Susan Keating Glaspell, Trifles

Barbara Ozieblo (Universidad de Malaga)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1916

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

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Susan Glaspell’s

Trifles

has often been cited as an example of a perfectly structured one-act play that, rather than lull an audience into the self-satisfied complacency produced by most Broadway offerings, teaches us to question what seem to be foregone conclusions. Did the suspect commit the crime? Is the suspect guilty? Ever since its first performance on the wharf in Provincetown, Cape Cod on 8 August 1916

Trifles

has been anthologized and performed all over America, particularly by Little Theatres and amateur groups. As from the seventies, it has been taken up internationally by the Women’s Movement as a play that embodies the lack of communication between men and women and argues for the bonding of women. Mrs. Hale’s words speak for all women to this day: “I might have known…

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3074 words

Citation: Ozieblo, Barbara. "Trifles". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 November 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=15992, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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Susan Keating Glaspell, Trifles

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