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Abstract: Through analyzing all the female characters in “Trifles” and “The Story of an Hour”, it is obvious to conclude that females under that background suffered male oppression in their marriage life. However, as the plot develops, all the female characters gradually develop a sense of feminism. This phenomenon has roots in the social background. And the female characters in these stories represent some females in society who begin to pursuit freedom and individuality in that social background.
Key words: marriage；male oppression；feminism；individuality
“Trifles” and “The Story of an Hour” share one similar theme concerning marriage that shapes the flow of story. Female characters in both stories suffered from the loss of individuality in their marriage under the patriarchal dominance. However, as the story develops, all these female characters gradually develop a sense of feminism.
Minnie Foster Wright, the murderer in Trifles, suffered great emotional oppression in her marriage. Mr. Wright, an upright but "hard" man, made life miserable for his wife. He refused to share a phone with his neighbor with the thought that people talked too much anyway, and all he asked was peace and quiet. From this refusal, we can conclude that he is not such a sociable man and he even ignored his wife’s right. On the other hand, it is also an illustration that he regards Minnie as his private property. He was afraid that once his charming wife was attracted to the colorful outside world then she would break up with him. So he chose to cage his wife like a prisoner. Moreover, he wrung the neck of the canary that his wife kept in a cage to sing and brighten her dreary life. The bird in this story is a symbol of Mrs. Wright. She was one of the town girls singing in the choir before she was married to John Wright. However, after her marriage, she was prevented from singing by her husband. So she raised the canary to memorize the precious memory of her vivid life before marriage, and on the other hand, she treated the bird as a company in her boring life deficient of love. Living in a quiet house without any children or any friends, she must fell strong loneness. As a result, she treated the little bird as her own child or her sincere friend, talking to it and caring for it. In summary, the bird kept her alive spiritually. So the strangling of her songbird symbolized the death of her spirit. She had nothing to live for in the stressful and boring cage where she was prisoned and was forced to give up her individuality. Male oppression from her husband brought great changes to her. “She used to wear pretty clothes and be lively, when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls singing in the choir.” Mrs. Hale thought of the pretty girl thirty years ago. Before marriage, she was pretty but delicate like a flower needing care and nourishment. However, what she got in her marriage was great oppression. She had withdrawn from her previous activities and was forced to live as a house wife separated from the outside world. She must be bored with this miserable life so when her bird was killed she was desperate and was infuriated to resist. The death of the bird suddenly motivated Minnie Foster Wright to realize the loss of individuality and freedom, so she took action to get rid of the miserable lifestyle and regain freedom from her husband. Mrs. Wright killed her husband in similar fashion, wringing his neck with a rope. With this radical action, she ended her dreadful marriage and got rid of her husband’s oppression.
When talking about other female characters in this play, it is not difficult to find that Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters also suffered male oppression in their marriage, but they also gradually developed the sense of feminism. For example, the country attorney told Mrs. Peters that because she was married to the sheriff, she was married to the law and therefore she should be a reliable follower of the law. Mrs. Peters' response was "Not--just that way". This response suggested that she began to realize her individuality as a female not just a sheriff’s wife. Another example is the change of Mrs. Peter’s attitude of whether to unfold the key evidence before the men’s eyes. At first, she insisted that “the law has got to punish crime”, but after Mrs. Hale analyzed the fact that John Wright was the real murderer of Mrs. Wright’s freedom and their marriage, she decided to cover up the evidence. This action suggested that with the development of the play, Mrs. Peter rediscovered a different aspect of her identity that tied more closely to her experience as a woman than to her marriage to Henry Peters.
“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin also expresses negative thoughts about marriage. As Ann Bail Howard wrote in “A Woman Far Ahead of Her Time”, Kate Chopin’s criticism operates from the standpoint that “marriage, said Chopin’s world, was the goal of every woman’s life.” Women should treat service to her husband and her children as their duties, selflessness as their daily practice. They were forced to sacrifice their pleasure and submit to the assumed virtues. The protagonist in “The story of an Hour” lived in such a world where patriarchal dominance played an important role in marriage. For instance, Chopin described Mrs. Mallard as “young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression”. This strongly suggested that Mrs. Mallard suffered oppression in her marriage. She used to submit to her husband in their daily life. Moreover, she would feel a“powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature”. This is another example to show Mrs. Mallard’s attitude towards marriage. She treated the relationship between her husband and her as a battle, and her husband would bend her will and she had no choice but to suffer the loss of the battle. But when she persuaded herself to accept the death of his husband, she had triumphs in her eyes and “she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory”. From this, it is obvious to find that Mrs. Mallard loved her assumed new role as an unmarried woman who regained freedom and individuality. In fact, Mrs. Mallard did have the potential to develop her individuality as a married woman. When she was informed of the message that her husband died, “she did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept”. After the storm of grief, she went to her room alone. And then she saw the new spring life after rains though the window. This image symbolized Mrs. Mallard’s capacity to get across the loss of her husband and to start a new energetic life. And after a relief, she couldn’t help saying “free, free, free” over and over again. This emotion strongly suggested her passion for independence and freedom. Furthermore, she chose death over marriage at last to show that she would rather die if she should live her life without what she just realized as freedom and individuality. Mrs. Mallard can be seen as the martyr who dies for feminism to some degree.
Through analyzing “Trifles” and “The Story of an Hour”, we can see that females in both stories suffer a great loss of individuality as a result of male oppression in their marriage. This phenomenon has roots in society. At the beginning of 20th century, when both writers created the stories, male-dominated society continued to deny women the right to vote and severely limited their opportunities in offices, industries, legislatures, and the marketplace. In home, the husband was king and the wife a mere vassal. In carrying out one of the most important and demanding tasks in all of society, rearing children, a female frequently received little or no help from her spouse. The typical lower- or middle-class wife spent much of her time in the kitchen, cooking, baking, canning, and stoking the stove fire. In "leisure" hours, she sewed, knitted, darned, and quilted. Women who worked outside the home usually held jobs as secretaries, clerks, waitresses, nannies, housekeepers, washerwomen, and manual laborers in factories. There was no minimum wage for these women. Rare was the female physician, lawyer, archeologist, business executive, or professional athlete. This social injustice had great influence on females and leaded to the sufferance for married women. However, just like females in “Trifles” and “The Story of an Hour”, some females at that time gradually developed a sense of feminism and began to rebel in order to pursue their own freedom and individuality. Such as Kate Chopin, who startled her public with a frank portrayal of a woman’s social, sexual, and spiritual awakening by publishing “The Awakening” in 1899. In a period only slowly awakening to the public needs of women — education, the vote, rights to her own property and her own children — Chopin dared to write of private needs that the period tried to deny existed. She expressed her sense of feminism and began to challenge the male authority. For example, in “The Story of an Hour”, the male doctor made mistakes by saying Mrs. Mallard had died of heart disease. Though at that time, it was always males who were regarded as competent doctors. However because of his ignorance of true spirit of Mrs. Mallard, he ended up with misdiagnosing. And the same thing happened in “Trifles”. Males are portrayed in an ironic way. The county attorney made fun of both Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters by saying that all they cared are trifles. However, it was the two women who found the evidence through the trifles. To sum up, male oppression had roots in society at that time, but some females realized this phenomenon and began to rebel.
To conclude, there is a clear link between “Trifles” and “The Story of an Hour” in the themes concerning the female loss of individuality in their marriages. Both writers portrayed females who realized male oppression and tried to regain individuality from their husband. And Both Kate Chopin and Susan Glaspell did pioneering work in awakening married women the sense of feminism by their stories.
Bibliography：
[1] Howard, Ann Bail. 1997. “A Woman Far Ahead of Her Time”. Online.
[2] Julie Moore. 2007.“Kate Chopin's Story of an Hour and the Roles of Women”.. Online.
[3] Nicole Smith. 2010.“Literary Analysis of "Story of an Hour" by Kate”. Online.
[4] Wang, Bella. Chazelle, Damien ed. *Trifles Themes*. GradeSaver, 31 August 2009 Web. 19 June 2011.
Key words: marriage；male oppression；feminism；individuality
“Trifles” and “The Story of an Hour” share one similar theme concerning marriage that shapes the flow of story. Female characters in both stories suffered from the loss of individuality in their marriage under the patriarchal dominance. However, as the story develops, all these female characters gradually develop a sense of feminism.
Minnie Foster Wright, the murderer in Trifles, suffered great emotional oppression in her marriage. Mr. Wright, an upright but "hard" man, made life miserable for his wife. He refused to share a phone with his neighbor with the thought that people talked too much anyway, and all he asked was peace and quiet. From this refusal, we can conclude that he is not such a sociable man and he even ignored his wife’s right. On the other hand, it is also an illustration that he regards Minnie as his private property. He was afraid that once his charming wife was attracted to the colorful outside world then she would break up with him. So he chose to cage his wife like a prisoner. Moreover, he wrung the neck of the canary that his wife kept in a cage to sing and brighten her dreary life. The bird in this story is a symbol of Mrs. Wright. She was one of the town girls singing in the choir before she was married to John Wright. However, after her marriage, she was prevented from singing by her husband. So she raised the canary to memorize the precious memory of her vivid life before marriage, and on the other hand, she treated the bird as a company in her boring life deficient of love. Living in a quiet house without any children or any friends, she must fell strong loneness. As a result, she treated the little bird as her own child or her sincere friend, talking to it and caring for it. In summary, the bird kept her alive spiritually. So the strangling of her songbird symbolized the death of her spirit. She had nothing to live for in the stressful and boring cage where she was prisoned and was forced to give up her individuality. Male oppression from her husband brought great changes to her. “She used to wear pretty clothes and be lively, when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls singing in the choir.” Mrs. Hale thought of the pretty girl thirty years ago. Before marriage, she was pretty but delicate like a flower needing care and nourishment. However, what she got in her marriage was great oppression. She had withdrawn from her previous activities and was forced to live as a house wife separated from the outside world. She must be bored with this miserable life so when her bird was killed she was desperate and was infuriated to resist. The death of the bird suddenly motivated Minnie Foster Wright to realize the loss of individuality and freedom, so she took action to get rid of the miserable lifestyle and regain freedom from her husband. Mrs. Wright killed her husband in similar fashion, wringing his neck with a rope. With this radical action, she ended her dreadful marriage and got rid of her husband’s oppression.
When talking about other female characters in this play, it is not difficult to find that Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters also suffered male oppression in their marriage, but they also gradually developed the sense of feminism. For example, the country attorney told Mrs. Peters that because she was married to the sheriff, she was married to the law and therefore she should be a reliable follower of the law. Mrs. Peters' response was "Not--just that way". This response suggested that she began to realize her individuality as a female not just a sheriff’s wife. Another example is the change of Mrs. Peter’s attitude of whether to unfold the key evidence before the men’s eyes. At first, she insisted that “the law has got to punish crime”, but after Mrs. Hale analyzed the fact that John Wright was the real murderer of Mrs. Wright’s freedom and their marriage, she decided to cover up the evidence. This action suggested that with the development of the play, Mrs. Peter rediscovered a different aspect of her identity that tied more closely to her experience as a woman than to her marriage to Henry Peters.
“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin also expresses negative thoughts about marriage. As Ann Bail Howard wrote in “A Woman Far Ahead of Her Time”, Kate Chopin’s criticism operates from the standpoint that “marriage, said Chopin’s world, was the goal of every woman’s life.” Women should treat service to her husband and her children as their duties, selflessness as their daily practice. They were forced to sacrifice their pleasure and submit to the assumed virtues. The protagonist in “The story of an Hour” lived in such a world where patriarchal dominance played an important role in marriage. For instance, Chopin described Mrs. Mallard as “young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression”. This strongly suggested that Mrs. Mallard suffered oppression in her marriage. She used to submit to her husband in their daily life. Moreover, she would feel a“powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature”. This is another example to show Mrs. Mallard’s attitude towards marriage. She treated the relationship between her husband and her as a battle, and her husband would bend her will and she had no choice but to suffer the loss of the battle. But when she persuaded herself to accept the death of his husband, she had triumphs in her eyes and “she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory”. From this, it is obvious to find that Mrs. Mallard loved her assumed new role as an unmarried woman who regained freedom and individuality. In fact, Mrs. Mallard did have the potential to develop her individuality as a married woman. When she was informed of the message that her husband died, “she did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept”. After the storm of grief, she went to her room alone. And then she saw the new spring life after rains though the window. This image symbolized Mrs. Mallard’s capacity to get across the loss of her husband and to start a new energetic life. And after a relief, she couldn’t help saying “free, free, free” over and over again. This emotion strongly suggested her passion for independence and freedom. Furthermore, she chose death over marriage at last to show that she would rather die if she should live her life without what she just realized as freedom and individuality. Mrs. Mallard can be seen as the martyr who dies for feminism to some degree.
Through analyzing “Trifles” and “The Story of an Hour”, we can see that females in both stories suffer a great loss of individuality as a result of male oppression in their marriage. This phenomenon has roots in society. At the beginning of 20th century, when both writers created the stories, male-dominated society continued to deny women the right to vote and severely limited their opportunities in offices, industries, legislatures, and the marketplace. In home, the husband was king and the wife a mere vassal. In carrying out one of the most important and demanding tasks in all of society, rearing children, a female frequently received little or no help from her spouse. The typical lower- or middle-class wife spent much of her time in the kitchen, cooking, baking, canning, and stoking the stove fire. In "leisure" hours, she sewed, knitted, darned, and quilted. Women who worked outside the home usually held jobs as secretaries, clerks, waitresses, nannies, housekeepers, washerwomen, and manual laborers in factories. There was no minimum wage for these women. Rare was the female physician, lawyer, archeologist, business executive, or professional athlete. This social injustice had great influence on females and leaded to the sufferance for married women. However, just like females in “Trifles” and “The Story of an Hour”, some females at that time gradually developed a sense of feminism and began to rebel in order to pursue their own freedom and individuality. Such as Kate Chopin, who startled her public with a frank portrayal of a woman’s social, sexual, and spiritual awakening by publishing “The Awakening” in 1899. In a period only slowly awakening to the public needs of women — education, the vote, rights to her own property and her own children — Chopin dared to write of private needs that the period tried to deny existed. She expressed her sense of feminism and began to challenge the male authority. For example, in “The Story of an Hour”, the male doctor made mistakes by saying Mrs. Mallard had died of heart disease. Though at that time, it was always males who were regarded as competent doctors. However because of his ignorance of true spirit of Mrs. Mallard, he ended up with misdiagnosing. And the same thing happened in “Trifles”. Males are portrayed in an ironic way. The county attorney made fun of both Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters by saying that all they cared are trifles. However, it was the two women who found the evidence through the trifles. To sum up, male oppression had roots in society at that time, but some females realized this phenomenon and began to rebel.
To conclude, there is a clear link between “Trifles” and “The Story of an Hour” in the themes concerning the female loss of individuality in their marriages. Both writers portrayed females who realized male oppression and tried to regain individuality from their husband. And Both Kate Chopin and Susan Glaspell did pioneering work in awakening married women the sense of feminism by their stories.
Bibliography：
[1] Howard, Ann Bail. 1997. “A Woman Far Ahead of Her Time”. Online.
[2] Julie Moore. 2007.“Kate Chopin's Story of an Hour and the Roles of Women”.. Online.
[3] Nicole Smith. 2010.“Literary Analysis of "Story of an Hour" by Kate”. Online.
[4] Wang, Bella. Chazelle, Damien ed. *Trifles Themes*. GradeSaver, 31 August 2009 Web. 19 June 2011.