SOURCE: "Women's Work—Trifles? The Skill and Insights of Playwright Susan Glaspell," in International Journal of Women's Studies, Vol. 5, No. 2, March/April 1982, pp. 172-84.

In the following, Smith examines Glaspell's presentation of women in Trifles and she analyzes the play as "a possible fictional representation of a [spouse battering. "]

Introduction

Sheriff (rises): Well, can you beat the woman! Held for murder and worrin' about her preserves.

County Attorney (getting down from chair): I guess before we're through she may have something more serious to worry about.

Hale: Well, women are used to worrying about trifles. (The two women move a little closer together.)¹

Susan Glaspell

The same aspects of life which the male characters in Trifles see as ordinary and insignificant are in truth vital parts of the female experience shared by the female characters onstage and off. Playwright Susan Glaspell's ironic use of...