Trifles Men and Masculinity Quotes

So much for ladies first. Why do you think the men are the first to enter the house? It could be that they're trying to be chivalrous. The house is a murder scene after all, so it could be seen as a dangerous (or at least a super creepy) place. It could also be that the men enter first because they're the head honchos of the investigation. No matter how you shake it, the men entering first immediately shows the audience that the fellas are in charge around here. Or at least they think they are.

We learn a couple things about the kind of man John Wright was in this chunk of text. 1) He was the strong, silent type—and not in a dreamy way. 2) He totally dominated his wife and didn't care at all what she said about anything. Doesn't sound like a prize catch, huh? Do you think the way Mr. Wright behaved was considered a-okay from men in his time? Or did even other men think he was kind of a jerk?

Notice how the County Attorney wants to take the investigation to only male-dominated places.

He wants to check out the barn, which is probably filled with manly tools. He also wants to inspect the bedroom. Sure, this makes sense since it's the crime scene and all, but symbolically it's also a male-dominated place. The kitchen, being a feminine place, obviously could never hold anything of importance for the investigation—even though the suspect being investigated is a woman who likely spends most of her time there. These guys are pretty clueless, huh? How realistic do think this portrayal of men is?

Here's the County Attorney's awkward attempt at being the gallant gentleman. Right after he and the other men mock the ladies for only ever worrying about trifles, he tries to smooth things over by saying that men do depend on women. Do the ladies buy this as gentlemanliness, or do they see it as another kind of condescension?

The County Attorney immediately follows up his attempt to be gentlemanly by being outraged an that Mrs. Wright has allowed there to be dirty towels in the kitchen. He kicks some of Mrs. Wright's pots and pans in disgust. This makes it pretty clear that his earlier comment that men need women could be translated to men need women to cook and clean. To the Attorney, if a woman fails in these oh-so-important duties, then she's failed as a woman. How well do you think the Attorney represents the male opinion of women in his time?

This line is special. It's one of the only places where a man says something nice about a woman. Here, the Sheriff expresses confidence that his wife, Mrs. Peters, isn't going to do anything sketchy like oh, say, hide the evidence that could convict Mrs. Wright. What's your opinion? Is the Sheriff's faith in his wife sweet, or is just another symptom of male dominance?

Don't miss how the Attorney immediately asserts his big bad male authority here. The Sheriff says he's confident his wife has it all under control, and the Attorney says, "Well, how about I make sure, huh?" The point is: the County Attorney is the alpha male here, and he wants everybody to know it.

These lines give us the clearest definition in the play of what society considered a "good man" at this time. Mr. Wright didn't drink, lie, or ring up a bunch of debt. Notice how the play immediately undercuts this, though, Mrs. Hale points out how harsh and unloving he was. Hmm, wonder what the play is saying makes a good man?

Not only does the play portray men as cold hearted misogynists and bird stranglers, little boys are shown as axe murderers with a taste for kittens. Well, we've only got one kitty-killing little boy, but you get the point. Over and over again, the play shows men as aggressors against women and the things women cherish.

The men are totally confident in the idea that a man's wife is his property. In their minds, there's no way that Mrs. Peters could be up to sketchy business. Immediately after these comments, Mrs. Peters actively tries to hide the evidence, so the irony seems to be that the men's overconfidence in their total control is very thing that causes them to lose control over the situation.