Trifles - the Fight Against Social Standards

Malvina Nowacki

Dr. Amber Riaz

English 1106

March 10, 2016

The Fight Against Social Standards

The play Trifles by Susan Glaspell, and tragic play Just Fine by Elizabeth Primamore show women’s fight against society’s underlying expectations and unequal distribution of power. In Trifles, there are clear examples of a typical patriarchal society where women are treated poorly by men. The women are portrayed as their husband’s property and therefore, controlled by them. However, the wives end up succeeding unlike the law, which does not, symbolizing male power. In the play, success occurs despite the social standards of women and although they lack societal identity, they gain power from their ability to solve the events of the murder which represents their resistance against social standards. In Just Fine, the unequal distribution of power is based on the main character, Susan, living as a woman which already suppresses her in society as well as her sexual orientation. Society’s expectations of women, which is even greater for lesbian couples, foster the power struggle Susan faces. The women fight for power in a social setting that denies them access to power and resources. These women ultimately manage to push past these standards and perceptions, thus questioning the societal views which represent their gain of power over a suppressive social setting.

Trifles by Susan Glaspell Trifles by Susan Glaspell has a theme of unequal power distribution between the sexes which is the result of the discriminatory social setting against women of that time. The unequal distribution of power is prevalent in Minnie’s relationship with her husband, Mr. Wright. This is shown through the symbol of the canary and how Mrs. Hale says that Minnie “was kind of a like a bird herself-real, sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and-fluttery. How-she-did-change” (Glaspell 328). This shows that the singing canary represents Minnie before her marriage, and the strangling of it represents the suppressed happiness. Mrs. Hale describes her as a pretty girl who loved to sing, however, during her marriage to Mr.Wright, he had taken the happiness from her using his power over her, which ended up killing the songbird inside of her. Minnie’s mental state ended up fluctuating and declining drastically, shown through Mrs. Peters mention that Minnie “worried about that when it turns so cold. [...] her jars would break” (Glaspell 322). This suggests the jars were a representation on Minnie’s mental health and therefore, when the warmth of her relationship stopped it left her cold inside and led her mental state to shatter. This breaking point pushed Minnie to take matters into her own hand and to physically regain power over her abusive husband by killing him. The wives, like Minnie, go against their husbands and social constraints to power over.

The men in the play appear confident and businesslike, while the women are fearful and nervous, indicating their sense of isolation and distress caused by the unjust social settings. This is further strengthened when the women enter into a different group after the men suggesting that there is already a power distance between the two genders. Another example of power dominance is how the wives are referred to by their husbands last name, which was a common occurrence at this time, which portrayed the women as property of the men and therefore, forcing them to inherit their husband’s identity instead of their own. At the foundation of the gender inequality and power dominance lies the assumption created by the men whom the women's affairs are trifles. This is shown when Mr. Hale says that "women are used to worrying over trifles "(Glaspell 322). This shows that unlike the women, the men overlook the emotional implications of the unbaked bread, half-cleaned towels, and messy stitching on the quilt. Because they see that these objects represent a domestic life, they fail to notice Minnie's probable state of mind. Although the men fail to understand female psychology, the events of the murder shock Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters into a new appreciation of their gender and of the need to support each other. This is shown by Mrs. Hale when she “snatches the box and puts it in the pocket of her big coat” (Glaspell 331). This suggests that when the men jokingly patronize the women's involvement in the investigation, the women prevail specifically because they are devalued and can therefore hide the evidence without question from