SOURCE: "Glaspell's Trifles", in The Explicator, Vol. 55, No. 2, Winter 1997, pp. 88-90.

In this essay, Russell argues that the three women depicted in Trifles bear "strong resemblance" to the three Fates of Greek mythology.

On the surface, Susan Glaspell's one-act play Trifles focuses on the death of an oppressive husband at the hands of his emotionally abused wife in an isolated and remote farm in the midwest. Beneath the surface, the collective behaviors of Mrs. Hale, Mrs. Peters, and Mrs. Wright in Glaspell's play bear strong resemblance to those of the Fates (Clotho the Spinner, Lachesis the Disposer of Lots, and Atropos the Cutter of the Thread) in Greek mythology. Although Glaspell brings new vigor to the myth, the attention given to Mrs. Hale's resewing the quilt, the change in Mrs. Peters's perspective on law and justice, and the rope placed by Mrs. Wright around her husband's neck are...