Discussion: Trifles Character Sketches
Before reading the two plays assigned in this unit, please take a look at the playwright’s bio contained in the headnotes that precede each play to gain a better understanding of not only the playwright but also potentially insightful background information on a play:
The time period during which a particular playwright lived and wrote;
Personal motivations for writing the play;
Common themes covered by the playwright; and
A complete bibliography of the playwright’s work.
Use your detective skills! Based on the evidence gathered by the female characters in the play, please describe the late Minnie Wright’s character. What was she like before and after she married? What was her daily existence like? What were her desires? Joys? Expertise? Please quote specific lines from the play to support your response.
Please also discuss the character of Mrs. Peters. Why is she an important character? What is her attitude? How does it change by the end of the play? Please quote specific lines from the play to support your response. Please post your comments about Minnie Wright and Mrs. Peters by Tuesday.
Please check back and reply to the posts of at least two classmates by Tuesday. Please add to their descriptions, or if you detect any discrepancies, gently suggest correct details.
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Susan Keating Glaspell
Date: 1974
From: Dictionary of American Biography
Publisher: Gale
Document Type: Biography
Length: 965 words
Content Level: (Level 5)
Lexile Measure: 1320L
About this Person
Born: July 01, 1876 in Davenport, Iowa, United States
Died: July 27, 1948 in Provincetown, Massachusetts, United States
Nationality: American
Occupation: Writer
Other Names: Glaspell, Susan Keating
Full Text:
Glaspell, Susan Keating (July 1, 1876 – July 27, 1948), author, was born in Davenport, Iowa, the second of three children and only
daughter of Elmer S. Glaspell and Alice (Keating) Glaspell. Her mother was born in New York City of Irish parents recently arrived
from Dublin. The Glaspells were early Americans of English descent and among the first white settlers in Iowa. A dealer in hay and
feed who never earned much, Elmer Glaspell was unable to give his daughter material advantages, but being a man of sharp
contradictions–he was devoutly religious (a member of the Disciples of Christ) yet a fervent admirer of racehorses; he prayed and he
swore with equal relish–he unwittingly gave the future author a running lesson in the complexities of human nature. Accompanying
him to farms in their home state and in the Dakotas, Susan early developed “a feeling of the wideness and richness” of the region, a
love of the land and its plain people that would be incarnated in the many idealized, if not sentimentalized, Midwesterners who throng
her writings.
A bright pupil in the schools of Davenport, Susan was generally expected to be a teacher, but she early dreamed of a literary career
and on completing high school became a reporter at $3 a week for her hometown paper. At Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa,
she helped pay her way as college correspondent for a local newspaper, and, in 1899, immediately after graduating with a Ph.B.
degree, she went to work for the Des Moines Daily News. Slightly built, with brown eyes and light brown hair demurely parted in the
middle, she appeared almost other-worldly, but she was shrewdly observant and had great drive. After covering politics, murder trials,
and “other excitements” for less than two years, she felt she had accumulated so much story material that, in her words, “I recklessly
gave up my job and went home to Davenport to have a try at the magazines.”
While still on the News she had sold several short stories to Youth’s Companion; from 1903 until she abandoned the genre in 1922,
her stories became a familiar feature in leading magazines. More than half of her tales–she published forty-three in all–were set in
“Freeport” (Davenport), enabling her to freshen what all too often were stale situations and conventional plots with local color and
realistic detail. Lifted Masks (1912), a collection of her magazine stories, is typical of her writing in this period. In 1909 her first novel
was published, The Glory of the Conquered, a romantic bonbon similar in quality to her magazine pieces. By the time she wrote The
Visioning (1911), a better work, she had lived abroad a year and had come under the influence of George Cram Cook, the strange,
rebellious son of a prominent Davenport family. Echoing his radicalism, though in a softer key, she sympathetically depicted a
socialist in The Visioning. Essentially, however, she remained a grassroots idealist, an apolitical libertarian. She and Cook were
married on April 14, 1913, and settled in Provincetown, Mass.
While continuing to sell magazine stories for a living, Susan Glaspell readily fell under the sway of the untrammeled, yet earnest,
spirit of her husband’s circle, which came to include Hutchins Hapgood and John Reed, the radical journalist. Under Cook’s
leadership a theater was founded in Provincetown in 1915. The following year, after Eugene O’Neill had joined the group, the
Provincetown Players moved to Greenwich Village. Among those who wrote and acted in the plays was Edna St. Vincent Millay. A
bulwark of the playhouse, second only to O’Neill, Glaspell between 1915 and 1922 wrote seven short plays, including, in collaboration
with Cook, the popular Suppressed Desires (1915), which deflated the chic but nave Freudianism of Village sophisticates. Of her
four long plays of this period, the best were Inheritors (1921), a drama of social protest at a Midwestern college, and The Verge
(1922), a study of a Nietzschean woman.
The Cooks devoted their winters to the playhouse and passed their summers in Provincetown, with Cook’s two children by a previous
marriage. During their second summer Glaspell learned that she had a heart condition and, later, that she was unable to bear
children. Her restless husband found the success of the Provincetown Playhouse unsettling, and in 1922 they moved to Greece,
where they lived happily until his untimely death in 1924.
Returning to Cape Cod, Glaspell resumed her writing. As a playwright she had served a public more demanding than her magazine
readers. Under this new discipline her stories became more substantive, but only in “Jury of Her Peers” (1917) did she write one of
lasting quality; significantly, this somber little gem was adapted from Trifles (1916), her finest one-act play. Her remaining plays were
The Comic Artist (1928), written with Norman Matson, whom she married in 1925 and divorced six years later, and Alison’s House
(1930), a drama inspired by the life of Emily Dickinson that won the 1931 Pulitzer Prize.
After Fidelity (1915), Glaspell did not publish another novel until Brook Evans (1928), which was more artfully constructed than her
previous ones but displayed no improvement in literary grace. The heightened skill derived from writing plays is more evident in
Ambrose Holt and Family (1931), The Morning Is Near Us (1939), and Judd Rankin’s Daughter (1945). All three, like so much of her
writing, have a distinct regional feeling, and each centers on a Midwestern woman trying to reconcile the traditional and nurturing
values of the American past with the demands of the present. Probably her finest work is neither a novel nor a play but The Road to
the Temple (1927), an informal biography of George Cram Cook. In 1948 Glaspell died in Provincetown of a pulmonary embolism
and was cremated in Boston.
FURTHER READINGS:
[Arthur E. Waterman, Susan Glaspell (1966), and his sketch in Notable Am. Women, II, 49-51; Glaspell’s The Road to the Temple;
Helen Deutsch and Stella Hanau, The Provincetown (1931); the Cook-Glaspell papers in the Berg Collect., N.Y. Public Lib.; Louis
Sheaffer, O’Neill, Son and Playwright (1968); information from Rev. Albert Glaspell, a cousin. Though Miss Glaspell always gave
1882 as her birth year, the Iowa state census of May 1895, which lists her as 18, and the enrollment records of Drake University
establish that she was born in 1876.]
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
“Susan Keating Glaspell.” Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1974. Gale In Context: Biography, https://link-
gale-com.ezp.pasadena.edu/apps/doc/BT2310012750/BIC?u=pasa19871&sid=BIC&xid=85f30ac5. Accessed 18 May 2020.
Gale Document Number: GALE|BT2310012750 9/17/2020 Links:
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Bonstelle,_Jessie.html 1/2
index 1900-1949 1950-1999 Adams, Maude American Thtr Anderson, Max
Angels in America Berlin, Irving Bernstein, Aline Bonstelle, Jessie Cohan, George
Corpus Christi Experimental Fosse & Robbins FTP Glaspell, Susan Jones, R.E.
Lee, Canada Lion King Long Runs Multicultural Thtr Nesbit, Evelyn O’Neill, Eugene
Provincetown Plyrs Rodgers & Hammerstein Shuffle Along Vaudeville
Williams, Tennessee Wilson, August Ziegfeld, Flo
Jessie Bonstelle: The Maker of Stars and
Founder of the Detroit Civic Theatre
One of the pioneering women to produce, direct, and manage theatre companies in the early twentieth
century was Jessie Bonstelle. Born Laura Justine Bonesteele (later Bonstelle) around 1870 on a farm in
New York state, Bonstelle began her theatre career as a performer, mainly in stock companies.
Bonstelles career changed when New York City producer and theatre owner Jacob J. Shubert asked her
to manage a stock company in Rochester, New York, around 1900. By 1910 she was managing both the
Star Theatre in Buffalo, New York, and the Garrick Theatre in Detroit, Michigan. During her long career
she reports that she managed summer companies in Rochester, Providence, Northampton, and Detroit as
well as directing and performing in productions in New York City in the winter months.
Despite her success directing stock productions, New York critics were seldom kind to Bonstelle, and
the majority of the Broadway plays she directed or co-directed had short runs. Her most popular
production was a stage adaptation of Louisa May Alcotts novel Little Women, which Bonstelle
researched and directed with the help of actor/director Bertram Harrison. She launched four national
tours in 1911 before opening Little Women on October 14, 1912 at Broadways Playhouse Theatre for
184 performances. Based on the plays success, Bonstelle took the production to London, with then
unknown actress Katharine Cornell in a lead role. Bonstelle earned a reputation for spotting and honing
young talent, and Cornell was one of her many protges.
In addition to gaining fame as a star maker, Bonstelle is remembered for founding a theatre during the
Little Theatre movement (a movement to start art theatres, as opposed to commercial theatres). In 1925
she founded the Bonstelle Players, which became the Detroit Civic Theatre in 1928. Remembered as
perfectionist who drove her actors to keep pace with her, Bonstelle worked up to her death in 1932, all
the while planning her next production.
–Anne Fliotsos
Sources and further reading:
Bennett, Helen Christine. The Star Lady. McCalls Magazine. 55 (Sept.): 16-17, 106, 109, 110; (Oct.):
24-25, 96, 98, 101; (Nov.): 26-27, 125, 126, 147; (Dec.): 28, 72, 75, 76; 56 (Jan.): 31; (Feb.): 35;
1928-1929.
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/index.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/1900-1949.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/1950-1999.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Adams,_Maude.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/American_Thtr.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Anderson,_Max.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Angels_in_America.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Berlin,_Irving.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Bernstein,_Aline.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Bonstelle,_Jessie.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Cohan,_George.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Corpus_Christi.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Experimental.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Fosse_%26_Robbins.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/FTP.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Glaspell,_Susan.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Jones,_R.E..html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Lee,_Canada.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Lion_King.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Long_Runs.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Multicultural_Thtr.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Nesbit,_Evelyn.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/ONeill,_Eugene.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Provincetown_Plyrs.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Rodgers_%26_Hammerstein.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Shuffle_Along.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Vaudeville.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Williams,_Tennessee.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Wilson,_August.html
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Ziegfeld,_Flo.html
9/17/2020 Links:
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~fliotsos/b/b/Bonstelle,_Jessie.html 2/2
Deam, William L. A Biographical Study of Miss Laura Justine Bonstelle-Stuart Together with an
Evaluation of Her contributions to the Modern Theatre World. Ph. D. diss., University of Michigan,
1954.
Fliotsos, Anne. Jessie Bonstelle. In American Women Stage Directors of the Twentieth Century.
Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2008.
*Image courtesy of NYPL website. 9/17/2020 Drama The Writing Center University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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Drama
What this handout is about
This handout identies common questions about drama, describes the elements of drama that are most
often discussed in theater classes, provides a few strategies for planning and writing an effective drama
paper, and identies various resources for research in theater history and dramatic criticism. Well give special
attention to writing about productions and performances of plays.
What is drama? And how do you write about it?
When we describe a situation or a persons behavior as dramatic, we usually mean that it is intense, exciting
(or excited), striking, or vivid. The works of drama that we study in a classroom share those elements. For
example, if you are watching a play in a theatre, feelings of tension and anticipation often arise because you
are wondering what will happen between the characters on stage. Will they shoot each other? Will they nally
confess their undying love for one another? When you are reading a play, you may have similar questions. Will
Oedipus gure out that he was the one who caused the plague by killing his father and sleeping with his
mother? Will Hamlet successfully avenge his fathers murder?
For instructors in academic departmentswhether their classes are about theatrical literature, theater history,
performance studies, acting, or the technical aspects of a productionwriting about drama often means
explaining what makes the plays we watch or read so exciting. Of course, one particular production of a play
may not be as exciting as its supposed to be. In fact, it may not be exciting at all. Writing about drama can
also involve guring out why and how a production went wrong.
Whats the difference between plays, productions, and
performances?
Talking about plays, productions, and performances can be dicult, especially since theres so much overlap
in the uses of these terms. Although there are some exceptions, usually plays are whats on the written page.
A production of a play is a series of performances, each of which may have its own idiosyncratic features. For
example, one production of Shakespeares Twelfth Night might set the play in 1940s Manhattan, and another
might set the play on an Alpaca farm in New Zealand. Furthermore, in a particular performance (say, Tuesday
night) of that production, the actor playing Malvolio might get fed up with playing the role as an Alpaca herder,
shout about the indignity of the whole thing, curse Shakespeare for ever writing the play, and stomp off the
stage. See how that works?
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Be aware that the above terms are sometimes used interchangeablybut the overlapping elements of each
are often the most exciting things to talk about. For example, a series of particularly bad performances might
distract from excellent production values: If the actor playing Falstaff repeatedly trips over a lance and falls
off the stage, the audience may not notice the spectacular set design behind him. In the same way, a
particularly dynamic and inventive script (play) may so bedazzle an audience that they never notice the inept
lighting scheme.
A few analyzable elements of plays
Plays have many different elements or aspects, which means that you should have lots of different options
for focusing your analysis. Playwrightswriters of playsare called wrights because this word means
builder. Just as shipwrights build ships, playwrights build plays. A playwrights raw materials are words, but
to create a successful play, he or she must also think about the performanceabout what will be happening
on stage with sets, sounds, actors, etc. To put it another way: the words of a play have their meanings within a
larger contextthe context of the production. When you watch or read a play, think about how all of the parts
work (or could work) together.
For the play itself, some important contexts to consder are:
The time period in which the play was written
The playwrights biography and his/her other writing
Contemporaneous works of theater (plays written or produced by other artists at roughly the same time)
The language of the play
Setting
Plot
Themes
Characters
Depending on your assignment, you may want to focus on one of these elements exclusively or compare and
contrast two or more of them. Keep in mind that any one of these elements may be more than enough for a
dissertation, let alone a short reaction paper. Also remember that in most cases, your assignment will ask you
to provide some kind of analysis, not simply a plot summaryso dont think that you can write a paper about
A Dolls House that simply describes the events leading up to Noras fateful decision.
Since a number of academic assignments ask you to pay attention to the language of the play and since it
might be the most complicated thing to work with, its worth looking at a few of the ways you might be asked
to deal with it in more detail.
Language
There are countless ways that you can talk about how language works in a play, a production, or a particular
performance. Given a choice, you should probably focus on words, phrases, lines, or scenes that really struck
you, things that you still remember weeks after reading the play or seeing the performance. Youll have a
much easier time writing about a bit of language that you feel strongly about (love it or hate it).
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That said, here are two common ways to talk about how language works in a play:
How characters are constructed by their language
If you have a strong impression of a character, especially if you havent seen that character depicted on stage,
you probably remember one line or bit of dialogue that really captures who that character is. Playwrights often
distinguish their characters with idiosyncratic or at least individualized manners of speaking. Take this
example from Oscar Wildes The Importance of Being Earnest:
ALGERNON: Did you hear what I was playing, Lane?
LANE: I didnt think it polite to listen, sir.
ALGERNON: Im sorry for that, for your sake. I dont play accuratelyanyone can play accuratelybut
I play with wonderful expression. As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte. I keep
science for Life.
LANE: Yes, sir.
ALGERNON: And, speaking of the science of Life, have you got the cucumber sandwiches cut for
Lady Bracknell?
This early moment in the play contributes enormously to what the audience thinks about the aristocratic
Algernon and his servant, Lane. If you were to talk about language in this scene, you could discuss Lanes
reserved replies: Are they funny? Do they indicate familiarity or sarcasm? How do you react to a servant who
replies in that way? Or you could focus on Algernons witty responses. Does Algernon really care what Lane
thinks? Is he talking more to hear himself? What does that say about how the audience is supposed to see
Algernon? Algernons manner of speech is part of who his character is. If you are analyzing a particular
performance, you might want to comment on the actors delivery of these lines: Was his vocal inection
appropriate? Did it show something about the character?
How language contributes to scene and mood
Ancient, medieval, and Renaissance plays often use verbal tricks and nuances to convey the setting and time
of the play because performers during these periods didnt have elaborate special-effects technology to
create theatrical illusions. For example, most scenes from Shakespeares Macbeth take place at night. The
play was originally performed in an open-air theatre in the bright and sunny afternoon. How did Shakespeare
communicate the fact that it was night-time in the play? Mainly by starting scenes like this:
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BANQUO: How goes the night, boy?
FLEANCE: The moon is down; I have not heard the clock.
BANQUO: And she goes down at twelve.
FLEANCE: I taket, tis later, sir.
BANQUO: Hold, take my sword. Theres husbandry in heaven; Their candles are all out. Take thee
that too. A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, And yet I would not sleep: merciful powers,
Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature Gives way to in repose!
Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch
Give me my sword.
Whos there?
Characters entering with torches is a pretty big clue, as is having a character say, Its night. Later in the play,
the question, Whos there? recurs a number of times, establishing the illusion that the characters cant see
each other. The sense of encroaching darkness and the general mysteriousness of night contributes to a
number of other themes and motifs in the play.
Productions and performances
Productions
For productions as a whole, some important elements to consider are:
Venue: How big is the theatre? Is this a professional or amateur acting company? What kind of resources
do they have? How does this affect the show?
Costumes: What is everyone wearing? Is it appropriate to the historical period? Modern? Trendy? Old-
fashioned? Does it t the character? What does his/her costume make you think about each
character? How does this affect the show?
Set design: What does the set look like? Does it try to create a sense of realism? Does it set the play in
a particular historical period? What impressions does the set create? Does the set change, and if so,
when and why? How does this affect the show?
Lighting design: Are characters ever in the dark? Are there spotlights? Does light come through
windows? From above? From below? Is any tinted or colored light projected? How does this affect
the show?
Idea or concept: Do the set and lighting designs seem to work together to produce a certain
interpretation? Do costumes and other elements seem coordinated? How does this affect the
show?
Youve probably noticed that each of these ends with the question, How does this affect the show? Thats
because you should be connecting every detail that you analyze back to this question. If a particularly weird
costume (like King Henry in scuba gear) suggests something about the character (King Henry has gone off
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the deep end, literally and guratively), then you can ask yourself, Does this add or detract from the show?
(King Henry having an interest in aquatic mammals may not have been what Shakespeare had in mind.)
Performances
For individual performances, you can analyze all the items considered above in light of how they might have
been different the night before. For example, some important elements to consider are:
Individual acting performances: What did the actor playing the part bring to the performance? Was there
anything particularly moving about the performance that night that surprised you, that you didnt
imagine from reading the play beforehand (if you did so)?
Mishaps, ubs, and re alarms: Did the actors mess up? Did the performance grind to a halt or did it
continue?
Audience reactions: Was there applause? At inappropriate points? Did someone fall asleep and snore
loudly in the second act? Did anyone cry? Did anyone walk out in utter outrage?
Response papers
Instructors in drama classes often want to know what you really think. Sometimes theyll give you very open-
ended assignments, allowing you to choose your own topic; this freedom can have its advantages and
disadvantages. On the one hand, you may nd it easier to express yourself without the pressure of specic
guidelines or restrictions. On the other hand, it can be challenging to decide what to write about. The
elements and topics listed above may provide you with a jumping-off point for more open-ended
assignments. Once youve identied a possible area of interest, you can ask yourself questions to further
develop your ideas about it and decide whether it might make for a good paper topic. For example, if you were
especially interested in the lighting, how did the lighting make you feel? Nervous? Bored? Distracted? Its
usually a good idea to be as specic as possible. Youll have a much more dicult time if you start out writing
about imagery or language in a play than if you start by writing about that ridiculous face Helena made
when she found out Lysander didnt love her anymore.
If youre really having trouble getting started, heres a three point plan for responding to a piece of theater
say, a performance you recently observed:
1. Make a list of ve or six specic words, images, or moments that caught your attention while you were
sitting in your seat.
2. Answer one of the following questions: Did any of the words, images, or moments you listed contribute
to your enjoyment or loathing of the play? Did any of them seem to add to or detract from any overall
theme that the play may have had? Did any of them make you think of something completely different
and wholly irrelevant to the play? If so, what connection might there be?
3. Write a few sentences about how each of the items you picked out for the second question affected
you and/or the play.
This list of ideas can help you begin to develop an analysis of the performance and your own reactions to it.
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If you need to do research in the specialized eld of performance studies (a branch of communication
studies) or want to focus especially closely on poetic or powerful language in a play, see our handout on
communication studies and handout on poetry explications. For additional tips on writing about plays as a
form of literature, see our handout on writing about ction.
Works consulted
We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the
handouts topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to nd additional publications. Please do not
use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are
using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial. We revise these
tips periodically and welcome feedback.
Carter, Paul. The Backstage Handbook: An Illustrated Almanac of Technical Information. 3rd ed., Broadway
Press, 1994.
Worthen, W.B. The Wadsworth Anthology of Drama. 6th ed., Cengage, 2010.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries, E-Research by Discipline, Subject: Dramatic Art.
Accessed 12 June 2019. https://guides.lib.unc.edu/az.php?s=1113.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0
License.
You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The
Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
http://www.lib.unc.edu/instruct/citations/
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