Question

In part two of Trifles, how does Glaspell use irony to illustrate the idea that women were often seen as less capable than men in the early twentieth century?
She leads the men all over the Wright’s property to find clues, but leaves the women in the kitchen.
She makes Mrs. Peters appear to be afraid of breaking the law, but makes Mrs. Hale appear to be rebellious.
She emphasizes the trust that Hale and Mr. Peters have in their wives, but shows the wives plotting to upstage their husbands.
She suggests that Mrs. Wright may have been successful as a singer, but indicates that Mr. Wright was jealous of her possible success.

Answer 1

The first choice.

Glaspell is ironic in that the men treat the women and the kitchen as irrelevant (“trifles”) and hunt the house for important evidence, while leaving the women behind. Those “less capable” women notice the dead canary, the broken box, the uneven stitching and other small details that reveal Mrs. Wright’s motive and emotional life. The men’s dismissal of the domestic space as unimportant contrasts with the women’s perceptive reading of it, showing that what men call “trifles” actually holds the crucial truth.