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Alexis Smith

15 December 2015

Setting the Scene: Winter Weather

and Precise Placements in Susan Glaspell’s Trifles

In Eudora Welty’s essay “Place in Fiction” she asserts, “Every story would be another

story…if it took up its characters and plot and happened somewhere else…fiction depends for its

life on place” (Welty). Susan Glaspell understood Welty’s concept and the influence setting can

have on a story, particularly drama, and takes this influence a step further using staging and the

placement of characters or “geopathology” in her works of drama. She perceived that staging and

setting is not only important to a story, but that it is possibly the most important element in

fiction. Themes and arguments can be made, simply by placing a certain character in a specific

location, and objects being used as symbols can bring depth to a production that can be missed in

the reading of a story. Glaspell was influenced by ideas of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Maurice

Maeterlinck, and often would unite philosophy and theater through the use of symbols in plays

and help set the terms for American drama (Biers 457). Glaspell knew the great effect staging

and symbols have on an audience through drama, opposed to reading words on a page; she

would use this knowledge to her advantage, and create an American standard for theater. Susan

Glaspell, in her 1916 play Trifles, uses rigid winter weather and careful placement of characters

and stage props to mirror the plot and influence the audience’s perception of the story.

Recent scholarship surrounding Susan Glaspell is undoubtedly focused on her drama, and

more specifically, Trifles. Elaine Aston and Glaspell scholar, Cheryl Black both have published

article dealing with the “revival” of Glaspell’s writings. Aston points in her article, “Susan

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Glaspell: Essays on Her Theater and Fiction,” that the ongoing conversation surrounding

Glaspell is her drama and how she wrote adaptations from short stories. Like Aston, Cheryl

Black has written several articles explaining Glaspell’s recent surge of popularity, and how she

paved the way for American drama. In her recent article, “Susan Glaspell: The Complete Plays,”

she informs scholars that because of recent popularity, a set of Glaspell’s complete plays have

been put together and published, along with background of her life and her importance in the

development of American theater. Katherine Biers also discusses how Glaspell’s writing’s

influences and are influenced by outside sources and how ideas can travel, even transatlantic

distances. She, too, delves into the role Glaspell plays on forming American drama, and both

Aston and Black inform scholars of collections of essays and other helpful sources for those

researching Glaspell. They also point out that drama is the main focus concerning her writings,

and that Trifles is the play most produced.

Knowing that Trifles is the focus of Glaspell scholarship, researchers can take a closer

look at the symbolism and staging used in the play. The idea of “geopathology” is discussed in

“Self and Space in the Theater of Susan Glaspell,” an article written by Judith Barlow. She looks

at the numerous ways in which Glaspell constructs characters who are “victims of location” (9).

Barlow makes two other assumptions as the article continues: Glaspell’s female characters are

usually confined by circumstance and setting such as cold weather, and Glaspell’s plays are

usually missing a protagonist. All three assertions of Glaspell’s writings are evident in Trifles.

Like Barlow, Brian Sutton’s “A Different Kind of the Same Thing: Marie de France’s ‘Laustic’

and Glaspell’s Trifles” converses about the staging and symbols in Trifles. Sutton specifically

looks at the birdcage and how it is represented, just like in “Laistic.” He argues that “an image’s

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symbolic associations may resonate over continents and centuries” (171). This argument helps

validate the importance of setting as well as the influence of transatlantic ideas Glaspell brings to

Provincetown. However, Suzy Holstein explains that there is deeper meaning and symbolism in

Trifles than the title depicts, and even deeper meaning to much of what is overlooked by readers.

In her article, “Silent Justice in a Different Key: Glaspell’s ‘Trifles,’” she reveals a profound

conflict that emphasizes the weighty difference between men and women, and she validates her

argument with the staging choices taken by Glaspell. Better understanding the recent scholarship

and fresh view of Glaspell’s drama, one can research and conclude that staging and setting plays

a vital role in developing the plot for Glaspell’s most produced play—Trifles.

Glaspell sets the scene by framing the story with cold, rigid, winter weather that is made

evident by the character’s direction: “all are much bundled up and go at once to the

stove” (1038). The audience can anticipate the chill in the air that Glaspell displays through

setting. The weather mirrors the icy atmosphere of the Wright home as the scene opens in their

“undone” kitchen. The opening scene of the women let the audience know from their entrance

onstage that there is something odd going on as the follow the men into the house. The stage

directions say, “the sheriff’s wife [with]…a think nervous face,” and Mrs. Hale…would

ordinarily be called…comfortable looking,but she is disturbed now and looks fearfully about as

she enters” (1038). The women’s slow entrance and nervousness clue the audience early that

something has gone wrong in the Wright home. Already, the women are the ones “informing” the

audience of what is to come. Throughout the play, the effects of the harsh winter and “chilled”

marriage convolute. One of the first “trifles” affected by the cold is noticed by Mrs. Peters—

Minnie’s broken jars of fruit. Mrs. Peters expresses Minnie’s concern, “She worried about that

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when it turned so cold…[she worried] her jars would break” (1040), a concern that humors the

men. The broken jars of fruit are used by Glaspell to further identify an absent Minnie to the

audience. Her concern that the fire going out will cause the jars to break directly correlates the

death of her relationship with her husband and her state of mind. When the “fire” of their

marriage burns out, Minnie “cracks” and the plot begins. However, there is one jar that has not

cracked under the pressure and represents the thread of sanity Minnie has to hold on to for a

successful future.

Without the weather causing the fruits to freeze, the audience cannot relate to Minnie to

this extent. Like Welty suggests, if the same characters and plot were put on a a separate stage set

during the hot summer months, the “atmosphere” that reflects the storyline is lost. Glaspell is

deliberate in creating a winter scene. For Minnie, the bleak winter also assures “an absence of

social life” (Barlow 399) that played into her “cracking.” Early in the play, the sheriff mentions

that he has to “send Frank to Morris Center for that man who went crazy” (1039). One can

conclude that this man has possibly gone mad because of the seclusion the weather has caused in

a small town, and perhaps this is what has happened to Minnie. Judith Barlow points out that

Glaspell has a tendency for setting her plays in cold months to guarantee this seclusion of

characters. This plays a vital role in how the character is perceived by the audience and it is Mrs.

Hale who describes the seclusion of Minnie when she compares her to the bird and tells Mrs.

Peters that she feels bad for not visiting more. Without the snow and distance of the farm to keep

her away, Minnie’s seclusion is not as feasible.

In correlation with the bitter atmosphere caused by a bitter winter, Glaspell attentively

places characters both on and off stage to emphasize sub-plots to the play. Barlow reveals one of

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Glaspell’s signature strategies: “the absent protagonist,” (400) which is evident in Trifles with

Minnie Wright’s confinement to jail. Glaspell uses, and the audience relies, on the characters on

stage to characterize and speak for Minnie. The women have come to the home to retrieve

belongings requested by Minnie and their conversation without the presence of the men reveals a

great deal about her character, and shows the audience how easily the women relate to her. Not

only is her absence intentional, but Glaspell has the women describe her to the audience

purposefully as well. If the sheriff or Mr. Hale, or even Mr. Wright had been the ones to describe

her, the audience would have a completely different description; they cannot relate to Minnie like

the women do. The women first discuss the disarray of the home and Mrs. Hale exclaims, “I’d

hate to have men coming into my kitchen, snooping around” (1041), and here the women begin

to relate to Minnie, at the same time compelling the audience to do the same. They humanize a

murderer and in the process, imply that the men are infringing on Minnie’s privacy slightly

revealing deeper feelings towards the men. Mrs. Hale further decides what Minnie was going to

do with the bread on the counter, how she will feel about the frozen fruit, and finally the women

agree that the quilt Minnie was working on would be “knotted” instead of “quilted.” These

interpretations of an absent character and their assumptions on how she would proceed paint a

picture so that the audience can become better acquainted with Mrs. Wright. Being absent from

the stage, Minnie is perhaps the most visible character in the play as she is not only portrayed by

Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, but she is there by way of symbols like the cracked jars and birdcage,

in the unfinished busywork of her kitchen, and she is there when Mrs. Hale touches the rocking

chair and they watch it rock back and forth—an eerie moment that forces the audience to pause

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for a moment and think solely on an absent Minne. In the most cunning way, Glaspell gives the

most identity to a character by excluding her from the play.

Not only does Glaspell impact the audience with the absence of the protagonist, but also

the placement of the characters who do show up on stage. When the group first enters the house,

Glaspell’s staging directions have Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale walk in slowly and stay together

near the door while the men come in and go straight for the fire. While that gives the atmosphere

a chill, and clue the audience that something is wrong, Glaspell is also informing the audience

early in the play that these women feel more secure staying together. This idea plays out as the

story ends and the women decide that their loyalty to their own sex outweighs legal or marital

allegiances. Also, the absence of the men throughout the play is significant. Glaspell wants the

audience to focus on how the women come to their decision at the end of the play, and because

the women are only comfortable talking when the men are gone, it is imperative that most of the

play depicts the women discussing the crime and “trifles” of life.

After the atmosphere is made rigid and the characters are in place, Glaspell completes the

setting with stage props that accentuate the rising action, and in Trifles, the denouement. Like the

jars of fruit, two other “trifles” are symbolic representations of Minnie: the poorly sewn quilt

piece and the bird. The quilt piece gives the audience a view of Minnie’s unstable state of mind

that she has tried to keep held together for so long. The poor sewing job arguably depicts her

mental unravelling, and the quick decisions made leading to the beginning of the play. The un-

cracked jar and quilt piece barely held together give hope to Minnie’s future, but the dead bird

leaves no room for anticipation. Like the bird, Mrs. Hales informs the audience that Minnie

Foster was “real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and—fluttery” (1044). Her recount of the

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unmarried Minnie shows the audience the relevance of the dead bird and the birdcage. When the

women find the dead bird wrapped in a silk cloth, they start to put the pieces together, trifle by

trifle. The bird’s presence represents something that has died in Minnie after becoming Mrs.

Wright and having to live in a caged marriage. Having the birdcage with a broken door on stage

makes a compelling statement concerning Minnie’s “break” from her marital “cage.” Brian

Sutton explains the idea of the death of a songbird being used by Glaspell as resembling Marie

de France’s Laustic and determines that the correlation stems from the idea that an image’s

symbolic association may resonate over continents and centuries (171). This confirms Glaspell’s

infiltration of philosophy and symbols in her drama, specifically the dead bird.

Minnie’s unfinished quilt is important to the plot and staging because of the way Mr.

Wright was killed—a knotted rope. The women reveal to the audience the correlation the quilt

has to the plot by discussing whether Minnie was going to “quilt it” or “knot it.” Their

conclusion, Mrs. Hale informs the attorney, is that she was going to “knot it.” By the end of the

story, the audience is aware of the stage props and their significance to the design of the

narrative.

After the transatlantic shift of drama, Glaspell uses her influence in Provincetown to set

the bar for American playwrights by infiltrating philosophy into theater through the use of

symbols and staging. She learns early that the atmosphere and staging can create a plot or

destroy a good storyline. In her drama Trifles, she gives a compelling example of this infiltration

by producing a winter scene on stage to draw the audience into the plot and then strategically

placing the characters influencing the story. Finally, Glaspell takes objects or stage props and

carefully places them on stage to represent characters not seen, and gives a sub-plot to the story.

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Works Cited

Aston, Elaine. “Susan Glaspell: Essays on Her Theater and Fiction ed. by Linda Ben-Zvi.”

Modern Drama 39.2 (1996): 369-370. Project MUSE. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.

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Barlow, Judith. “Self and Space in the Theater of Susan Glaspell by Noelia Hernando-Real

(review).” Modern Drama 56.3.(2013): Project MUSE. Web. 4 Nov. 2015.

Biers, Katherine. “Stages of Thought: Emerson, Maeterlinck, Glaspell.” Modern Drama 56.4

(2013): 457-477. Project MUSE. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.

Black, Cheryl. “Susan Glaspell: The Complete Plays.” Comparative Drama 46. 1 (2012):

99-102. Project MUSE. Web. 9 Dec. 2015.

Glaspell, Susan. “Trifles.” The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Ellen Thibault.

Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014. 1038-1047. Print.

Holstein, Suzy Clarkson. "Silent Justice In A Different Key: Glaspell's 'Trifles'." Midwest

Quarterly: A Journal Of Contemporary Thought 44.3 (2003): 282-290. MLA

International Bibliography. Web. 9 Nov. 2015.

Sutton, Brian. “A Different Kind of the Same Thing: Marie de France’s Laustic and Glaspell’s

Trifles.” Explicator 66.3 (2008): 170-174. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.

Welty, Eudora. “Place in Fiction.” Collected Essays (1994): New York. xroads.virginia.edu. Web.

4 Nov. 2015.