In the 20t cetury women lived a very different life than they do today. They were looked at as just housewives who should do all the chores around the house, while men work then come home and get pampered. As a result of women slaving around the house, many of them turned into very sad and lonley people. In the play “Trifles” American playwriter Susan Glaspell stresses the fact how women are living in a patriarical society and as a ruselt they become very isolated and end up living very sad lifes.
Mrs. Wright lives a very lonley life. She lives with her husband Mr. Wright in their farmhouse. She does all the work around the house which is assumed by all men in this time period. Mrs. Wright also spends her days quilting and knotting. Thats all she really could do and as Mr Hale states “Well, women are use to worring over trifles.”(10) The trifles are the bird cage, the quilt and the dead canary in the “pretty little box. Woman in general during that time period didnt have much to look forward to during their long days attending to their household and such.
Unfortunatley Mrs. Wright is in an abusive relationship and she is mentally suffering from it. She is isolated from her friends and family. Mr. Wright is always ridculing her and she just takes it and minds her own business. Most women were treated this was and lived very similar lives as Mrs. Hale says “I might have known she needed help! I know how things can be—for women. I tell you, it’s queer, Mrs. Peters. We live close together and we live far apart. We all go through the same things—it’s all just a different kind of the same thing.”(138)
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Before Mrs. Wright had gotten marriard she lived a very happy life. She was viewed as a nice and inosent person. After she got married her life started to go into a downwards spiral and there was nothing she could do about it. At the time there was no such thing as womans rights or respecting them in general and unfortunatley a lot of woman were not living the lifes they thought they would live. They lived in a male dominated society. Mr. Wright was reviewd as a fine man who did a good job with his responsibilities. He did not really care about his wife. He abandoned her happiness and did not care much about her opinions. Mrs. Wright really enjoyed singing but Mr. Wright did not apporive of such thing. He took awy many aspects of her freedom.
Mrs. Wright was getting sick of being ridiculed everyday of her life. One day Mr. Wright killed her canary. That bird was her only company during her long, lonley and isolated days. The canary’s singing would put Mrs. Wright at ease and take her away from her isolation for short periods of time. The canary and Mrs. Wright were alike in many different ways. Mrs. Wright and the bird both enjoyed singing but Mr. Wright destroyed that for the both of them. As it states in the play “No, Wright wouldn’t like the bird—a thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that, too.” (124) They were alike in the case of both being caged up all day in the house while Mr. Wright was home.
As of today women are not seen in the same way as women were in the 20th century. It is not as much as a male dominated societey as of today, women have a place in the publics sphereWomen now can play the role as the “money maker” in households and it is not looked at in an uncanny way at all. While some men in this day in age play the role as the “housewife”. Women are respected and have a say in everything. They have just as much as a place in this world as men do.
References
- Women’s Rights – The New York Times
- 9 Women Who Changed The World And The Stories Behind Them – Bustle
- Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League – NAACP
- Feminism: Liberating for All or Exclusive to Women of Privilege? A Response to bell hooks – Medium
