Trifles

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the play Trifles. It was a different approach to starting conversation about gender, and because it was a play, I picked up on social cues that are much more prevalent to myself in my every day living oppose to some of the topics and lessons we have talked about in other presentations. Because I was not there to see Mr. Wann's play, I watched the youtube video of Trifles. It took me some time to figure out what was going on between the characters, but it was clear there was a gender divide from the start.

One of the first details I noticed was how in the opening scene both women were standing in the corner, and did not say anything to the men for at least three full minutes. I also noticed how they played more of a "traditional" house wife role from early America. The men criticized the kitchen, however both Mrs. Peters and Hale did not say anything. The men searched the house for a motive of why Mrs. Wright hypothetically murdered her husband. When the men leave Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters find a dead bird that Mr. Wright most likely killed which could have been a motive for Mrs. Wright to kill him. The men are mainly concerned with finding a motive, but they occasionally slip in negative comments about women to Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters. For example they talk about searching the basket, the men conclude that it is "not very dangerous things the ladies picked out". This is ironic because Mrs. Hale has the dead canary in her pocket at this time. The fact that Mrs. Hale and Peters decide to hide the dead bird from the men is significant because it represents them standing by one another.  Despite the men having no idea they are doing this, it leaves Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters feeling a sense of power, because they have what the men want. It is clear that men control almost everything in their environment, and for the women to have some sort of control is neat.