Trifles A Dramatic Examination Of Gender Role - 1031 Words

Trifles: A Dramatic Examination of Gender Role Trifles is a dramatic one act play written by American female playwright Susan Glaspell. The play examines through the framework of a murder mystery how rigid gender role dynamics in the early 20th century not only shaped people s thinking, but blinded them from seeing what would otherwise be clear as day to someone else. During the time the play was written the women s liberation movement had yet to take place. Women were strongly stereotyped and were not seen as the intellectual equals of men. This pervasive sexism is a strong framing mechanism for Glaspell s play. While the men in the play are engaged in cold intellectual pursuit of the truth, the woman are able to see the plain facts that were hidden to the investigators. Minnie had a history of psychopathic tendencies that the men simply could not fathom, implicating her in the murder of her husband. The men could not break their conception of a female as as innocent and fragile, ca using them to overlook such highly relevant information. This theme of gender roles as obstructions towards the truth, or trifles as the play calls them, plays a prominent theme in Susan Glaspell s short play Trifles, causing the men to overlook and dismiss the evidence presented by the women. The plot of the play focuses on a murder investigation surrounding the death of John Wright, a man who was found with a noose around his neck by his wife. The prime suspect in the investigation isShow MoreRelatedWilliam Shakespeare and Macbeth8813 Words   |  36 Pagesthe entire country. Gender Roles Lady Macbeth is the focus of much of the exploration of gender roles in the play. As Lady Macbeth propels her husband toward committing Duncans murder, she indicates that she must take on masculine characteristics. Her most famous speech — located in Act I, Scene 5 — addresses this issue. Clearly, gender is out of its traditional order. This disruption of gender roles is also presented through Lady Macbeths usurpation of the dominate role in the Macbeths marriage;Read MoreDuchess Of Malf Open Learn10864 Words   |  44 Pagesfor writing dark and violent plays. Yet it also testifies to the enduring popularity of those plays. Shakespeare had many gifted colleagues in the play-writing business, but only two – Webster and Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593) – are graced with roles in this enormously popular mainstream movie about the late sixteenth-century theatre scene. This unit will look at Webster’s most well-known play, The Duchess of Malfi, and consider some possible reasons for the play’s continued prominence in the twenty-first-century