Play: Susan Glaspell's "Trifles"

Paper Summary:

This paper relates that Susan Glaspell, a reporter, based her one-act play "Trifles" on events that actually happened in Iowa near the turn of the 20th century, which she covered. The author points out that the plot of the play is as if Glaspell didn't like the outcome of the real-life situation and then got to craft her own ending. The paper relates that the themes in "Trifles"are gender relationships, the tug-of-war battles between the sexes, women's perceptive intuition vs. men's bullishness, male chauvinism and the good-old-boy network of criminal justice

From the Paper:

"After leaving newspaper work, her writing was strictly fictional; until that is her husband, George Cram Cook (a classics scholar with whom she had been involved during his second marriage in a long affair) urged her to write a play. "Glaspell may have been trying to buoy up Cook's artistic reputation by making him out to be the party responsible" for her literary success, something he, Cook, had never achieved. Meanwhile, even though Glaspell herself carried on an affair with a married man, thus hurting another woman, she painted men in "Trifles" as the bad guys."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Ben-Zvi, Linda. "Murder She Wrote: The Genesis of Susan Glaspell's 'Trifles'." Theatre Journal 44.2 (1992): 141-162.
• Galens, David M. "Trifles." Drama for Students. Vol. 8 (2000). EBSCO
• Glaspell, Susan. "Trifles: A Play in One Act." University of Virginia Library. Retrieved March 1, 2008, from http://etext.lib.virginia.edu.
• Holstein, Suzy Clarkson. "Silent Justice in a Different Key: Glaspell's Trifles." Midwest Quarterly 44.3 (2003): 282-290.

More papers on Play: Susan Glaspell's "Trifles":

• Book Review # 97734 : "Susan Glaspell's Mystery Character: Minnie Wright"
• Essay # 24324 : "Susan Glaspell's "Trifles"
• Analytical Essay # 123575 : "'Trifles' and Gender Based Behavior"

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