In 1916, Susan Glaspell wrote the play Trifles and later reproduced it into the short story ?A Jury of Her Peers.? Both the story and the play tell of a murder investigation where women uncover the evidence needed for solving the crime. In the mean time, the men are busy overlooking this evidence and criticizing the women for paying attention to petty details.
Susan Glaspell was a pioneer in the movement toward giving women further equality with men. She expressed her views at the beginning of the twentieth century, which was actually before the women?s movement. Glaspell supported feministic views such as birth control, women?s suffrage, and equal rights as men (LHM 1). She wrote many short stories about women and feminism and many were produced in women?s magazines. Combining her own beliefs with the values of her readers, she wrote about love, money, social classes, evil and suffering.
The image of American playwright Susan Glaspell (1...
MINNIE JUBILADA
minnie infront of madonna mtOne of Glaspell?s beliefs is ?love and money are the most desirable things in the world, but the greater of these is love?(Baechler 188). Glaspell frequently revealed her feministic views through her works using the title, character?s names and personalities and the overall plot of the story. ?A Jury of Her Peers? and Trifles both harbor each of the methods, clearly showing Glaspell?s feminism.
One way Glaspell reveals her feministic views is through the title of the play. She chooses the title Trifles to convey the image of a small, insignificant object or action. The women in the story are looked upon by the men as insignificant and that women are only concerned with trivial matters. Louis Hale, a neighbor of the murder victim and assistant to the sheriff?s investigation, remarks ?women are used to worrying over trifles? (Glaspell 77). It is ironic; however, that through the...