琐事赏析literaryanalysisontrif

琐事赏析

 Literary Analysis on Trif...

琐事赏析 英文版

Trifles, written by Susan Glaspell in 1916, is considered as anoutstanding solo one-act drama in the history of Literature. Backto the early 20th century, it was a callous patriarchal society andas the title of this drama, Trifles, suggests, the concerns ofwomen are often considered to be mere trifles, unimportant issuesthat bear little or no importance to the true work of society,which, of course, is being carried out by men. In this drama SusanGlaspell not only reflect the relative value of men’s and

women’sperspectives but also criticizes this value ina subtle but ironical way. In order to give an literary analysis onTrifles, this essay will be divided into two parts: Plot Analysisand Theme Analysis. Theme Analysis: Susan Glaspell wrote this playfrom a real news report which revealed a common phenomenon thatwomen were not as equal as men and nobody cared about women’s mindsor even their lives. However , it was just the trifles disdained by the men in this drama thatgave the fatal

evidence for this murder. The attorney and sheriffpoke fun at their wives and their 'trifles.' When the men thinkthere is nothing important in the room by saying “Nothing here butkitchen things” and head upstairs to look for scene evidences forthe murder, their wives examine the so-called not important kitchenstuff where they find clues pointing to Mrs. Wright's guilt. Inother areas of the house, the women discover more clues that themen overlooked as mere 'trifles'. The men in this play betray asense of self-importance, and they present themselves as

tough,serious-minded detectives while in truth, they are not nearly asobservant as their female wives. Their pompous attitude causes thewomen to feel defensive and form ranks. Not only do Mrs. Hale andMrs. Peters bonds, but also they chose to withhold evidence as anact of compassion for Mrs. Wright. Stealing the box with the deadbird is an act of loyalty to their gender and also an act ofdefiance against a callous patriarchal society. Trifles areactually not trifles at all. What an irony!

Plot Analysis: 'Trifles' is a play with an unified plot. It followsthe Aristotelian “Unities”with the evidence that the entire drama'splot begins and ends in a span of one day

and in the single settingof kitchen room and all the plot centers on John Wright's murder.Farmer John Wright has been murdered with a rope around his neckwhile he is asleep in the midnight. And the suspect might be hiswife. It seemed obvious to the male characters that Mrs. Wrightkilled her husband, and she has been taken into custody as theprime suspect. The attorney and sheriff decide to find evidence topoint to Mrs. Wright's guilt, so they went to the Wright housetogether with their wives. This is the rising action for the wholeplot. In dealing with figuring out the murder evidence, the men andwomen react differently. The drama built the plot and

characterstogether in a few different ways. The men are very objective andtask-oriented, they wanted to get to the point and do their searchof the crime scene upstairs, and consider any smaller points later.Some of what was said but put off to be considered later actuallyimplied some foreshadowing of the real issue surrounding Wright'sdeath. Unlike the men who were looking for forensic evidence tosolve the crime, the women in Trifles observed clues that revealthe bleakness of Mrs. Wright’s emotional life, like ruined fruitpreserves, an unfinished quilt, an empty bird

cage and so manyother trifles. While the men were going about business and beingobjective, the women were looking over what Mrs. Wright left behindand subjectively trying to understand what happened. When gatheringup the quilting material, they discovered a fancy little

box.Inside, wrapped in silk was a dead canary with its neck been wrung.The women realized the implication that Mrs. Wright’s husband didnot like the canary’s beautiful song (a symbol of his wife’s desirefor freedom and happiness). So Mr. Wright busted the cage door andstrangled the bird. As a sympathy for Mrs. Wright and defiance fortheir husbands’ disappreciation, the two women decided to withholdthe evidence. They don not tell the men about their discovery.Instead, Mrs. Hale put the box with the deceased bird into her coatpocket resolving not to tell the men about this little “trifle”they have discovered, which is the climax for the plot. Theresolution and the denouement is pretty unexpected that the womenhid the crime evidence rather than putting Mrs. Wright guilty bytelling their husbands the discovery. The events in the plot arerealistic and all events happen not because of random chance butinevitably as women have been ignored and regarded