Assignment 6: Justice in Trifles by As Susan Glaspell
As Susan Glaspell’s Trifles is drawing to a close, and the men are preparing to leave the murder scene, when the County Attorney is asked if he wants to see what Mrs. Peters is going to take in to Mrs. Wright, he responds “Oh, I guess they’re not very dangerous things the ladies have picked out.” What the men do not know is that the women have pieced together the motive for the murder, and by silent agreement have made themselves Mrs. Wright’s jury and acquitted her of wrongdoing by hiding the evidence. In your graded writing assignment, you are asked to describe whether or not justice has been served, examining closely and determining what you think is the main theme of Glaspell’s play, and illustrating your thesis with supporting evidence from the play. Drawing upon the time and setting for Glaspell’s 1916 dramatic one-act play, Trifles, examine the social, cultural and/or political situation as presented in the play, and the actions of the men and women in the play. Reviewing the actions and evidence provided by the play, you are asked to judge whether or not by the play’s end if justice of some kind has been served and whose justice. You can use the characters in the play as your sources, quoting the words of the women and/or the men, for example, as further evidence to illustrate your thesis, which should reflect the main theme you see emerging from Trifles. This short writing assignment should be no fewer than 500 words in length, and should include no fewer than three (3) quotes from the play to illustrate and support your points. Do not provide plot summary unless it is necessary to make a point that supports your thesis. Although your written assignments for these next three weeks do not require citing outside sources, you will be asked to cite the quotations that you use from the plays to which you are responding. These APA style resources will assist you in doing so.
Assignment 6: Justice in Trifles by As Susan Glaspell
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The setting of the story is a farmhouse belonging to the late John Wright and Minnie Wright whereby the five characters come to examine the scene and are crucial to the play’s plot. The kitchen has a melancholy mood as it is not well maintained, and this further adds mystery to the murder. The sheriff states that, “Nothing here but kitchen things,” neglecting to look closer for anything that would provide clues to the murder mystery (Glaspell, 2010). The themes of female identity and patriarchal dominance are in turn related to how men and women have different views on justice. This paper highlights that in the end justice has not been served despite women relying on silence justice as revenge for their oppression.
Mrs. Wright was not sentenced, and justice is not served for the murder of her husband. One of the issues that complicate the quest for justice is that the women come to sympathize with her situation and hide evidence. Both Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale get into the farmhouse because of their husbands. However, when looking for items that would make Mrs. Wright’s life more comfortable in jail they come across a bird that is strangled and decide to hide the bird. They already know that the society expects them to play a secondary role to that of their husband, they condone the crime and justice is not served, but Mrs. Wright does away with playing second fiddle in her marriage and being viewed as being less important. The women do not oppose man’s justice openly by deciding to remain silent, but Glaspell is against alienation of men who make up the law (Ozieblo, 2000).
The play shows that leaving out women’s voice in the justice system is unjust, as the men of authority in the rural Midwestern community do not value their women as being crucial to making important decisions. The men at the murder scene are not interested in spending more time to look for clues in the kitchen which is a preserve for the women. The women decide to carry out with their own version of silent justice as a way to rebel against the male domina...