Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles portrays relations between the sexes. Women in the play exist during an era when male superiority was the norm and seldom challenged by women. Mrs. Wright is being held for the suspected murder of her husband. The characters in the play are the Sheriff and Mrs. Peters, the Wright’s neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Hale, and the County Attorney George Henderson. Despite the dramatic intrigue of a women being charged with the murder of her husband, the play’s underlying theme revolves around the oppressed nature of women in a world men dominate.
Symbolism is used effectively in Trifles to demonstrate the unequal power relations and roles between women and men of the era. The kitchen is one of the biggest symbols in the story. The kitchen is a symbol of many levels. The first is its representing the typical domestic sphere that defines a woman’s role in this society. Women do the cooking, cleaning, and childrearing while men work and earn income. The kitchen is in disarray, with work left unfinished. This is a symbol that something has gone wrong with the typical role of Mrs. Wright. The broken jam jars in the kitchen are another level of symbolism. As the Country Attorney says, when he feels the jam that leaked from the broken, “Here’s a nice mess” (Glaspell 10). In other words, unfinished kitchen work means something is awry with the role of the woman in the house.
The apron Mrs. Peters gathers to take to Mrs. Wright is also a symbol. Even in jail, Mrs. Wright feels the need for the piece of clothing that symbolizes her role and her sex. Mrs. Peters even says she thinks it is to make Mrs. Wright feel more comfortable, “I suppose just to make her feel more natural” (Glaspell 15). Once again, the apron is a sign of a woman’s limitations. It is also a sign that women do all of the work, while men generally criticize and complain about the quality of that work
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