Essay on Trifles

In the advent of making an essay for the play made by Susan Glaspell, I would like to clear up some vagueness in the paper by stating my point of view in the particular play. I believe that the resolution for the play is agreeable for me. This would not necessarily mean that I believe in hindering the law. But I strongly believe that the resolution was a certain symbolism. This would then necessitate that the main conflict in the play that I could identify is the hidden conflict between two sexes. This claim about the play may have been said over and over again but the most obvious conflict here is the dichotomy between the male and female species.

My agreement for the resolution could easily lead to three reasons. Firstly, the resolution has certainly brought out the clear conflict on the dichotomy. Secondly, the resolution has given out a clear impression on the women subordination that was happening on the timeframe of the play. Lastly, the resolution itself had made certain glimpse on women empowerment.

Reiterating my first reason, I believe that the resolution had become the author/writer’s leeway in presenting the conflict that could be seen in the play. Mr. Hale’s own comment about “…women are used to worrying over trifles.”  (“Trifles” by Susan Glaspell (1916)) is a remark that could easily rile up the modern female senses. Even the reaction of the women present while the comment was given out could be symbolized as a true coming together in defense for the female species.

Reading the play would definitely bring about a certain separation between the two sexes. The remark alone was an indication that the women before were seen to be the followers of the husband. They are seen as the homemakers and they are stereotyped to have done the household chores.

Which would lead me to the second reason that I have provided. In the play, there was a clear cut prejudice for the women on the said century. The men in the play would not even take into consideration the domain that they believe to be for the women’s alone, the kitchen. It is a stereotypical reaction from the patriarchal mindset of the men in the play. Women subordination then could come as an ancient struggle between man and woman. In our time, this issue could be deemed as cliché but for the sake of this critique, one should then realize that the dominant species before was that of the male sex. Issues that goes through a female’s mind could be seen as “trifles” by the men. I believe that this reasoning could be brought about by the societal factors and some ancient history between who is the weaker sex.

Yet this state of mind could only reinforce the third reason that I have stated before. The resolution then had given us a glimpse of women empowerment. The resolution may be frowned upon by the law men and women of our time. Withholding an evidence and information would definitely make people tumble out in frustration and maybe anger but this is if we would take the play in a literal sense. Figuratively speaking, this withholding of information could be seen as the women vengence on the male ego.

Harsh it may seem but this resolution could easily give the women a certain self-assurance that one of them could not be convicted through a crime that had occurred in a bottled up range for a husband that was slowly killing her spirit. This may not be justifiable enough but for Mrs. Hale’s and Mrs. Peter’s and Mrs. Wright’s plight, this is one way of saying that they could do something that are not mere trifles. That they too could understand the situation better than the men in the play does.

In a nutshell, I am for the resolution in the conflict. The reasons I have already elaborated above and it could be simplified as 1) dichotomy conflict, 2) women subordination, and 3) women empowerment. All these three could be explained through the resolution in the play that could easily found through the last thing that Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters had done, by keeping to themselves their opinion and information of the crime. And this would have been a trifle opinion for the men in the play right?

Works Cited
“Trifles” by Susan Glaspell (1916). 26 July 2007

<http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/eng384/trifles.htm>.