Societal Issues in Trifles, a Play by Susan Glaspell

Literature can be used as a powerful tool to examine and illuminate different facets of society that can either oppress or empower women. We can use the text to elucidate some of the oppressive, and sometimes empowering, aspects of literature by close reading. Close reading will give us a means to which we are able to uncover certain angles of literature that we may not have been able to notice otherwise. We will seek and attempt to understand how literature reveals how women are treated in society by analyzing language, the patriarchy, and gender rules. We will observe and close read several works of literature to see if any clues exist that point out the oppression, or empowerment, of women. A language is a powerful tool in the reader’s arsenal when we attempt to close read literature, Language is able to tell us how are the characters are affected by their situation, time period, or even their status.

The manner in which words are manipulated in literature is often overlooked; however, we use language as a means of determining an individual's place in society In the story “Story of the Hour“, we immediately see that the Protagonist’s name is “Mrs, Mallard”, We promptly noticed that the protagonist is defined by her marital status, No where else in this story is Mrs. Mallard referred to as her first name. The story does not directly tell us her full name; therefore, there is a stress on the fact that she is tied to her marriage. We know for a fact that this story was written in the late 18005 which tells that the use of “Mrs.” and “Mr.” were the more accepted ways of labeling an individual. The acceptance of the husband’s last name and the honorific“Mrs“ deindividualizes the woman because the woman's name is being stripped from her and become replaced with the husband’s last name language is significant here because it tells us that Mrs. Mallard is defined by her marital status and therefore losing her individuality.

The purpose of naming the character “Mrst Mallard” is to highlight the fact that many women were, and still are, characterized by their marital status. We can see the existence of patriarchal oppression throughout society and literature We can easily observe how society defines men as the more dominant sex and how women are often more submissive and obedient This attribute of society becomes accentuated when we look at the story “Eveline”. In this story, we see that young Eveline is obligated is give up her income to her father Eveline is not physically forced to give up her wages; however, she is expected to. We see that her father possesses the dominant role of this household in this story because she gives the money directly to him.

Order custom essay Societal Issues in Trifles, a Play by Susan Glaspell with free plagiarism report

450+ experts on 30 subjects Starting from 3 hours delivery

Get Essay Help

The head of household, who is usually always male, assumes the kinglike control in the house, When Eveline gives those seven shillings to her father, she becomes more and more obedient to him We see that Eveline fears her father not only because of his overwhelming violence, but of his dominant role in the family as well In the story, we see that Eveline initially wishes to escape from her life of oppression from her father; however, we can say that she possibly stayed upon realizing that she is relinquishing herself of life from one man, but she could also be entering a life controlled by another man. We see that Eveline is trapped in this oppressive circle of which is impossible to escape from, which is usually the case in a male dominant society. Gender roles and stereotypes can be found throughout society; however, whenever we see that literature breaks these stereotypes, it draws our attention.

For example, in the play “Trifles”, we see two groups of individuals who are conducting an investigation to find the killer of Mrs Wright’s husband. One group consists of all men and other consists of solely two women. Usually when we think of investigators or detectives, we often associate those jobs to men Society assumes that men are better at solving mysteries; on the contrary, the women in this play break this gender role by being able to assemble clues in a quicker fashion We see these women are actively finding clues while the men that are conducting the formal investigation are not able to find much of anything, The fact that the women were able to more effectively find certain clues, along with achieving the understanding to why Mrs Wright‘s husband was killed, breaks the stereotype that women aren’t able to reason better than men.

Once literature breaks a certain stereotype, it becomes highlighted because it is unusual. This play empowers women by elucidating the fact that women are more than capable of being extremely astute even when facing oppression from their male counterparts. By having the ability to close read and analyze what may lay beyond the text, we were able to illuminate some of the oppressive, and some empowering, aspects of three literary pieces. We investigated how the use of language in a short story is able give clues to how a woman is identified by her marriage, what is expected from women in our patriarchal society, and how gender roles can be broken in order to uncover the intelligence of women. We were able to uncover all these aspects byjust close reading and paying close attention to the story,We have learned that literature can be used as a powerful tool to investigate the oppressive and empowering facets in society.

Don't let plagiarism ruin your grade

Run a free check or have your essay done for you

Check my essay Hire Writer