Trifles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Trifles - Essay Example cture, including altering the starting and stopping points to some degree or another to either sharpen or soften the impact of the climax, it is true that most of our most popular stories follow this basic concept. However, Susan Glaspell, author of Trifles, has been accused of completely abandoning this basic structural framework within the play, creating instead a meandering, pointless and climax-less exposition that communicates its power through the very powerlessness of its main characters and the absence of the primary protagonist. A closer understanding of the basic plotline of the story reveals that Glaspell did not abandon this common structure, but instead placed it in an unusual context, purposely de-emphasizing the climax to illustrate the necessary actions of women with little to no power of their own. The play begins with the entrance of two women and three men into a gloomy farm kitchen that turns out to be the former home of John and Mrs. Wright. This is typically where exposition would start as the author begins to set up the story and this is exactly what Glaspell does. She includes some foreshadowing regarding the nature of the relationship between the couple as Mr. Hale continues to drop hints that John was cruelly dominating toward his wife. Telling the story of how he found the couple upon his arrival the morning of John’s death, Mr. Hale indicates that he had hoped to convince John to get a telephone and felt perhaps speaking about it in front of Mrs. Wright might have some positive effect as she was sure to want one as well. â€Å"I thought maybe if I went to the house and talked about it before his wife, though I said to Harry that I didn’t know as what his wife wanted made much difference to John.† This indication of a master/servant relationship is carried throughout this opening segment of the play and deliberately throws emphasis upon the men’s ideas regarding John’s death while allowing the two women to slip almost