Trifles ( A Play) by Susan Glaspell Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Trifles ( A Play) by Susan Glaspell - Essay Example The fact that Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are addressed as such while the men are called â€Å"County Attorney† and â€Å"Sheriff† somehow simply affords the women a rather cheap, subservient role of a wife and somehow demeans the role of women in society in general. Aside from being assigned subservient roles, the women in the play are shown to be â€Å"worrying over trifles,† which implies that women in 20th century America are concerned about anything but useful (Glaspell). In the play, Haley somehow ridicules the women for â€Å"worrying over trifles† because instead of worrying about the crime, they worry a lot about the preserves that Mrs. Wright has left frozen (Glaspell). The two women also busy themselves with other â€Å"trifles† such as Mrs. Wright’s sewing things (Glaspell). The fact that women are shown to be worrying over trifles may also imply that they too should be treated like trifles themselves. The play also shows that women are inferior to men and should simply just keep themselves silent. What Mrs. Hale means when she mentions, â€Å"We think the—cat got it,† seems to be the old expression to mean that one is speechless: â€Å"Has the cat got your tongue?† (Glaspell; Holstein 285). This means that women in America in the early 20th century somehow did not have a voice of their own in a male-dominated society. In fact, throughout the whole play, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are considered ignorant by the men. The suspect Mrs. Wright may also have been forced to keep silent by her husband, and so this could have become her motive for killing him. Moreover, one symbol in the play used to show that the silence of women is the dead bird in the birdcage with its neck wrung. The singing bird was once Mrs. Wright – â€Å"one of the town girls singing in the choir† (Glaspell). However, her marriage turned her into a dead bird that

What major problems did European States face in the fourteenth century Essay

What major problems did European States face in the fourteenth century - Essay Example The population of Europe had reduced by a half by the time the 15th Century set in as compared to the mid 1300s. The problem of this Black Death plague affected Europe in that there was shortage of labor since smaller portions of land were under cultivation. Due to the shortage of labor the serfs got a vantage position when it came to bargaining their wages since they were in high demand. In reaction to this, the governments tried to control the wages by fixing them. However, this was all in vain since the predicament of labor shortage continued to persist. Serfs would simply offer their services to the landlords who would be ready to pay higher wages as opposed to those who stuck to the system set by the government. Numerous peasants called for the society’s restructuring and there was the demanding of a bit of democracy as well as the stoppage of aristocratic privileges and rights. After the dismissal of these demands for a better lifestyle by the nobility there was a great loss as regards the commoners. There was fiasco everywhere in Europe and thus the Rebellion in France and England in years 1358 and 1381 respectively were just a shadow of the real deal. All the rebellions were not a success. The separation of the manor approach to agriculture started as a result of the rebellions, though. The land rent system took over and the subsequent period after that had the peasant’s freedom recognized. The system is still there in the day-to-day Europe. However, the demand by the peasants to own their land resulted to a lot of migration to other areas like Australia, Russia, Americas and Africa. Land was never adequate and thus sharing it among sons would lead to decisions that were not economically feasible. High wage levels led to a rise in inflation levels and for survival purposes the small commercial and manufacturing classes made an attempt to maintain the position that