A Lack of Awareness
A lack of awareness of cultural differences present in the society often results in personal and social encounters. Glaspell’s Trifles characters are affected by the assumption that one cultural group is inferior in the society. This lack of awareness largely affects the characters of the story Glaspell’s Trifles. This article is going to analyze this thesis and explain how these characters have faced painful personal and social encounters.
Mrs. Wright brings out the theme when her husband makes her go through a painful personal experience when he locks her happiness away from her. Mr. Wright lacked awareness of the cultural differences present in the society and thus he locked Mrs. Wright singing happiness from her. Mrs. Hale describes Mrs. Wright as the canary that used to sing. She states, ‘She came to think of it, she was kind to like a bird herself, real sweet and pretty but kind of timid and fluttery(Gainor, 2001).’ Mr. Wright saw Mrs. Wright as an inferior person and thus he thought he had the right of locking her singing happiness away from Mrs. Wright. Mrs. Hale at one point states that Mrs. Wright changed after she got married and she did not sing anymore. She stopped attending social functions and her only happiness was her bird(In Carpentier&InJouve, 2015).
Mr. Wright saw her wife as an inferior person because he finally killed her bird which was her only happiness at the time. Mrs. Hale states, ‘No, Wright wouldn’t like the bird, a thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that too. Mr. Wright is a character who brings out this theme clearly in his cruel behavior against his wife. This action by Mr. Wright led to the revenge of Mrs. Wright by committing murder (Keller, 2005).
References
Gainor, J. E. (2001). Susan Glaspell in context: American theater, culture, and politics, 1915-48. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
In Carpentier, M. C., & In Jouve, E. (2015). On Susan Glaspell’s Trifles and “A jury of her peers”: Centennial essays, interviews and adaptations.
Keller, M. (2005). Symbolic realism in Susan Glaspell’s Trifles.München: GRIN Verlag.