"Trifles"

Paper Summary:

This research examines the theme of justifiable homicide as the experience of finding justice in Susan Glaspell's one-act play "Trifles". The research sets forth the pattern of ideas in the work and then discusses the means by which it illustrates the emergence of justice. The paper uses the play to examine the issues of crime and punishment, as experienced by the main characters, the Wrights.

From the Paper:

"The theme of justifiable homicide arises in the context of the women's discussion of the Wrights and their fuss and bother over the household "trifles." They begin to notice things that housewives notice all the time around their own houses and around the houses of other housewives--how clean or out of place things are, what she was going to cook, what household projects she was working on. Ben-Zvi (141f) characterizes what they notice, the minutiae of housekeeping, as circumstantial evidence, not only of the crime of murder but also of the crime of wife abuse."

More papers on "Trifles":

• Analytical Essay # 2148 : "Susan Glaspell's "Trifles": Suspect or Victim?"
• Comparison Essay # 73789 : "Trifles" and "Crime and Punishment"
• Book Review # 100914 : "Trifles" and Victorian Society"
• Book Review # 68980 : "Trifles"

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