Escape from Oppression

English > Analysis
Literature > Comparative Literature
Women Studies > Feminism

Paper critiques the poem, "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers", by Adrienne Rich, and the play, "Trifles", by Susan Glaspell, from a feminist perspective.

1,242 words () | 2 sources | MLA | 2004 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper compares Rich's poem and Glaspell's play. It discusses the oppressive situations both women are in and how they escape this oppression in two very different ways. From a feminist perspective, these two works give very different examples of how a woman is the cast as the "insignificant other", but discovers a way out of her continual oppression by rejecting her insignificance.

From the Paper:

"Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" by Adrienne Rich tells of the repressed Aunt Jennifer who produces scenes representing freedom and fearlessness, but in reality is trapped and powerless. Only through her artistic expression is she able to find a temporary release from her entrapment. In "Trifles", Minnie Wright allows herself to be subjugated for thirty years before she frees her whole self, through drastic means that leads to a more permanent solution, murdering her husband. From a feminist perspective, these two works give very different examples of how a woman is the cast as the "non-significant other" (Bressler 144), but discovers a way out of her continual oppression by rejecting their insignificance. Rich begins her poem by describing the tigers of Aunt Jennifer's tapestry."