Hidden Symbols Reflecting Feminism Movement on "Trifles" One-Act Play Written by Susan Glaspell

Susan Glaspell is a whole mood. However, reading my thoughts on her work would ruin your mood. This is my fifth semester post-test assignment for English-American Drama.

Abstract Trifles is an one-act play which reveals the women empowerment during the men’s oppresion era. This paper aims to identify and reveal the issues which lead to the slaughter caused by men’s manner towards women. Theory used in the discussion would be feminism and symbol as those implicitly found in the play after done by the method of close-reading. The result of the discussion is the women’s empowerment could successfully dominate men’s sexist thoughts as told by the author. Keywords: class, motive, oppression, women empowerment

1. Introduction

Feminism movement emerged in the urge of women rights to actualize the gender equality (Krolokke, 2005:1). Feminism movement started to arise in the 18th Century to equalize women’s right to vote and it was supported by the suffragists, group of people who fought for women’s rights to be equal with men (Tong, 2010: 30). This movement is aiming to opposite White men’s oppression towards women, children, and the Colored. Fifty years later, Seneca Falls Declaration, which was formulated by Mill and Taylor to modify some regulations such as voting, marriage, divorcement, and parenting rights, is declared in 1848 (Tong, 2010:30).

The movement kept flourishing in the 20th Century and it changed their vision to raise women’s awareness that all these time they were being oppressed by men, therefore, according to Betty Friedan (1963) women should vocalize their rights in all sectors: social, economy, politics, and even their status as women. The essence of Friedan’s theory is that women should remove the feminist and feminime mystique which restrict their freedom (Tong, 2010:42). In summary, there are three-waves of Feminism movement which are 1) first-wave emphasized about the voting equity, 2) second-wave mostly discussed about women’s liberation in economical and parenting matters, and 3) third-wave which equalized the rights of choosing gender and more advanced problems of women’s right.

Of all suffragists from first wave until the third wave such as Friedan, Mill and Taylor, or Davis who stated their opinion loud and proud, some other vocalized feminism movement implicitly by their works, for instance, Woolf’s novel which is A Room of One’s Own (1929). There were other types of literary works that contain the authors’ viewpoint about Feminism movement.

Glaspell’s one-act play, Trifles, reflects her outlook of men’s opression that would bring out women empowerment against the patriarchal dominance. There are numerous symbols left by Minnie as the clue of the slaughter case. Symbol is sometimes an abstract representation of its actual meaning and could result in different interpretation depends on the interpreter according to Bai’s theory.

2. Methods

2.1 Research Methodology

The present study is a qualitative study with descriptive-objective explanation taking the Literature Intrinsic Elements and Three Waves of Feminism theories from such secondary sources. The method for the study is close-reading which will emphasize on the critical analysis based on the data collected by the writer.

2.2 Instruments

The instruments used for analyzing the drama is the Three Waves Feminism theories and symbols theory to find the ulterior meaning in the dialogue between the characters to reveal the motive of the murder which leads to the main topic of the study.

2.3 Data Analysis Procedures

The data were collected by analyzing the plot and characters’ trait. As mentioned above, the method used to analyze the play is close-reading method, according to Burke, this kind of method requires the writer to do a critical reading towards data collecting. There are three procedures to undertake close-reading method; 1) collect the primary data from the text, 2) do a further research from such resources, and 3) elaborate the data with noting the theories application. For Trifles is a one-act play, there was no complexity on its plot so that further study is done by finding several secondary data from such books, articles and journals. The writer also watched the drama produced by D’molleses Production and read Glaspell’s short story inspired by the play, A Jury of Her Peers, to assure and compare the significancy of the play.

3. Findings and Discussion

3.1 Minnie’s Motives

Mr. Wright, whom was killed by her wife, has few issue in his marriage with Minnie. He is described as a old-fashioned man proven by his lack modernization, according to Mr. Hale’s statement (page 2). He, according to the Hales, is also described as a rigorous man who decided not to have any babies with Minnie because he was afraid of any noise produced in his dull farmhouse (page 7). On the other hand, from Mrs. Hale’s statement, Minnie Foster was a lively woman and a great singer before she got married with John (page 8). Her only close-neighbor, Mrs. Hale, never came to the house so that she suffers from great loneliness (page 7). To live with such condition, the cheerful Minnie would not survive for a long time, and not long after that, she became a caged bird (page 8).

Therefore, the highligted evidence as Minnie’s clue of John’s oppression happened in that house is the dead canary in the box with the broken cage, as the symbol of Wright’s cruelness. The bird is found dead with injured neck caused by the hanging rope – the same condition when Mr. Hale and his son found John’s dead body. John’s domination towards the house causes Minnie’s depression which is depicted by the awful pattern of the quilt (page 5) and affecting in her housework performance symbolized by the messy kitchen with rotten fruits and dirty towel (page 3). The knotted log-cabin pattern reveals the motive of Minnie’s slaughter.

Minnie’s motive is naturally because Wright killed her only distraction of stillness in the house, and also her symbol of freedom. She does the exact same thing to Wright as he broke the cage and hung the bird up. She left another clue by knotting the quilt – the same way he knots the canary. In page 5, Henderson, as cited by Mrs. Hale said that, Minnie’s method is rather queer because she did not use gun to directly kill John. To conclude, Minnie, and women in that era probably experienced the domination and oppression by men that would affect their mentality. Minnie, according to Glaspell, could be defined as the woman empowerment symbol of that time against the Wright’s oppression.

3.2 Men as Sexist Characters

The other oppression by men is clearly depicted from the men’s traits when treating women. At first, as written in page 3, when they are investigating the kitchen, Henderson found that the kitchen’s condition is so messy, so he insists Minnie was a bad housekeeper. The stereotype of women should maintain the house is a nasty sexist so that Mrs. Hale counters it by saying that women, especially in the middle-low class, have more works to do as both housekeeper and farmers, and probably the mess could be caused by the men’s ignorance too.

According to A Judy to Her Peers, there is subsidiary uttearance of men which stated that these women are so fool so they would not find any clue (1917: 301) before they get separated. There are also degrading moments occured by men’s characters when they discover that Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale keep discussing about unnecesary things such as the quilt and rotten fruits (page 3, 5, 7 and 9). In fact, both of them are discussing the clues found while the men’s character does not found anything to be interpreted as a clue.

However, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale also have contradiction between them when they are discussing about how men humiliate them after talkimg about the quilt (page 5). Mrs. Peters is more rational – a symbol of the upper-class women whom being oppressed by her husband so she could only obey and trust him. According to Tong’s book, Feminist Thought, the oppression to women are tend to be more occured in the upper-class women because they have no other activity rather than just men’s wife. However, women in middle-low class have rights to work to help their economical condition, as represented by Minnie and Mrs. Hale. Mrs. Hale, on the other hand, is more socially educated than Mrs. Peters proven by her analysis of their findings that lead them into the hidden implication of Minnie which reveals the domination of John’s oppression. Yet, they both agree to keep quiet of the finding of the dead canary and the queer pattern of quilt because they afraid that the would get another oppression by saying that the dead canary might trigger Minnie to do the exact similar thing to her husband and Minnie probably might have a depression so she decided to do revenge after he killed the bird.

In another scene, it is clearly shown that the County Attorney is the most sexist character. In the last page, he states that women – or we can say Minnie – could talk rubbish about her reason doing the slaughter. This statement is also a stereotype that implies women could not say the right things and they are stupid. He also utters that a wife of policeman should obey to her husband’s duty too. This represents him as White upper-class men whom thought that they are superior to everyone, moreover, he was the County Attorney investigating this peculiar case of middle-low class’s so he thinks that everyone except him are the submissive. We could see that the practice of classes are being represented in the page 2, when Mr. Hale is about to tell the detail of the story and this Attorney tells him that he should stop babbling about unimportant things and reduce his scrubby uttearances of John.

The story is finished when Mrs. Hale answers the Attorney’s question. The word we in her sentence is not only represents Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, but also represents all women around that era which being knotted by men. In conclusion, Mrs. Hale has a very deep meaning in every word she utters. This shows that not every men character are better than the women’s character.

3.3 “Trifles”, Susan Glaspell, and Its Correlation with Feminism Movement

According to the short story of this one-act play, the story took place in 1900 which the patriarchal dominance was still a thing. The story is written in 1916 as well and Glaspell admitted that the plot was inspired by the Hossack’s slaughter in 1901 when she was a journalist (Ben-Zvi, 1992:145). Therefore, Glaspell entitled this play trifles as the representation of men’s manner that humiliates women. By these works, Glaspell wanted to show that there should be antithesis to men oppression by embarking women empowerment – as exampled by Minnie. Furthermore, Glaspell lead her plot to the women’s succession in finding the clue by their woman’s instinct which was mocked by the men’s character previously (page 9).

In the 20th century, feminists struggled for the equity in almost all aspect – as represented by Minnie struggled to have her freedom in expressing her hobby. Another fact is, the upper-class women tend to be oppressed more than the women in middle-low class as represented by Henderson’s statement married to the law (page 9) which implies that a wife of policeman should obey both her husband and rules and restrictions as policeman. Apart from that, Mrs. Hale has more freedom to utter her opinion because she is less oppressed as the middle-low class women. Glaspell successfully describes the exact similar condition of both in the 20th century and in the play’s setting of time.

The condition told by Glaspell, too, represents that there is partition in classes which concludes that Hale family eventually are not equal to them which came from the upper-class – they are just came from a middle-lower class who coincidentally becomes witnesses in this strange case happened in Dickson County (1917:296), and they could be humiliated in all times too.

4. Conclusion

The author chose men oppression and classes difference in the 20th Century as the main issue of this play which reveal several discussion about the feminism movement in that era reflected by its characters’ role and traits. A further research about Glaspell’s viewpoint about feminism issue and her case in 1901 is suggested by the writer because this drama is picturesque to develop.

References

Bai, Radhika. (n.d). Symbolism in Ted Hughes’s Poetry. ELK Asia Pacific Journals – Special Issue. ISBN 978-81-930411-1-6.

Ben-Zvi, L. (1992). "Murder, She Wrote": The Genesis of Susan Glaspell's "Trifles". Theatre Journal, 44(2), 141-162. doi:10.2307/3208736.

Burke, Beth. (n.d). A Close Look At Close Reading page 5. NBCT. Retrieved December 1, 2019 from https://nieonline.com/tbtimes/downloads/CCSS_reading.pdf.

Krolokke, Charlotte and Sorensen, Anne Scott. (2005). Gender Communication Theories and Analyses: From Silence to Performance ch.1 pp. 1-23. Denmark: SAGE Production Inc.

Glaspell, Susan (1917). A Jury of Her Peers pp. 296-310. English: Every Week Magazine.

Glaspell, Susan. (1916). Trifles. New York: Frank Shay.

Greening, Nancy. (2013). Trifles. New York: D’moiselles Production. Retrieved Dec 03, 2019 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1LGwPFeSz8

Kennedy, P. Joseph. (2002). An Introduction to Literature. Longman.

Mael, P. (1989). "Trifles": The Path to Sisterhood. Literature/Film Quarterly, 17(4), 281-284. Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/43797573.

Tong, Rosemarie Putnam. (2010). Feminist Thought: Pengantar Paling Komprehensif kepada Aliran Utama Pemikiran Feminis edisi Terjemahan Bahasa Indonesia ch. 1 pp. 30-64. Yogyakarta: Jalasutra.