Susan Glaspell was born in 1882 in Davenport, Iowa. She graduated from Drake University and worked as a journalist on the staff of the Des Moines Daily News. When her stories began appearing in magazines such as Harper's and The Ladies' Home Journal, she gave up the newspaper business. In 1915, Glaspell met George Cook, a talented stage director. Together they founded the Provincetown Players on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The Players were a remarkable gathering of actors, directors and writers. In 1916, Glaspell wrote the play Trifles for the Provincetown Players. The play was inspired by a murder that Glaspell covered while working as a reporter for the Des Moines Daily News. Trifles is a short, one act play about an investigation of the murder of a farmer named John Wright. While trying to find evidence that his wife was his killer, the men in the story, Mr. Hale, the county attorney, and the sheriff, are looking for solid evidence. At the same time, two women, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, the sheriff's wife, are talking and gathering some things to take to Mrs. Wright at the jail. The men desire to find something concrete, but in their simple acts, the women find the real proof. Although Trifles concerns a murder investigation, the story is not a mystery of finding the murderer as much as it is a mystery of motive. As the women in the story discover the motive by paying close attention to "women's trifles," the theme of the story is revealed. Using symbolism in dialogue and various images in Trifles, Susan Glaspell reveals men's shallow view of women's intelligence and value.
             During the early 1900's, society perceived women as inferior beings. Throughout the play we read dialogue that allows us to see the demeaning view the men have for the women. Mr. Hale declares that, "women are used to worrying about trifles" (Glaspell 660). In saying this he is trivializing the many tasks and details th...