The Feminist Message in Susan Glaspell's TriflesSusan Glaspell's Trifles can be considered a work of feminist literature. The play depicts the life of a woman who has been repressed, oppressed and subjugated by a condescending and patriarchal husband. Mrs. Wright is ultimately driven to kill her "tough guy" husband (1178) who has stifled every last gasp of her identity. Trifles dramatizes the hypocrisy and entrenched discrimination of male-dominated society and at the same time speaks to the dangers for women who succumb to such hierarchies. Because Mrs. Wright follows the role laid out by her husband and is guided by society's patriarchal expectations, her identity gets lost somewhere along the way. However, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters silently insist on preserving their identities by protecting Mrs. Wright from the men who seek to convict her of murder. Wright is described as someone who had a flair for life. Her neighbor, Mrs. Hale, comments that the last time Mrs. Wright appeared happy and lively was before she got married or, more importantly, when she was Minnie Foster and not Mrs. Wright. Mrs. Hale complains, "I heard she wore nice dresses and was lively, when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls who sang in the choir" (1176). But after three decades of marriage, Mrs Wright is now worried that her canned goods will freeze and that she will be left without an apron while she is in prison. This submissive image was so accepted in society that Mrs. Peters, the sheriff's wife, speculates that Mrs. Wright must want her apron to "feel more natural" (1176). Any other role would be considered unusual. This wife role is based on the assumption that women have no skills... middle of paper... becomes complicit in hiding information from her husband and other men. She too, because of the loss of her first child, understands what loss means and what Mrs. Hale means when she says that women "go through all the same things" (1180). The women in Trifles cannot, as the play reveals, be made fun of. Although Glaspell wrote the work nearly eighty years ago, it continues to be relevant to contemporary relationships between men and women because her essentially feminist perspective provides a compelling argument for women's need to move beyond destructive stereotypes and oppressive assumptions to be true. to their significant, not insignificant, experiences. Works Cited Glaspell, Susan. Trifles. Making Literature Matter: An Anthology for Readers and Writers. Ed. John Schilb and John Clifford. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000.