Susan Glaspell’s 1916 play ‘Trifles’ – Review

Susan Glaspells 1916 go Trifles demonstrates how sexual pr affectice can affect a lectors response. Gender adverts the natural and social condition of being staminate or female. When suck ining the Wrights kitchen as a text and the characters as the immortaliseer, it be sum ups clear how gender is an integral device characteristic of the theory of breeding. The reader response theory consists of multiple ele manpowerts it looks at how a reader studys a text and what contributes to that interpretation.Raman Seldon et al states we differ about interpretations moreover because our ways of practice session material differ. The way we read a text pass on also depend on personal experience. Wolfgang Iser argues that a piece of publications contains blanks,2 these argon spaces in the text that only the reader can fill. If these blanks embody within an unfamiliar area, the reader is un wishly to fill them. This affects the readers construal of the text in this faux pas the Wrights kitchen. In the early 20th century the kitchen was a m either rarely occupied by men and the County Attorney is quick to happen nothing authorized hither, nothing that would point to any motive. The men in this image are typical of the implied reader described by Raman Seldon et al as the reader whom the text causes for itself and amounts to a network of response-inviting structures.The theory looks at how a text projects itself to the reader, Umberto Ecos the function of the reader argues that some texts are open while others are closed, the former invites reader collaboration in the development of importee, the latter has its meaning already determined and has anticipated the readers response. 5 Trifles is an open text, it invites the readers, in this case the men and women to find the meaning/ indorse. The mens room inability to fill the blanks signifies gender issue and contributes to their ultimate bolture. Another aspect of reader-orientated criticism is the re ception theory, Hans R Jauss, a German supporter of this theory uses the term Horizon of expectation6 to describe the criteria readers use to judge literary texts in any given period. The men of law enter the scene with a predetermined horizon of expectation.Their historic experience of similar crimes means they look for a particular round of codes in this case signs of evidence, because this case does not operate into that experience they fail to discover the evidence. They are restricted by their gender lineament and inefficient to read the text as anything other than masculine. Alongside the men, the implied reader is Mrs. impel. According to Raman Seldon et al we can categorise her as the actual reader she receives certain mental images in the process of reading,7 but the images also depend on her existing comport of experience, in this case her understanding of what it is to be a charr in her time.Referring to Judith Fetterleys notion of the resisting reader, Sara Mills argues that although texts may address us as males, we as females can construct a space of reading which resists the dominant reading. 8 Mrs. Hale resists the dominant reading and participates in a feminine reading of the text this en up to(p)s her to read the scene from a female perspective. Mrs. Peters reads the text twain as a man and as a woman, although she only appears to do this at a subconscious level. She is the sheriffs wife therefore, she has a stricter gender role to adhere to, her role of wife has almost obscured her natural femininity.Sara Mills describes the gendered reading of a text as one(a) whereby the reader comes to the process of reading with a framework of expectations which are determined by her gender, and she interacts with elements in a text in a gendered way. 9 Mrs. Hale defines her gender role in comparison with Mrs. Wright when talking about Minnie she says she didnt even belong to ladies aid10 she accepts that they are both farmers wives and that Min nie never fully embraced that gender role.Minnie did not get voluminous with other women or with organisations that would work out believe given her freedom. The quote implies that it was the least she could have done, Mrs. Hale does however empathise with Minnie influencing Mrs. Peters to do the same. Raman Seldon et al state the act of interpretation is possible because the text allows the reader access to the authors consciousness,11 this allows the reader to recover and feel what the author does. This is a significant point, the men in the play try to interpret Mrs. Wrights manner but are unable to come to any conclusions, when the women discover the untidy sewing they are able overhear assumptions about her mood and state of mind, they can identify with her as a woman and as a wife. Sara Mills states that the reader is subject to numerous discursive pressures which lead her to read in particular ways. . 12 Mrs. Peters avoids say direct questions with her avouch opinion when asked by Mrs. Hale do you conceive of she did it? She replies with the opinions of her husband and his colleagues. She does sympathise, but what follows is an abrupt recall of her masculine implied reader response, e. . I know what stillness is, but the law has got to punish crime, Mrs. Hale. 14 A reader always takes to a text a framework into which they fit the text, this explains why the men read the scene the way they do. The men interpret the text from a masculine point of view, they only know the facts, Mr. Wright is pulseless and Mrs. Wright was the only other person present. It would be natural for them, taking into friendship there historical viewpoint, implied reader response and gender role, to look for open signs of an argument or struggle.The notion of a gendered difference is critical when analysing reader positioning. The kitchen plays an integral part in signifying the gender roles. Gainor states in her essay, if the kitchen is coded as the womans sphere, th erefore surely the bedroom must be thought of as the male arena,15 this is where the men spend most of their time and of course where jakes Wright died. Mrs. Hale and the men in the play have a contradictory view of John Wrights character. When Mrs. Peters states, they say he was a good man, she is again referring to the mens opinion. While Mrs. Hale admits that he didnt drink, kept his word and paid his bills, she also refers to her stimulate impression of him as a hard man.Mrs. Hales sees beyond the masculine observations and trusts her own instincts she describes talking to him as the like a raw wind that gets to the bone. 16 The men in the play do not discuss John Wrights manner or personality. The women do discuss Minnie Wright, Mrs. Hale describes her before her marriage, she apply to wear pretty clothes and be lively, when she was Minnie Foster. 17 Mrs. Hale builds up an image of Mrs. Wright that Mrs. Peters can relate to and identify with, she later describes her as lik e a bird herself,18 this coupled with the cold character of Mr. Wright and the discovery of the birdcage create an image of Minnie being caged herself. The discovery of the bird with its broken neck is an important moment of realisation for the two women.The extent of the sadness in Minnie Wrights life has become abundantly clear and the recognition of what this grim discovery signifies seems to act Mrs. Hales mind racing. Again, referring back to her own personal experience of Mr. Wright, Mrs. Hale states No, Wright wouldnt like the bird-a thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that, too. 19 This statement is sufficient to make Mrs. Peters obviously uncomfortable with how the situation is unfolding. Mrs. Hale reproaches herself for not calling on Mrs. Wright occasionally she declares that was a crime, whos going to punish that? 20 This questioning adds to the inference that the make was not the only crime that took place in the farmhouse. Ultimately, both women read the tex t from a gendered perspective enabling them to justify why they cut through the evidence.The two women show compassion for Minnie Wright, they understand the hardships of being a woman in their time, and Mrs. Hale says we all go through the same things its all just a different kind of the same thing. 21 It is here the women seem united, in defense of one they feel has done slander and been wronged, in a final act of female solidarity they hide the evidence they have found and protect Mrs. Wright. Susan Glaspells Trifles is a play in one act that demonstrates the significance of gendered theories of reading.It achieves this by showing how the woman make their observations and unwittingly build up the circumstances surrounding the crime. They notice small detail that are significant to them as women these details enable them to identify with the text. The men in this play overlook these details because they only view the scene from a masculine perspective. They read the text with in a potent framework of ideals that do not apply in this case, to be able to interpret a variety of texts is to be able to read from a gendered point of view.