Literary Analysis - Susan Glaspell's Trifles

Susan Glaspell was a novelist and playwright during the “first wave” of the feminist movement. Although the movement was initially concerned with Suffrage, later waves dealt with “inequality of laws, as well as cultural inequalities”. In her one-act play, “Trifles”, Glaspell planted the seeds of the modern feminist movement with regards to domestic violence (Smith, 1982:178).

In order to better understand the author's purpose and the argument she was trying to make with this story we can look at it from the psychological critical perspective. This will give us an understanding of the motives and behaviors of the author and her literary characters.

Susan Keating Glaspell (1882-1948), as cofounder of an influential theatrical company, had a great outlet to explore and promote controversial socialist and feminist issues. Residing in Greenwich Village, she was surrounded by activists, and was herself a founding member of a radical feminist group. When Glaspell married George Cook, she was ironically thrust into traditional gender roles. Cook was often hard to live with because of his excessive drinking and numerous affairs. It is possible that Glaspell projected her anger over her husband into her characters. Combined with this environment, the specific idea for “Trifles” came from a real murder trial that she was assigned to cover as a newspaper reporter in Iowa.

Susan Glaspell's one-act play, Trifles, is based on actual events that occurred in Iowa at the turn of the century. From 1899-1901 Glaspell worked as a reporter for the Des Moines News, where she covered the murder trial of a farmer's wife, Margaret Hossack, in Indianola, Iowa. Hossack was accused of killing her husband, John, by striking him twice in the head with an ax while he slept.

Initially it was assumed that burglars had murdered the farmer, but a subsequent sheriff's investigation turned up evidence suggesting Mrs. Hossack was unhappy in her marriage. Ultimately, she was charged with and found guilty of the crime and sentenced to life in prison.

Over the course of sixteen months, Glaspell wrote twenty-six articles covering the case, from the announcement of the murder until Hossack's conviction. The author found herself feeling more and more sympathy for the accused, in spite of the grisly nature of the crime.

Years later, Glaspell and her husband, George Cook, along with some friends, founded the Provincetown Players, an amateur theatrical company on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In 1916 the group presented a summertime series of plays that included Eugene O'Neill's Bound East for Cardiff. In need of a new play to end the season, Cook suggested Glaspell should write a one-act for the company. Her memory of the Hossack trial inspired Trifles.

Trifles is a murder mystery that explores gender relationships, power between the sexes, and the nature of truth. In the play, the farmer and his wife never actually appear; instead, the story focuses on the prosecutor, George Henderson, who has been called in to investigate the murder; Henry Peters, the local sheriff; Lewis Hale, a neighboring farmer who discovered Wright's body; and ...