-
Word : 1976
Miserable Life and Awakening of Women
in Susan
Glaspell
’
s Trifles
论《琐事》中女性的悲惨生活及觉醒
刘璐
（
）
（
Hunan University of Science
and Technology
，
the school of foreign
studies
，
Class 001
）
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[Abstract]
：
The play
reflects the real world in the
19
th
century vividly, when
women were
oppressed and lived
tragically in the man-dominated society. It was
also a time when female
movement began
to develop, which symbolized the awakening and
unify of women who stood
together to
fight against the arrogance and control of men.
[Key Words]:
Susan Glaspell, trifles,
miserable life, women awakening
Miserable Life of Women
The whole play demonstrates
the tragic life of the women in the
19
th
century of
America. The title of the play,
―
trifles
‖, is
an
irony of men’s
discrimination on women.
As
Mr. Hale says in the play
:
―
women are used to worrying over
trifles
‖
. These words
are real portrayal of
women’s life at that time, when men
took the lead
in every fields
of social life
，
while women were bound to the endless
housework. They were cooks,
cleaners,
nurses, etc. However, they were looked down upon
by men, in whose minds,
women were
nothing and not worthy of respect. Men were the
rules and laws then.
We can see clearly
this phenomenon through two clues, one is the
actions of the five
characters in the
real world, and the other is the story of Mr. and
Mrs. Wright in
other’s
description.
First, the five characters that are in
the house of the suspect are separated
naturally by their gender into two
groups. The men, including the County Attorney,
Mr. Henderson, Sheriff Mr. Peters, and
the farmer Mr. Hale, are busy doing their
investigation and finding evidence
about the murder upstairs; while Mrs. Peters and
Mrs. Hale are staying downstairs
collecting clothes for Mrs. Wright, surrounded by
the so-called trifles. This stage
separation also symbolizes the psychological
segregation between the two genders. In
addition, the dialogues between men and
women reveal the low social statues of
women. In men’s eyes, what the women talk
about is trifling and meaningless. As
the following one:
Mrs. Peters (to the
other woman): oh, her fruit; it did freeze. (to
the lawyer). She
worried about that
when it turned so cold. She said the fire’d go out
and her jars
would break.
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Sheriff: well,
can you beat the women! Held for murder and
worryin about her
preserves.
County Attorney:
I guess
before we’re through she may have
s
omething more
serious than
preserves to worry about.
Hale: well,
women are used to worrying over trifles.
Beneath these words, men see the
superficiality and ignorance of women’
s
thoughts. Another example, when hearing
Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale talking
about
whether Mrs. Wright was going to quilt or knot the
quilt, the men laugh at
them, implying
that this thing was trivia compared to the big
murder they are
dealing with. It seems
that anything the women do or say is of no
importance and
meaning, which reflects
the unfairness and oppression towards women. Women
have been deprived of the ability and
right to express themselves, as a result of
which, women lost themselves. As
married women, they even have no personal
name, they are called Mrs., and that is
to say, their existence relies on their
husbands
’.
Mrs.
Peters is a good example of this, who acts and
judges according
to rules and
expectations of men. When Mrs. Hale criticizes the
men coming into
Minnie
’s
kitchen, snooping around and
criticizing, Mrs. Peters explains that is
men’s duty.
And
she herself thinks that ―marry
ing the
sheriff means marrying
the law‖, and
―the law is the law‖, she
is
unconsciously protecting the authority
of her husband. Clearly, the
inferiority of women is rooted in everyone’s
m
ind to
some extent, both
men and women included.
Secondly, the
story of Mr. and Mrs. Wright also reflects the
oppression
towards women. According to
Mrs. Hale
’s descriptio
n,
Mrs. Wright, who used to
be Minnie
Foster, is a pretty and lively girl, and one of
the town girls singing in
the choir.
But after thirty years, everything has changed.
She becomes close, and
used to keeping
to herself. The beautiful and passionate Minnie
has disappeared.
On the surface, Mr.
Wright who has been killed is the suspect, but
actually,
Minnie is the sacrificial
lamb. The 30-year marriage kept her in the gloomy,
lifeless house, both physically and
mentally. With no kids, no visitors, no friends,
but only the endless loneliness. Mr.
Wright regarded Minnie as his private
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