Trifles: Woman and Mr. Peters Essay Example

any man.

Glaspell has another reason for showing this side of Mr. Peters: her first attempt to characterize men as a whole, those who automatically take charge thinking they are the only ones capable of keeping things in line. Along with her characterization of Mr. Peters, she is able to show some irony through Mr. Peters’s next lines, “Oh-yesterday. When I had to send Frank to Morris Center for that man who went crazy-I want you to know I had my hands full…” (1396).

These lines show Mr.Peters as a man less in control with a tendency to get off track, which contradicts the role he attempts to take. Concerning the women, Mr. Peters has as much respect for them as is considered polite. He does not appreciate their womanly “duties” and certainly doesn’t think anything of their disquiet. After Mrs.

Peters realizes that the fruit preserves have frozen and makes mention of it, Mr. Peters exclaims, “Well, can you beat a woman! Held for murder and worryin’ about her preserves” (1371). This particular quote demonstrates Mr.Peters’s lack of respect for women and the things they have to worry about in the way he teases his own wife, for whom he obviously does not have much respect.

He shows this lack of respect once again when Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters discover the quilt, comment about it, and he teases, “They wonder is she was going to quilt it or just knot it! ” (1373) Glaspell reveals Mr. Peters to be ignorant and disrespectful--despite his position as a man, a man of the law, and his own personal assumption of control. Like Mr.Peters, the attorney, George Henderson, is a

man of the law, though younger than Mr.

Peters and Mr. Hale. Due to the generational differences, one would assume that Henderson has a more modern respect for women and is more aware and observant. Mr.

Henderson displays quite the opposite, proving that simply being a man of intellectual or higher position does not necessarily make one superior. Glaspell’s portrayal of Mr. Henderson is similar to that of her portrayal of Mr. Peters, as men who quickly take things seriously and attempt to take responsibility for the duties at hand.Mr.

Henderson leads Mr. Hale into his account of the story and tries to keep the two men on task and focusing on the objective. Mr. Henderson even talks roughly to the sheriff, “Somebody should have been left here yesterday” (1369), showing not only his effort to control the situation, but that because he is younger and more educated, he believes himself to know more.

Glaspell is exhibiting Mr. Henderson’s arrogance and self-assurance as a way to make him seem like a young man with that invincible hero-complex. This is seen again after Mr.Peters teases the women for worrying about the reserves and Mr.

Henderson declares, “(with the gallantry of a young politician): and yet, for all their worries, what would we do without the ladies? ” (1371) Although this particular line makes it seem as if he appreciates the women more then the other two men do, this is only Mr. Henderson trying to impress the women and show off. For the rest of the play, he mostly ignores their presence, marking the two women as insignificant. At one point, he says to them, “Well, ladies, have you decided whether

she was going to quilt it or knot it?...

Well, that’s interesting, I’m sure” (1375), not even giving the women’s response half a thought when, ironically, the subject of his question was very noteworthy evidence. Glaspell is characterizing Mr. Henderson as cocky, yet ignorant to prove the women’s legitimacy. Unlike Mr. Henderson and Mr.

Peters, Mr. Hale is only a neighboring farmer; therefore Glaspell depicts him as a much less educated, less observant man as well as one with deeper-rooted ideas of how a woman should act and the duties that are expected of her. Mr. Hale is the one who discovers Mr. nd Mrs. Wright.

As Mr. Hale tells the story, he has a tendency to stray into trivial things. At one point, he says, “I spoke to Wright about it once before and he put me off, saying folks talked too much anyway, and all he wanted was peace and quiet-I guess you know how much he talked himself…” (1369). Here Hale seems like less of an educated, even unintelligent, person than Mr. Henderson or Mr.

Peters. Mr. Hale doesn’t have much of a say in how the investigation goes and has nothing to offer other than his story from the day before.A reader could probably deduce the truth behind the murder just from Mr. Hale’s story, but Glaspell is trying to make a point with the women. A farmer’s wife has many more duties than a normal wife since she has to help run the farm, so Mr.

Hale has a definite sense of what is considered womanly duties. When relaying his story, he says, “Well, I was surprised; she didn’t ask me to come up to

the stove or to set down, but just sat there, not even looking at me…” (1369). Evidently in the mind of Mr. Hale, it was expected of Mrs.

Wright to be hospitable and offer him at least a seat. Once again, it is his expectations of women that come out in his speech about Mrs. Wright. Mr.

Hale does not think much of the other women’s presence either, which is ironic, because it is his wife who discovers most of the crime and pushes Mrs. Peters to go along with it and hide the evidence. After the preserves incident, Mr. Hale claims, “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles” (1371).

Here, his attitude towards women is shown to be exactly that of the other two men. Mr.Hale believes their concerns to be trivial and does not have respect for, nor appreciates, the things that they as women had to worry about and do. Since the setting of Trifles is 1916 rural America, the attitudes of the men are not entirely exaggerated.

The play as a whole is a comment on women’s roles in society, and Glaspell is able to portray that, not just in the actions of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, but in the actions and attitudes of the men towards the women and the crime. None of the three men have any respect for the two women, nor are they capable of getting past what they assume is expected of men.Obviously their attitudes don’t help them at all, whereas it is the two women who reveal the entire crime. Glaspell’s characterization of the sheriff, the county attorney and the neighboring farmer illustrate her belief that in

society men do not respect women or have any faith in women’s abilities to do anything other than what is expected of the traditional female.