Trifles as Feminist Literature

American drama studies often neglect the influence of female writers and focus primarily on writers such as Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, and Arthur Miller. However, women often worked in collaboration with their male playwright counterparts, and in fact, helped to establish and propagate various dramatic movements in the United States. Among these influential women playwrights was Susan Glaspell, who along with Eugene O'Neill, George "Jig" Cram Cook, John Reed and Louise Bryant, Max Eastman and Ida Rauh, and Edna St. Vincent Millay helped to establish the Playwright's Theatre in Cape Cod (Reuben, 2011). The Playwright's Theatre produced and presented 16 of O'Neill's plays, 11 of Glaspell's plays, and a total of 93 works by more than 50 writers during six seasons spanning from 1916 to 1921-1922 (Reuben, 2011). One of Glaspell's plays performed during this time was "Trifles" (1916) which is not only based on a...
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