Reference no: EM13977323

Respond to given discussion-

After reading Susan Glaspell "Trifles "and watching the short film, I learned a couple of things about the 1900's. First off how naïve the people were in the play, mostly the men, the empowerment of women and how they stick together, and also you can take everything away from a woman but don't mess with the one thing that allows her to escape. The thesis of a lack of awareness of cultural difference or the assumption by one cultural group that another is inferior often results in painful personal and social encounters applies to the play greatly. The lack of awareness affects the relationships of the characters because since the men were too cocky to actually look right in from of them from help from the women or how sneaky the women in the house defend and cover up the hints. The women and men in this play do view and treat each other different throughout the play. First off let me start with Mr. John Wright. It all started with him and if it wasn't the way he treated Mrs. Wright, then none of this would have happened. Plus, if he didn't kill her canary, she probably wouldn't have snapped and killed him. I think the assumption by males as the inferior group affects the women and in this case it affects Mrs. Wright more because what I got from the play was that she didn't do anything else but tend to the garden and didn't have any social life. It also affects Mrs. Peters as well. In the play the Court Attorney says, "Oh, I guess they're not very dangerous thins the ladies have picked out. No. Mrs. Peters doesn't need supervising. For that matter, a sheriff's wife is married to the law. Ever think of it that way, Mrs. Peters?" and she says "Not-just that way" (Glaspell & Greening 2013/Baym, 2013, pg 1936).

I think the assumption of the males thinking that they are inferior affects the behavior of the males significantly. First off they start off by mocking and laughing Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, oblivious to the fact that they could have actually helped them and found out Mrs. Wrights motives. In the play the Sheriff sarcastically mocks Mrs. Hale, "They wonder if she was going to quilt it or just knot it!" (Glaspell & Greening 2013/Baym, 2013, pg 1932). From then on out, it was the women who actually pieced everything together and found Mrs. Wright's motive. They find out that she must have been nervous from her quilting, because it was nicely done wat first and then started to get bad. After the mocking incident, Mrs. Hale starts to fix her sewing "mistake". And from there, the girl power kicked in. They find out that she had a canary and Mrs. Hale just knows that John killed it. I think that after that moment, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters start to realize that they could understand how Mrs. Wright must have felt.

I could go on and on and talk about this play, but I will end it on this note. This play was short and with powerful meaning. In conclusion, the way that men treated women back then just clouded their judgement. It didn't seem they cared too much about their opinion or how they felt. I believe that the men were too "hard", maybe had too much pride back then towards the women. When I looked up the definition of "Trifles", (many definitions came up, but I think this one applies), it means a thing of little value or importance. Something of little importance to you may be of more importance for someone else.