Katlin Vanderlin

Dr. Pennington

Feminist and Gender Critique

8th Nov. 2018 – Draft 3

Entrapment in Susan Glaspell’s Trifles

Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles, written in 1916 sheds light on many different gender issues

that were prominent throughout the turn of the century when the play was published. Issues such

as the entrapment women faced on a day-to-day basis inside and outside their own homes are all

focused on throughout Glaspell’s multitude of plays. Through the play, Glaspell writes a drama

that focuses on Mrs. Wright, otherwise known as Minnie Foster, murdering her husband, John

Wright. At the beginning of the play, it is made clear that the women in the play are there to

serve and please their husbands. When one thinks about a women's place in society, generally, it

is at home: cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the family. Glaspell emphasizes this point

through her use of the female characters and her setting choice for the play. Glaspell uses the

female characters throughout the play to represent women in the turn of the century and how

they were entrapped in the stereotype of what a woman should be. The entire play is focused in

Mrs. Wright's kitchen; this is done to highlight where a women's place is supposed to be and also

to represent the entrapment women feel in their own house. Throughout the play, we find objects

that represent different types of entrapment that Mrs. Wright experienced that eventually led to

her mental break. Objects like cracked and frozen jars, rotten fruit, and a birdcage; may not seem

like much. However, Glaspell uses them to demonstrate the domesticated entrapment that Mrs.

Wright dealt with, and how this entrapment finally broke her. Glaspell uses the women in the

play and their role in the geographical setting of the play, the kitchen, to represent the entrapment

Mrs. Wright, Minnie Foster, faces on a daily basis.

Wrights house. The isolation of the house is important because it is the first look that we get into

the life that Mrs. Wright lived. “In turning the domestic arena into a battleground, the drama

becomes a form of social revolt” (Jouve 95). Glaspell takes a place where every woman has

been, the kitchen, as uses it to her advantage to show the entrapment Mrs. Wright suffered. None

of the women in the play ever visit Mrs. Wright for a couple of reasons, the first being the

location of the house. It far away from town and far from the other women’s homes; to go visit

Mrs. Wright would be taking too much time away from things they could be doing. An example

of this is when Mrs. Hales states, “I stayed away because it weren’t cheerful- I’ve never like this

place. Maybe it’s because it’s down a hollow and you don’t see the road. I dunno what it is, but

it’s a lonesome place and always was” (Glaspell 915). It is clear that the women in the play know

the role they have in the isolation and entrapment that Mrs. Wright felt, in her own home, but it

is also clear that if her husband had moved them closer to town there would have been a

possibility of Mrs. Wright being able to see people other than her husband. She was trapped in a

lonesome, cheerless place all by herself. The second reason is the appearance of the house. An

example of how the appearance deterred the women from visiting Mrs. Wright is when Mrs.

Hale says, “It never seems a very cheerful place” (Glaspell 912). The women did not want to go

to a house that would suck the life out of them like it did Mrs. Wright, so they did not visit, they

allowed Mrs. Wright to be left alone, trapped in her own house, her own life.

The location of the Wrights house was not the only thing that entrapped Mrs. Wright; her

life itself was a form on entrapment, something Glaspell demonstrates through the Wright’s

kitchen. Glaspell’s choice to have the entire play focus on the kitchen is an unusual choice;

however, that choice allows the reader to see the irony in Mrs. Wrights life. Emeline Jouve
writes, “Glaspell seems to imply that the power of place is closely associated to the geographical

and cultural contact, therefore, infuses her settings with a sense of social determinism” (Jouve

34). In this sense one can understand social determinism as social interactions, alone, determine

Mrs. Wright’s behavior. A kitchen is supposed to be warm, loving, cheerful; it is supposed to be

the haven for women in the turn of the century; a place they feel most at ease and comfortable.

This is not the case for Mrs. Wright. The opening scene of the play describes the Wright’s

kitchen; it is described as, “a freezing, gloomy kitchen, with faded wallpaper” (Glaspell 909).

This description is the complete opposite of what a kitchen is supposed to be. The kitchen is a

representation of the life that Mrs. Wright lived. Mrs. Hale says, “she used to wear pretty clothes

and be lively when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls” (Glaspell 915). The quote

represents the entrapment Mrs. Wright faces in her own life. It is clear that before Mrs. Wright

got married, she had a happy, cheerful life, but once she married, she was trapped, trapped in a

life that took all the spirit out of her. Getting married is supposed to be the right choice, the

marriage is supposed to add to one’s life. However, Mrs. Wright’s marriage took the life out of

her, something represented by the kitchen. The kitchen is supposed to be the woman’s domain in

the house, but it is clear that Mrs. Wright had nothing in the house that was her own. She used to

be warm and alive with joy and love, like a kitchen should be, but is now dull and cold like the

kitchen is.

Glaspell also uses the items in the kitchen, like frozen jars and rotten fruit, to represent

the entrapment that Mrs. Wright faced. The first thing noticed in the kitchen is the broken jars

that are present. Mrs. Peters says, “Oh, her fruit; it did freeze. She worried about that when it

turned so cold. She said the fire’d go out and the jars would break” (Glaspell 912). The jars

represent Mrs. Wright being trapped in her life, the jars were something that Mrs. Wright spent a
lot of time to make beautiful, and they were something nice that was ruined by the cold and

bitterness of her own house. They represent the suffering and entrapment Mrs. Wright faced.

Glaspell also used the ruined fruit to represent the lost life and entrapment Mrs. Wright had.

Glaspell writes, “It’s a shame about her fruit, it’s all gone. She’ll feel awful bad after all her hard

work” (Glaspell 913). Although, Mrs. Wright is being charged for murder what the women here

imply is that regardless of that, Mrs. Wright’s main concern is going to be the fruit, because no

woman spends all the time on something for it to just be ruined. This is a representation of the

entrapment Mrs. Wright dealt with on a daily basis because she cannot think of her own life and

what is best for her. She should be thinking about being charged with murder, and what the

women imply is that the charge does not matter because what matters is how she left her kitchen,

and the stuff in the kitchen. Everything that is found throughout the kitchen is a representation of

the neglect and entrapment that Mrs. Wright dealt with. Her husband neglected her, but forced to

stay there, thus she neglected the things in her kitchen but remained to do these half-finished

jobs. As David Mulry wrote, “the women uncover the psychology of an event that seems at first

beyond reason but teasingly reveals a domestic drama of passion, cruelty, and revenge” (Mulry

293). It is clear that as the play progresses the women, not the men, uncover the evidence to

condemn Mrs. Wright; however, they also find the evidence as to why Mrs. Wright had her

psychological break and how that break drove her to a act of passion, cruelty, and revenge. The

neglect and entrapment, represented by everything found in the kitchen, show what Mrs. Wright

dealt with throughout her life that caused her psychological break.

Another item found in the kitchen that represents the entrapment Mrs. Wright faced was

the empty bird cage and the dead canary. Mrs. Wright was trapped alone in her own house. She

had no one, not even her bird. When the dead canary was found with its neck snapped, we see
the connection with the bird’s death and Mr. Wright’s death. When the women in the novel come

across the dead bird they make this comparison, “she was kind of like a bird herself-real sweat

and pretty, but kind of timid and – fluttery. How she did change” (Glaspell 917). As Leonard

Mustazza wrote, “upon the change Minnie Foster Wright went through was that similar, from a

singing bird to a muted caged bird” (Mustazza 494). Before Mrs. Wright married her husband,

she was full of life, but when she got married, she was caged and trapped. The canary was Mrs.

Wright’s only connection with the outside world. The canary gave her a sense of the life she used

to have, the soul she had as Minnie Foster, another thing taken away from her by her husband

when he trapped her. When her husband killed the canary, he killed her spirit, forcing her to only

be with him for the rest of her life, forcing her to have a psychological break. Mulray writes, “It

is the killing of the canary which appears to trigger Mrs. Wright’s murder of her husband.

Glaspell’s canary is not a symbol of illicit love. It is linked to Minnie Wright’s youth” (Mulray

294). The canary was the last piece of hope Mrs. Wright had to escape and become free once

again when her husband caged the animal and the killed the bird he entrapped his wife and then

killed her spirit.

Ultimately Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles highlights the day to day struggle that women

faced in this year, 1916. Glaspell uses Mrs. Wright as an example of the life that many women

lived, and how these women were trapped not only in their marriage but in their own house. She

uses the geographical location of the Wright’s house to demonstrate the physical isolation from

the rest of the town, and she uses the kitchen and the items in the kitchen to represent a different

type of entrapment Mrs. Wright faced daily.

Glaspell, Susan. “Trifles.” Literature A Portable Anthology , 3rd ed., Bedford/St. Martin's, 2004,

pp. 909–920.

Jouve, Emeline. Susan Glaspell's Poetics and Politics of Rebellion. University of Iowa Press,

2017.
Mulray, David. “‘In the Presence of a Domestic Drama’: Susan Glaspell's Debt to Joseph

Conrad's THE SECRET AGENT .” The Explicator, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group ,

2014, snc.illiad.oclc.org/illiad/illiad.dll?Action%3D10&Form%3D75&Value%3D47654.

Mustazza, Leonard. “Generic Translation And Thematic Shift In Susan Glaspell's ‘Trifles’ And

‘Jury Of Her Peers.’” Studies in Short Fiction, 1 Sept. 1989,

web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=6f20f703-8838-4d57-84c8-

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