Trifles

I thought the play "Trifles" was interesting, and although it's not necessarily "feminist" by today's standards, I can see how it would be radical in its time. I thought the play was well done and the actors did a really good job and made the play interesting.

I can see how this would be a radical play in the time that it was written because the women were the ones who figured out what happened, just by using their "places" in the household and the knowledge and intuition they already had. This was radical because the play was written before women could even vote, so women were still really considered inferior so it was considered highly unlikely that a woman could figure out a murder mystery. To me, it also seemed like the playwright was mocking men's views of women at the time. She seemed to make a point of the fact that the men were trying relentlessly to find evidence for a motive and couldn't, while the women were just doing what women did at the time and they figured it out without even trying. Also, throughout the play, the men were mocking the women and saying how they only knew how to do things in the kitchen and didn't really do work, but at the same time, the women got much more done in terms of solving the case than the men, whose jobs were to figure it out. So the writer seemed to be pointing out the fact that the women were doing a better job than the men at the men's job without even trying.

This play seemed to highlight the idea that people at the time didn't think that women could do the same jobs as men, but that doesn't only apply to the early 1900's. Think about the 2016-2017 presidential campaigns and elections, many people didn't think Hillary could be president because she was a woman (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4Zdx97A63s see 1:40), whether they voiced those opinions discreetly or openly. So, in a way, this play relates to problems and ideologies about women that people still have today, although now the controversy is more about major leadership roles or roles of power, rather than basic jobs outside the home.