A Few Comments on Trifles

Thank You those of you who have joined the Woman Writer Blog.  One glitch for our first play, Trifles.  The printer reversed some pages so if you are reading the play, look at the page numbers at the bottom (mine!) and read in correct order.

Here are some questions for tomorrow's discussion:

1.  How does Glaspell set up the contrast between what women pay attention to and what men focus on?  Give examples.  Which characters are "round" and which are "flat"?


2.  List as many symbols as you can find in the play and consider how symbols are related to themes.  For example, there is the literal quilt that the women find; quilting can also be seen as a metaphor for what the women visitors are doing. . .(note--there is a short story version called "A Jury of Her Peers").

3.  The play raises important legal and ethical questions: how do the women and the men see their ethical roles and responsibilities differently?  How do the women conduct their own trial?

4.  How do the women change in the course of the play and what changes them?  How do they gradually identify with Minnie Wright?

5.  How are two absent characters (one dead, one in jail) present in the play--what details tell us about their characters? 

6.  Why does Glaspell set the play in a domestic space instead of, for example, a court of law?  What are advantages?

7.  Why do the women hide the evidence?  In the end, who is in control of the story and how is this ironic--and important for Glaspell's theme?  Why do women, in general, hide evidence?