The Role of Women in Trifles

In Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles, women are looked down on and treated poorly by men.  The men in this play frequently suggest that certain things are a woman’s job and blame her if these jobs are not done to their satisfaction.  The county attorney says “... It’s not cheerful.  I shouldn’t say [Mrs. Wright] had the home-making instinct” (1128) when he observes that the Wrights’ home is not a very cheerful place.  He does not think about the fact that this could have been Mr. Wright’s fault as well. 

The men in this play also think that women worry about unimportant things and that the work they do is not very useful or difficult.  They believe that women are unable to focus on what is important in their lives.  When Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are worried about Mrs. Wright’s preserves Mr. Hale says that “…women are used to worrying over trifles” (1128).  He does not take into account all of the time and hard work that Mrs. Wright put into making those preserves for them just to be destroyed.  The county attorney even begins to make fun of the women for thinking about Mrs. Wright’s sewing and what she was planning to do with it.  At the end of the play he says “…at least we found out that she was not going to quilt it…” (1135).