Stereotypes In Susan Glaspell's Trifles

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Stereotypes are unfortunately something that everyone deals with on a day-to-day basis. Most stereotypes can perpetuate incorrect and very demeaning qualities and traits about groups of people. Negative stereotypes can encourage racism, sexism and blatant discrimination. Susan Glaspell’s Trifles uses characterization, setting, and symbolism to criticize sexist impressions of men and women and the roles they play.
The first of many techniques used by Glaspell in Trifles was the use of characterization. In the process of conveying information to the audience Glaspell continued to show the stereotypes of men being dominating and authoritative while women were seen as submissive. All the men in the drama were clearly dominating over women in …show more content…
The men also thought they were leading the investigation into the murder of Mr. Wright while searching for a possible motive. Mr. Wright had gotten away with emotionally abusing his wife for 30 years; however, with his death ended the male oppression that he held over Mrs. Wright once and for all. The implication that the center of the play is domestic abuse and a woman’s murder of her husband is very key to the idea of stereotypes and the sexism used throughout the play. The men and women reacted differently to ordinary household items and to the murder scene in general. Their reactions were based on the general negative stereotypical differences between men and women. The men focused more on concrete ideas and items while the women focused more on the emotional aspects of the murder scene and the overall lack of happiness in the home. For example, Mrs. Hale says that the reason she never came to see Mrs. Wright was because “It never seemed a very cheerful place” like that is an honest reason to not come to someone’s home. Then in …show more content…
With unspoken dialogue, the messages are communicated without saying a word, usually through body language: a look into the eyes or a look away, a shrugging of the shoulders or a look of horror on someone’s face. It is also the underlying belief one tries to convey and convince the other person of he or she is communicating. Reading the play’s script (and thus the stage directions) is something that is entirely different than seeing the play on stage. On stage, body language is something that one may not pick up on, but reading the actor’s directions (essentially) we know as reader’s what is supposed to be conveyed through the actions of the characters. However ignoring the stage directions and reading the play as straight dialogue similar ideas are portrayed through the dialogue. One such interaction, using both types of dialogue in Trifles occurred between Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters: Mrs. Hale believed the Mrs. Wright killed her husband but more out of self-defense. Mrs. Hale was trying to convince Mrs. Peters that Mr. Wright was a bad man and Mrs. Wright had just defended herself. Mrs. Wright’s husband while outside of the home appeared to be a nice and respectful man to the community, the almost typical description of a murderer. Although, when he was inside his home he was a very different man. He was very controlling
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