Lucy Burke
Digital Theatermaker Profile
Theater and Society III
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WORKS
Overview...
While Susan Glaspell is most famous for her work as a playwright, including plays such as Trifles and Alison’s House, Glaspell’s career consisted of many other short stories, novels, and a successful position in journalism. Much of her works were inspired by her upbringing and the problems she saw with America in the age of the New Woman. Before her marriage to George Cook, Glaspell travelled to Europe, in particular Germany, where German expressionism was on the rise.[1] German expressionism is a form of theater that took a deep dive into what people and characters are feeling, and sharing them with the outside world. [2] Glaspell was taken with this idea and began to incorporate it into her own plays. This allowed each character to be seen as an individual with complex internal emotions, which was extremely important among women who feel they did not have their own voice in society. [3] In addition to expressionism, Glaspell’s plays are often marked as idealist. Glaspell’s hopes for a changing the face of society into a more egalitarian state is the ideal Glaspell strives for. [4]
Trifles...
Trifles, written in 1916, is a play based on the Hossack murder, where Margaret Hossack brutally murdered her husband while he slept one night. Similarly, Trifles is centered on the investigation of the death of John Wright, who is suspected to have been killed by his wife in his sleep. The play occurs in the Wright home, and involves police and investigators looking for proof that Minnie Wright committed the murder. A neighbor, Mrs. Hale, and the sheriff’s wife, Mrs. Peters, are also present at the scene, and they make the choice to cover up the only evidence available at the scene of the crime: a murdered bird in Mrs. Wright’s quilting kit. [5] It is interesting because Glaspell made the choice to have the action revolved around Mrs. Wright, but she does not appear in the play herself. This degree of separation shows that even though the women who cover up the crime cannot speak with her directly, or fully understand her intentions to kill, there is still a bond of sisterhood evident amongst women at this time in order to
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protect themselves from getting lost in a patriarchal world. [6] Glaspell’s use of language and the speaking voice, or rather the lack of voice, is very particular and strategic. Jouve, in an essay regarding trifles, says that “In the beginning, the women are silent from [powerlessness]; their final refusal to speak rings with the power of intention and choice". [7] Glaspell shows that after years of oppression and living in the shadows of their male counterparts, women are not silent because of this oppression, but because they are making a strong choice to keep quiet for the benefit of other woman, and as a silent revolution against the patriarchal world they are subject to. [8]
Footnotes:
1. Shafer, Yvonne. American Women Playwrights, 1900-1950.
2. Obiezlo, Barbara. Susan Glaspell: A Critical Biography.
3. Burke, Sally. Feminist Playwrights: A Critical History. New York, Twayne Publishers, 1997.
4. Jouve, Emeline. Susan Glaspell's Poetics and Politics of Rebellion. (Iowa City, University of Iowa Press, 2017.)
5. Glaspell, Susan. “Trifles”, Plays by Susan Glaspell. Edited by C. W. E. Bigsby, Dodd, Mead, and Company Inc., 1920.
6. Ibid
7. Jouve, Emeline. Susan Glaspell's Poetics and Politics of Rebellion. (Iowa City, University of Iowa Press, 2017.) 177
8. Ibid