Trifles A One-act Play by Susan Glaspell - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 6 Words: 1886 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2019/07/03 Category Literature Essay Level High school Tags: Trifles Essay Did you like this example? The play Trifles was written in the year 1916, with the context of the play being in a kitchen, and any surrounding that that portrays the lives of women in the 1900s. It demonstrates the preoccupation of the writer in a culture that defines roles for different genders and sex. A Trifles imply something of minor or no importance. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Trifles A One-act Play by Susan Glaspell" essay for you Create order The women in this society are portrayed as trifles, which has no any value only meant to stay in the kitchen. They do not seem to be of any great importance, whereas men are perceived as crucial by the roles they perform. During the 1900s, women were viewed as house wives who were expected to cook, clean, and take care of the children. With not much of a choice, women were to accept such treatment from society. Glaspell was a Pulitzer prize-winning actress, playwright, and novelist. Even though she was born in a male-dominated era, Glaspell succeeded and became a reporter where she covered murder cases and investigations. She quit being a reported to fulfil her dream and began writing and publishing fiction stories. Not only did Glaspell regard herself primarily as a fiction writer, but she was critically accepted as an American novelist of integrity and importance in the mid 1930s (Carpentier 93). Although most of her stories and plays were short, it gave her the prestige and recog nition for the impact in her writing. She wrote most of her plays to have a message about women and their roles in society, and their relationships between men and women. Most of her writing was geared towards feminism because she wanted to show how differently women were treated through her plays. This disrespect is portrayed in her most popular play Trifles (1876-1948). As Galens highlights, Trifles is a murder mystery that explores gender relationships, power between the sexes, and the nature of truth. The context of this study surround the murder of John Wright, found lying on the bed in his house having been strangled. Minnie Foster-Wright, Johns wife, is treated as the first suspect of the killing. The women in the play, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are the main participants alongside the county attorney, a witness and Mrs. Hales husband. In the approaches of the murder scene the men seem to be more worried about judging Mrs. Wrights housekeeping, whereas the women, knowing the h ardships of housekeeping, approach it as a home. The men within this play betray a sense of self-importance. They present themselves as tough, serious-minded detectives when in truth, they are not nearly as observant as the female characters. (Bradford) The viewing of crime by both men and women is portrayed to be differently. The women had information about the suspect of the murder from the evidence they witnessed in the kitchen. However, due to the ongoing abuse of women in the society they opt to cover up for their counterpart. On the other hand, men do not consider entering the kitchen to where the evidence is open. This is because the men treat the kitchen as the affair and world of women and as a result of this they end up leaving an open truth behind. During the witnessing of the crime scene investigation, while in the kitchen, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale instantly observe the type of life Mrs. Wright has been living- one that is isolated and supressed. As a result, they end up keeping quiet and hiding the evidence at the end of the play. This portrays the level of dominance of men in society and how women were forced to live in a different environment from other people, such as in kitchens as evident on Mrs. Wrights case. The men further demonstrate dominance over women by the fact that women are not allowed to contribute to the investigation although they could have offered better solutions leading to the apprehension of the suspect. However, despite the dominance of the men, their competence and the effectiveness remained questionable leading to no fruitful findings. Rob Hardy (202) analysed that Mr. Peters, the sheriff, has come looking for clues- but its the women, with an eye for the details of domestic life, who come closest to reconstructing the crime. In the scene of the crime, women seem to be closely united. The use of symbolism in the story shows the level of women in society. For instance, the shattered jar of cherries preserves represents a womans hard work during the hot long days of summer. Mrs. Hale instantly sympathized with Mrs. Wright Theres a great deal of work to be done on a farm Can a woman be justified in murdering a husband who has psychologically abused her? (Rudnick 389). The caging of the bird in the house demonstrates another instance of men dominance in society over women. Symbolically, the living of bird in the cage demonstrates the kind of life Minnie was living- a life that was minimal and had no freedom. Mrs. Wright, as many women during that time, was not allowed to freely move out of the house and escape such instances. The murdering of her husband was the only escape she had to freedom. As David M. Galens stated, Minnie, is driven to kill her husband as a result of the hopelessness and desperation she feels from her isolated and joyless life. This illustration describes the level of confinement of the women in society and the level of misuse up to the extent of not being allowed to mix with others. The approach of seeking the evidence that would lead to the identification of the suspect by both genders was quite different from that of women eme rging more effective and successful. This act as evidence that women have the capability of realizing little things, trifles, while men do not pay any attention to these minor but important details. The bonding of women evidenced in the play had resulted from the fact that they shared the same background of oppression, dissatisfaction, and frustrations, resulting from the gender differences. This made them live in sympathy of each other. The hiding of the bird was a form of unity amongst the women with a motive of challenging the judiciary system that was dominated by men. They were making every possible effort to protect Mrs. Wright from being identified as the suspect to the murder of her husband, John Wright. Author Orit Kamir (70) noted: Glaspells women realize that accepting the legal systems interpretation of Minnie would entail accepting a system of meaning in which all abused women are either evil or crazy. It is a system of meaning that excludes their perspective, obviating their subjecthood and status as human beings. It is a system of power that is bluntly and blatantly set against them, one that is inherently unjust and dangerous to them as women. Accepting it would mean self-denial and self-annihilation. Resistance and disobedience are therefore acts of self-defense and self-preservation whereby the women preserve their dignity, humanity, and sanity. They have endured hard work, isolation, daily patronizing, and mockery, but this legal dismissal and dominance threaten the core of their existence, and they must confront it. And since it is a women that the law challenges them, they unite against it as a community of women. Mrs. Wright was a beautifully caged bird that was trapped in the darkness of her marriage with John Wright. This portrays the level of men dominance in society to the extent that women are not allowed to exercise their freedom and passion. Killing of bird that was the only company Mrs Wright had symbolized the willingness of the men to dominate the women in the society. Mrs. Wright was also not allowed to socialize with the outsiders, for instance, there existed no telephone in their house despite being trapped there for long . From the narration, (Mrs. Wright) used to wear pretty clothes and be lively, when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girl singing in the choir. But that-oh, that was thirty years ago. She was previously well known as a good singer in the church choir specifically before her marriage. However, after her marriage, there was a drastic change. Her beloved bird kept her company during those lonely days since she did not have any children. The dominance of her husband changed her personality making her to live a life full of limits. Contrary to viewing the home as an arena of comfort, most of the women viewed their homes as a ground full of oppression and abuses. Reflecting the living of Mrs. Wright, her home was just a ground of torture and psychological abuse, where all she lived with is fear that took a better part of her. Mrs. Wrights house was dominated by silence. The extent of silence is symbolically demonstrated by the nonexistence of telephone in Minnies house and the violent murder of the bird, the closest company she had was the bird her husband possibly killed. This is clear evidence that there exists a higher possibility that Mrs. Wright was being abused by her husband leading to her isolation from the church choir and the fellow women. The violated individuals tend to isolate themselves from others in fear of being asked what they go through. The life of Mrs. Wright is clear evidence that not all women are content with their marriage life, but instead opt to hide their problems from their friends and extended relatives. Women do this in their attempt to prevent their marriages from breaking. Mrs. Hale reminds us how difficult it can be to be a woman with oppressionI know how things can be-for women. I tell you, its queer, Mrs. Peters. We live close together and we live far apart. We all go through the same thing-its all just a different kind of the same thing (45). In conclusion, from the observation of various happenings and the unfolding of the play, the writer has demonstrated the increase of dominance in the society. Here, the man expresses the patriarchal relations and regard themselves to be more senior than the women. Example of such instances is when the males arrived at John Wrights home as investigators while the women arrived as mere witnesses and their opinions about the solution in the investigation is disregarded. The denial of freedom to the women also expresses the state of oppression that women experience at their homes. For instance, Mrs. Wright had been trapped in her house by her husband. This violates her freedom of movement and association with others. The killing of the company she had, a bird, is also open evidence of the violation of women rights in the society. Mrs. Hale described Mrs. Wright (as being) a bird herself- real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and-fluttery. How-she-did-change. However, at various instan ces of the play, there is a description of the attempts the women are making in the protection of their affairs. Women unify and stand for one another in a potential threat resulting from the dominance of the males. Hiding of the bird that could have acted as a motive shows the level of support among the women. Besides, the women successfully give evidence and other forms of assistance leading to the identification of the suspect in the murdering of John more effectively than men could manage.

The Russian Revolution and George Orwells Animal Farm Essay

The Russian Revolution and George Orwells Animal Farm Animal Farm can be read in two different ways. The first is as a childs book about animals that can walk and talk, but the second is to understand what message the book is trying give. To understand this message you need to understand about the Russian revolution 1917. In the book Animalism is created and in the revolution communist leaders gain power. The book directly links a person from the revolution to a character in the book. Everything that happens in the book happens because a similar event happened in the Russian revolution. Animal Farm is a moral satire. It is predicting what will happen to communism in Russia and the†¦show more content†¦When Boxer cannot work any longer the pigs have him killed, showing that a world in which honesty sensitivity and decent has been demolished. The first parallel between Animal Farm and the Russian revolution is important because they are the problem that stirs up the revolution. Tsar and Jones. Tsar was the leader of Russia in the times before the revolution. Russia was in a terrible state; there was poverty, very little money and poor living conditions. Tsar and his wife, however, lived in luxury. He had plenty of money; riches, food and he lived in a fine house with plenty of comforts. Jones is the parallel in Animal Farm. Whilst times are hard on the farm Jones always has his warm house to return to. The animals sometimes starve because he forgets to feed them and their living conditions in the old barn are poor. This is the same state that Russia was in, Jones and Tsar lived in luxury at other peoples expense. This sparked off the next parallel. Old major from Animal Farm with two people in the Russian revolution, Marx and Lenin. Marx believed that private ownership was wrong and everyone should be equal. It was Lenin who adopted Marxs ideas and he said that the middle class exploited the workers and should be overthrown. 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Poor Boys Blimp Essay Example For Students

Poor Boys Blimp Essay There once was a little boy that grew up in the Brooklyn projects. He wasextremely poor. Some how he managed to have some of the better things of lifelike a treadmill and an obsolete computer from the 80s. His life long dreamwas to own a $650 Lead Zeppelin remote controlled blimp. He asked his parentsevery year for six years if he could have it and every time they would say nothey couldnt afford it. So on the boys fourteenth birthday he went andapplied for a job at the local Nathaniels. After talking to the manager Steveand getting the job he ran home and told his parents that he started the jobtomorrow. The next day the when he got to work he looked around and noticedSteve was gone. He asked another worker where Steve was. The worker responded hewas fired for being too stupid. The boy laughed and returned back to work. Afterweeks of hard work he finally made $600 of the $650 he needed for the blimp. Onhis way home one day he noticed a new store. He read the stores name IraqiPete Dis count plutonium and models. So only being human he walked in to lookaround. The moment he walked in he was surrounded be a green glow that was sobright it would put a helicopters searchlights to shame. After his eyesadjusted to the glow he saw the storeowner eating pineapples and watching TV inblack and white. The owner of the store heard the door shut and went to the boyand said hello. The boy being polite said hello as well. The owner asked ifthere was a certain item he was looking for. The boy asked if he had a LedZeppelin remote control blimp. The man said yes we do right there in the corner. So the boy thanked him and walked to the corner and his eyes lit up brighterthan the radiation from the plutonium. It was the blimp for $600 tax-free. Theboy asked if the blimp was really $600 the owner said yes why wouldnt it be. The boy grabbed it, bought it, and left the store. Quickly he ran home and sawhis father. Daddy, daddy he said look what I bought. The father yelled shut up. I just worked double time triple time at the hospital I need coffee and sleep. Not affected by his fathers routine yelling the boy went to his 5th storywindow and read the directions and then started the blimp. The sound of theengine thrilled the boy. Now the time had come for the first flight the boy flewit out the window and outside where everyone could see it. He was having thetime of his life until it happened. The blimp for no apparent reason went putt,putt and started on its first and last decent. Crashing into the courtyard in aloud flaming mess the boy almost passed out. He ran down the stairs fast to seehow bad the damage was. It was totaled the blimp would never fly again. Hestarted to cry when he noticed something he didnt smell gas. He dipped hisfinger in the gas tank and tasted it. It was watered down desil he was swindledby Pete. Angry, sad and confused he ran back to the store he walked in screamingand crying. Then all of a sudden he noticed something there where ten INS agentsin Petes store. He also saw Pete in handcuffs. One of the agents saw h im andquickly took him out of the store and drove him home. When he got home the boywalked slowly up the stairs like a lifeless zombie. When he finally got back tohis apartment he sat in front of the window and watched the birds thinking tohimself why couldnt I have just waited. The moral of the story is if it seemsto good to be true it probably is.

Confirmation of My Sins and The Stone Show Essay Example For Students

Confirmation of My Sins and The Stone Show Essay In 1963 Zachery Longboy entered this world. His parents were Chipewyan, specifically Sayisi Dene. Only a week into his life Zachery was taken away from his native community. Under circumstances which still remain a mystery Zachery was adopted by a white family. Since the event Zachery has been engulfed in a cloud of confusion: a confusion of identity. Zachery, with film, worked to express what being indigenous really means and how factors of family and history can shape it. Through two of his films, Confirmation of my Sins and The Stone Show, Zachery uses cinematic techniques to show his struggle with identity as well as how an indigenous visuality/identity is shaped by environment, history, and blood. Zachery Longboy is an artist. He uses film as a means of expressing himself, often these films are avant-garde. In 1999 The Stone Show released in art galleries. This nine minute film explores Zachery’s reunion with his biological family and tribe. Images consist of nature such as water, trees, birds, and the moon. Audio heard comes from his biological grandmother and a phone call from his foster mother. Zachery released Confirmation of my Sins in 1995. In it he explores his childhood and memories with his foster family. He uses visuals of bright carpets and an old woman walking. Also, he uses saturated colors of nature and black and white shots of his foster mother. An indigenous visuality is a hard concept to define. There are many films created by many people that all explore different aspect of native culture and life. However, indigenous visuality is a film that is created by a native and attempts to describe, tell a story, or bring awareness to native life and issues. Often indigenous films focus on land and family: they are quite important to native history. Some films are meant only to be understood by native audiences while others have a wide range of audiences. Zachery maintains an indigenous visuality in his art by exploring native identity and how it can be shaped and transformed by your surroundings. Confirmation of my Sins presents an indigenous visuality that explores growing up a native in a white culture and, in fact, if you still are native under the circumstances. The Stone Show shows an indigenous visuality in how time and history impacts modern natives. If a native has been removed from his/her culture for so long there will be something fundamentally missing in his/her native identity. Confirmation of my Sins, as said above, expresses indigenous visuality of confusion in identity from growing up in a culture where you are completely different. The film explores these ideas through its contrasting audio and visuals, manipulated frame rate, sporadic camera movement, camera angles and framing, and lighting. First, Zachery expresses his confusion in his identity through contrasting audio and visuals. The opening shot of the film is a close up of an old lady’s feet walking around a bright red carpet. The audio heard is of a woman talking. It is unclear if the woman who is walking is talking. It’s almost as if Zachery saw where he should be walking yet is hearing different. The fact that the viewer cannot determine where the voice comes from builds distance and adds mystery. Another shot shows the sun setting in a field with tall grass. We hear audio from an old movie. It’s hard to know exactly which film is heard but it seems to be from an American western, words such as â€Å"apache† are heard. It’s hard not to think about the vanishing indian here. The sun is setting on nature and, presumably, a cowboy is talking about indians. Old westerns are notorious for spreading the vanishing indian theory. Zachery here seems to say that perhaps his native identity has set with the American culture, the culture he grew up in. Finally, the most interesting contrast is visuals of â€Å"how-to† be a native drawings and slowed audio. The audio seems to be of a person saying â€Å"sorry† over and over: it is slowed down immensely. The drawings are diagrams of stereotypically dressed natives crafting â€Å"native† things: building a fire, shelter, etc.. This seems that Zachery had to learn about native culture, his culture, through textbooks written by white Americans. A large part of native identity is passed through stories from parents and grandparents, however, Zachery did not have these stories he only had movies and books. Second, Zachery uses a manipulated frame rate and sporadic camera movements to express his sense of something missing and adding to his confusion in identity. Movie Summary - American Sniper EssayWhat is happening isn’t clear visually and the contrasting cut of color emphasizes this. After this the screen is overwhelmed with bright-harsh snow. The landscape ground fades into the sky and it is unclear where one snowy object ends and where the ground or sky begin. The harsh cut from dark hands to bright white landscape is overwhelming at first. Zachery seems to perfectly recreate the sensation of walking out of a dark house into a sunny and snowy day and your eyes being shocked and unused to how bright it is. These harsh color contrasts make the viewer feel overwhelmed: it’s hard to understand what is happening when the color keeps changing harshly. Finally, Zachery uses movement in the shot and framing to express the history of indians and how the world is constantly changing so he will never be able to fully understand himself as a native. First, Zachery shows a close up of a stream, in the shot water is quickly moving down. This rapid movement down seems to express that nature is constantly being recycled and changing. The old falls off screen while the new enters at the top. Even though Zachery was able to reunite with his indigenous community and family there is still so much that has changed and happened that he may never understand or see. The snowscape scene where the camera is quickly tracking in reverse expands on this feeling of distance and the unknowing. As the camera moves backwards the environment gets smaller and farther away. Points on the horizon vanish into nothing. Zachery expresses the vanishing indian here: the native land is rapidly moving away and vanishing into the horizon. The most interesting use of movement is with a moon. In a series of shots the frame is split into four different images. The smallest frame being of a moon. Throughout these shots the moon is slowly moving to the right. As it moves the other frames become smaller and vanish while the moon’s frame becomes larger. Eventually the whole frame is taken up by the moon. The moon moves off screen right, setting. As the moon sets images of birds and grass vanish. It seems that the moon represents white society and as it spreads, aspects of indigenous life vanish. Perhaps Zachery is showing this to express his feelings of how white society has affected him specifically and how white’s believe natives are vanishing. He will never be able to fully identify with native or with whites. He is stuck in confusion. Jake winter Went ot hes rore and he Found himself buying some goodies and all thehyddh dfkadosdkdfkj buy JkakeiutyiueriuoiqueryoiqweuyrqpweiyrpqoweiurldkfjKUmemmaiuuauauauauj s jqb jaw U j A ja Among these two works of art by Zachery Longboy there are similar and different themes explored and techniques used. Both of the films express indigenous visuality of what being a native means and how Zachery’s life has forced him to be forever confused about his own identity. They both express this through contrast, one contrasting color and the other contrasting audio and visuals. These contrasts build suspense and force the mind to attempt to understand two things that are completely different. Through movement and framing both films limit the the understanding of the viewer and show that Zachery isn’t able to fully understand himself: he doesnt have the complete picture. The films also both use hollywood tropes of indians such as the vanishing indian and cowboys vs. indians. The films differ in only plot. Confirmation of my Sins deals with Zachery and his foster family while The Stone Show deal with him and his reunions with native lands and family. Zachery Longboy’s films, Confirmation of my Sins and The Stone Show, express and indigenous visuality, through cinematic techniques, of what being an indian really means, how environment manipulates the way you see yourself as an indian, and how history of white society has forever changed how natives see themselves. Bibliography: Longboy, Zachery, dir. Confirmation of my Sins. 1995. Film. Longboy, Zachery, dir. The Stone Show. 1999. Film.