Symbolism in Trifles Argumentative Essay

Symbolism in Trifles Argumentative Essay

The play presents a story of two Midwestern women who by accident discover the revealing details of the John Wright’s murder, a farmer who was strangled in his sleep. Even though the two women uncover that farmer’s wife, Minnie, killed her husband, they, united by their sense of female companionship against arrogance of men who scorn and disrespect them, decide to conceal the evidence from their husbands and the authorities.

Glaspell Trifles Thesis Statement

This paper analyzes the matter of symbolism in Trifles, explaining how it helps the female characters in the play to justify their actions of concealing the critical evidence about the murder from their husbands. Furthermore, the paper discusses the symbolism in Trifles in an attempt to explain how men’s disdain and haughtiness prompted their women to move “closer together” in their fight against male dominance in the society. 

 

Symbolism in Trifles Argumentative Essay
Buy Argumentative essay Trifles

Gender symbolism in Trifles is very pronounced, which carries a deeper meaning to the readers who are prompted to analyze the characters’ words, the objects, and actions in the play (Ben-Zvi 142).

Notably, Glaspell empowers her characters to fight male dominance without any form of aggression, while only using their cleverness and unity in their struggle. The play turns out to be a game of intelligence between men and women, each confined in their own domestic space (Al-Khalili 132).

The disrespectful attitude of men to undermine and ignore the women’s space as unimportant or trivial make the Sheriff Peters and others miss the crucial piece of evidence located in the kitchen (Hinz-Bode 57). The women, on the other hand, take advantage of the men’s ego and decide to hide the evidence, which provides the important clues in the case.

Symbolism in Trifles Argumentative Essay
Buy Argumentative essay Glaspell Trifles

Glaspell introduces the marked division between men and women from the opening lines of the play. Quite symbolically, as the door opens into the kitchen, the Sheriff and other men enter the house; while they are merely followed by Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale who remain standing by the door. Immediately, the County Attorney shows his authority by inviting the women to the fire, “Come up to the fire, ladies” and starting to question the individuals present in the room; the woman (Mrs. Peters) denies the invitation, also illustrating humbleness, “I’m not cold” (line 1-3). To continue, the story’s unequal relationships between genders become evident when the County Attorney discovers Mrs. Wright’s broken jars of fruit preserves, exclaiming “Here’s a nice mess” (36). Such disrespectful comment serves as the motivation for one of the woman to make a gentle remark, “Oh, her fruit; it did freeze”, which nevertheless leads to an even more arrogant commentary on the men’s part and which serves as the basis for the play’s title:

County Attorney: I guess before we’re through she may have something more serious than preserves to worry about.
Hale: Well, women are used to worrying over trifles. (The two women move a little closer together) (42-43). 

The above lines are critical to the reader in understanding and making sense of the story’s symbolic fight between the men and women. Even though the play only begins to unfold at this stage, the set of the events are already predetermined. The women behave in the polite and respectful manner; at the same time, they are deeply suffering and acknowledging the male disdain towards them.

Such state of affairs prompts them to rapidly unite and “move a little closer together”, creating a firm female companionship to help and support each other.

The above passage clearly illustrates the clash between genders, which is present in the society despite not being openly stated or discussed (Ben-Zvi 144). 

Symbolism in Trifles Argumentative Essay
Buy Argumentative essay Glaspell Trifles

Furthermore, it is this very arrogance and scorn illustrated by men towards the women, which prompts the last to unite and eventually conceal the evidence, showing sympathy towards another female, Minnie Wright. Initially, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are portrayed by Glaspell as the two women who have little in common. At the same time, the haughty remarks of the men serve as the trigger for the women to start uniting and building companionship.

The comment of the County Attorney regarding the state of the Minnie’s kitchen is a vivid symbol of the male dominance and disdain towards women in the society of those days.

The act of the women to move closer together and the subsequent decision to conceal critical evidence in the murder case is a defense against direct male superiority, “not necessarily on the grounds of a supposedly innate femaleness” (Hinz-Bode 58).

By ignoring kitchen as the useless women’s space, the men move to the bedroom where they believe they can find evidence related to the murder. Interestingly, the division between male and female space in the household is also supported by women.

Not only do men feel uncomfortable getting near the kitchen because it is a woman’s space, but the women too dislike the presence of men in their domain, “I’d hate to have men coming into my kitchen, snooping around and criticizing” (63).

Hence, men are focused on searching for evidence in the bedroom because in this space men have the particular authority to dominate women.
Notably, throughout the play women are seen to be reluctant to openly interact with their husbands and keep distance from them.

The physical space between men and women also symbolizes the gender gap and division that exists in the society (Ben-Zvi 150).

It is clear that females feel dominated and emotionally abused by men, while having no means of expressing their true feelings. To continue, Glaspell marks a clear contrast between the competing behavior of the men and the supporting atmosphere of companionship that exists between women. Even though the character of Minnie Wright is absent from the stage, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters show great care for her by hiding evidence, which would ultimately lead to her conviction for the husband’s murder.

Men in the play focus on dominance and authority directed towards women, while also competing among themselves. At the same time, the women, feel uncomfortable to invade the privacy of another female’s house who is accused of killing her husband; as a result, they rapidly form a close a bond that offers them the chance to calm and support each other (Ben-Zvi 151).

The play implies that there are several origins for such close relationship between the female characters; nevertheless, the most apparent reason is the fights against men in response to their disrespectful attitude and the inability to voice their protest in any form.

For example, even the presence of Mrs. Hale is a great relief and support to Mrs. Peters when they must come with the husbands to get clothes for Minnie who is put in jail at this stage, “But I’m awful glad you came with me, Mrs Hale. It would be lonesome for me sitting here alone” (72-73).

Such close interaction is shown in stark contrast to the atmosphere of rudeness and rivalry, which exists between men, with each trying to illustrate his authority and power. 

Symbolism in Trifles Argumentative Essay
Argumentative essay Glaspell Trifles

When searching for the clothes, the women discover a broken cage and realize that John Wright killed the bird, prompting Minnie to murder him; the story reaches its climax at this point (Hinz-Bode 62). Clearly the dead bird can be used as evidence against Minnie, but the two female companions decide to help another woman in protest to the way men treat them. They protect a fellow woman against men despite being guilty of murder. Mrs. Hale feels guilty, suggesting that her presence would have prevented the murder; her pain and regret symbolize the importance of the close relationship between women to withstand the dominance of men. 

Symbolism in Trifles Argumentative Essay
Researc paper Glaspell Trifles

Glaspell presents a brilliant story when the scornful and haughty men who abuse and disrespect their wives ignore the women’s space in the kitchen as a world of trifles and, as a result, fail to find murder evidence that would support the accusation of Minnie Wright in court. Trifles, quite boldly for the society of those days, portrays women as emerging in strength and gaining power to fight against male dominance and control.

The use of symbolism helps Glaspell to brilliantly present the struggle between men and women without appearing aggressive in her remarks. The author uses creativity to make the women appear powerful to the readers who closely follow the events and characters in the play. Trifles opened a whole new chapter in the representation of women, prompting many females to question male dominance and eventually fight for their rights. 

Works Cited Glaspell Trifles

Al-Khalili, Raja. “Representations of Rural Women in Susan Glaspell’s Trifles”. Studies in Literature and Language, vol. 6, no. 1 (2013): 132-135. 
Ben-Zvi, Linda. “Murder, She Wrote: The Genesis of Susan Glaspell’s Trifles.” Theatre Journal, 
vol. 44, no. 2 (1992): 141–162
Glaspell, Susan. Trifles: A Play in One Act. New York: Baker’s Plays, 2010.
Hinz-Bode, Kristina. Susan Glaspell and the Anxiety of Expression: Language and Isolation in the Plays. New York: McFarland, 2015. 

Why should I choose OwnEssays?

Our company offers 100% authentic work, composed in accordance with your instructions. High quality custom essay or term papers are written by native English speaking writers with 3 years + of relevant experience. You receive 24/7 personal assistance and customer support. Also, we provide free unlimited revisions if your paper does not meet your requirements.

When will my paper be ready?

We approach deadlines honestly and realistically. How long it will take us to write your essay depends on the writer level of your choice, urgency level of your essay and your instructions. Our experience is that we can complete the majority of orders in 24 hours. But we suggest you make your order as soon as you can to allow us additional time in case we needed to do additional research. If we experience delays in meeting your deadline or if we need additional time, we will get in touch with you to discuss the order. Rest assured that we will do everything in our power to complete your order in time.

How will I get my paper?

Once you have placed your order, you can track its progress. We will email you the completed paper in the MS Word format.

Who will be writing my paper?

Our writer team is made up of full-time and part-time writers (many of whom work in academia) who go through a tough screening process before joining our team. Our Quality Assurance Department supervises and evaluates their performance to provide you with quality writing services.

How can you guarantee that your writers are competent enough to complete my order?

Our team consists of over seven hundred researchers, editors and writers. Most of our employees hold graduate degrees in their fields and take interest in taking on challenging tasks. Our employees self-select for the assignments: they pick an assignment of interest, and we allocate the assignment to whoever of them is best equipped to fulfill it. We therefore guarantee that your order goes to the person having both the desire and professional qualifications to do the work.

Can my writer and I communicate?

After the order is placed and a writer assigned, you and your writer can communicate by email round-the-clock. Our average response time is one hour for regular orders (3 to 5 days) and half an hour for expedited orders (9-24 hours).

Can you help me write a thesis or a dissertation?

Yes, we can. There are a number of professional researchers on our team skilled in a great variety of scientific areas. We have the capacity to deliver top-level academic writing. Years of research experience enable our professionals to create outstanding texts of any difficulty level, including Master’s and PhD.

What is your paper format?

When you order term paper, custom essay, research paper, or book report from OwnEssays, your standard page will contain approximately 285 words of text, written in 12 point Arial font, double-spaced, 1 inch margins on all sides.

Do you provide any plagiarism-free guarantees?

We offer our customers a plagiarism-free guarantee. If you find signs of plagiarism in your term paper, custom essay, research paper, or book report, we will issue a complete refund, no questions asked. You may be 100% confident that your work is written from scratch by your writer. We use sophisticated scanning and plagiarism detection software similar to that designed by Turnitin.com. This plagiarism detection software gives you peace of mind, while ensuring the highest quality book report, term paper, research paper, or custom essay.

Do you offer satisfaction or Money-back guarantee for your services?

We aim to meet or exceed our clients’ expectations through understanding their needs. Most of our writers either work or have worked in academia and have necessary knowledge and real-world experience. If our work is not to your satisfaction and if there is nothing we can do to improve it, we will refund your money.

What if I am not satisfied with the paper?

Our support team works round-the-clock to help you make any amendments. In the unlikely case of our failure to precisely fulfill your instructions, we will revise the work free of charge upon your request. We will send you the revised work within three days of your request.

How secure is your writing service?

The confidentiality and security of our clients are on top of our priority list. We guarantee complete privacy of your information. Your personal information will never be disclosed to anyone under any circumstances.

Is the payment process private and secure? Do you retain my credit card information?

All of our payments are processed by 2Checkout.com – a leader in security business processing. We do not have access to your credit card information and will never, under any circumstances, share the details available to OwnEssays (your name and email) with any third party. OwnEssays does not store your credit card data.

Do you offer discounts when buy argumentative essays?

We offer the following savings to our returning customers on all subsequent orders: 30-45 pages: you save 5% 46-90 pages: you save 10% 91 pages+: you save 15%

Who is eligible for a refund?

We guarantee 100% satisfaction. In the unlikely case of our failure to precisely fulfill your instructions, we will revise the work free of charge upon your request, which you have to submit within 15 days. If the revised paper still does not meet your requirements, you can request a refund in writing within three days of your order’s completion. As a matter of fact, we have the highest rate of client satisfaction in the industry.

Are you officially registered as a company?

We are an officially registered business entity under US law. Our headquarters are located in Dallas, TX. We have years of successful experience operating in the industry.