Let us start with the way male characters and female characters are depicted in Susan Glaspell's play Trifles. The premise of this play is that a man—Mr. Wright—has been murdered and his wife—Mrs. Wright—is suspected. The characters we actually see in the play are Mr. Hale and Mr. Peters; the latter is the town sheriff and the former lives next to the Wrights. The men are in the Wright home looking for clues to establish motive and reveal the circumstances of the crime. They bring their wives, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, along with them to gather some items for Mrs. Wright while she is being held in the local jail. Both the actions of the male and female characters and the circumstances related to Mr. Wright's murder can be related to the "Me Too" movement (more on that later).
During this one-act play, the male characters use traditional police methods to search for clues to the murder, but they end up basically empty-handed. The women, on the other hand, in collecting everyday items for Mrs. Wright, come across a number of clues that they use to piece together a theory of why Mrs. Wright would kill her husband. For example, they see that Mrs. Wright has left kitchen tasks unfinished and that she had recently dropped a stitch in her knitting. These details indicate that Mrs. Wright was interrupted during her work and also that something upset her and caused her to uncharacteristically mess up her usually beautiful stitching. Mrs. Peters actually fixes the flawed stitch, effectively tampering with evidence in an effort to protect Mrs. Wright. The women decide to bring Mrs. Wright her sewing supplies and when looking for some of those tools, they discover the dead body of her pet bird and the broken door of the birdcage. The women use this information and other background information they remember about Mrs. Wright and her former love of singing, in addition to their idea that Mr. Wright did not let Mrs. Wright sing, to infer that Mr. Wright killed her bird (and symbolically killed his wife's joy and her voice). In response, she killed him. The women remove some of the evidence. They probably do not even need to do so, though, because their husbands consider the details of the household that interest their wives to be mere "trifles."
The "Me Too" movement is centered around giving voice to women who have been abused or harassed by men. Some of the notorious cases we have heard about so far have been examples of sexual harassment, abuse, and even rape. We do not see these exact incidents in Trifles, but the play does imply that Mr. Wright has been abusive, psychologically and emotionally (perhaps even physically), toward his wife. Further, the way women and their interests and insights are seen as inferior to those of men is part of the culture that leads to systemic sexism and misogyny. In a society like that, casual sexism can easily turn into verbal and/or physical abuse. Further, the "Me Too" movement holds that many women have been afraid to report abuse because they will not be believed. Trifles suggests that women's voices are not deemed as important as men and that only other women can truly understand the subtle pain of women's daily existence in a patriarchal society.
Sunday, August 18, 2019
I have chosen the differences between women and men for my theme for my summary response essay. How can I bring in the "Me Too" movement in as a response? I am struggling!
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