), Mrs. Peters (his wife), George Henderson (County Attorney), Lewis Hale (County Attorney), and Mrs. Hale (his wife).  They are investigating the murder of John Wright.  Lewis Hale tells the sheriff and the county attorney what he saw when he came to the home the night before.  Mrs. Wright was sitting in her rocking chair very calm, when Mr. Hale came to visit.  He had intended on asking her husband about getting a phone.  Ay this time it was possible to get a group line where they could all talk to one another.   As he searched the house he found Mr. Wright dead, he had been strangled by a rope around his neck.

While the men searched the home the following day the women were left to look around the downstairs alone, the men told them they could take some of Mrs. Wright’s things to the jailhouse.  They all noticed how untidy the home was, but the men were more critical.  As the men criticized the home over and over you could feel the women becoming defensive.  As the story progressed the women began to take on a more sympathetic role for Mrs. Wright.  They began searching through the downstairs and found her quilt.  It was beautiful, but the last few stitches were done very poorly as if she was nervous.  Instead of turning this over to their husband as evidence, they decided to undo the stitching.  They also found an empty birdcage, and when they began searching found the bird in a box dead.  When they took a good look at the bird, they realized that the bird’s neck had been broken.   The women began putting the pieces together.  Mrs. Wright’s husband wasn't very nice.  As a young girl Minnie was lively and loved to sing, but after marrying Mr. Wright her light had fizzled out.  The women began feeling sorry for her, and decided to hide the evidence.  The men searched the house looking for some kind of evidence or motive, but they could not find any.  The women came to realize that Mrs. Wright did kill her husband and in the end they did not tell on her.