The Spousal Abuse of Women in Susan Glaspell’s Trifles

Abstract

This research plans to focus on the spousal abuse of women in Susan Glaspell’s Trifles. Susan Glaspell (1876-1948) is one of the remarkable American female playwrights whose main literary concern is focusing on women issues. The drama of Trifles is considered her master piece in which she sympathises with the American abused women and speaks up for them. American woman is still suffering from spousal abuse but in the early 20thcentury this problem was ignored, excused or denied because women did not have their legal rights and were treated as being inferior than men. The system then gave men the authority over women in all aspects of society even at home. When speaking about abused women, critics’ main concern is the physical effects of the abuse ignoring other types of the spousal abuse, their impacts and consequences. Through her realistic drama of Trifles, Glaspell exposes different types of spousal abuse which are important as the physical onesince they have bad impact on the victims. This research will analysethe types of spousal abuse in Susan Glaspell’s Trifles, their impact and consequences.