Susan Glaspell's "Trifles" Exercises

from Portable Legacies (page721)

Explorations of the Text

2. What clues lead the women to conclude that Minnie Wright killed her husband?
The clutter in the kitchen, the broken hinge of the empty birdcage hidden away in a upper cupboard, the bad sewing, and last but not least, the dead bird in the sewing basket.

Mrs. Hales drew an analogy of Minnie Foster like a bird that sings, "singing in the choir", "real sweet and pretty". The bad sewing reflects the stability of the mind, or rather thoughts. The bad sewing is a indication of distress or distraction. The dead bird reflect's the brutal silence of Minnie Foster.

Mrs. Hales knew Minnie Foster, who was lively and like a bird; and Mrs. Peters could empathize the death of a pet, when she lost her kitten to a boy with a hatchet.

3. How do the men differ from the women? from each other?
The men was portrayed as sexist people. Glaspell made it clear for the readers to see from the beginning with the line "worrying over trifles" said by Mr Hales. This utterance bonded the women as they "move a little closer together". Then Glaspell formed the story in a way to show how 'serious' the men were in their job by putting them all over the house searching, all except for the kitchen where the women were told to wait. 

The person held for suspect was a women yet the men overlooked that fact. Even with the most stereotypical concept that women spent most of their time in the kitchen, the men did not bother to check the kitchen for clues. They immediately assumed that (there are) "nothing here but kitchen things".


4. What do the men discover? Why did they conclude "Nothing here but kitchen things"? What do the women discover?

After going around the house, the men found nothing but only to go back into the kitchen where the women had already solved the crime. The men's judgement were clouded due to their ego and pride. The women discovered many, from the quilt with bad sewing to the dead canary. They had solved the crime but decided to keep the evidence for they empathize with Minnie Foster's experience of a bad marriage and a hard man.

Research on a Major Playwright - Henrik Ibsen

Descendants to sea captains and businessmen, Ibsen was born in 1828 in Skein, Norway. The eldest of five siblings, Henrik was the only one showing promise. His father’s business failed when he was eight years old and they had to retire to a country house. This incident caused him to experience how materialistic his friends were: they were eager to dine and drink as guests of the affluent merchant but forsook all connections when the Ibsens lost their financial standing.

In his youth, he was a talented painter but his family was too poor to send him to art school and neither could afford to train him for his preferred profession, medicine. At fifteen years old, his father sent him to Grimstad, a small provincial town south Skein. There he became an apothecary’s apprentice, the next best thing to medicine. He was there for six years and led a lonely life. He started to read voraciously and particularly in contemporary poetry and theology. In 1849, he wrote his first play, Catilina, a drama written in verse modelled after one of his greatest influences, William Shakespeare.

Ibsen then moved to Christiania (now Oslo) in 1850 to prepare for university examinations to study at the University of Christiania, after he saved enough money through extreme economy and privation. Living in the capital, he became acquainted with other writers and artistic types. One of these friends, Ole Schulerud, sponsored publication fees for Ibsen first’s play Catilina, which failed to get much notice.

The following year, Ibsen met with a job opportunity to work as a writer and manager for the Norwegian Theatre in Bergen. The position became an intense tutorial in all things of theatre and even include travelling abroad to learn more about the craft. Ibsen left Norway in 1862.

1857, Ibsen returned to the Christiania to run another theatre there. This was a frustrating venture for him and others claim that he was mismanaging the theatre. Despite in deep waters, he found time to write Love’s Comedy (1862), a satirical take on marriage.

In this time period too he married Suzannah Thoreson in 1858, with whom he had a son with. Among his many works produced during this time were The Pretenders (1863); Love's Comedy (1863); Brand (1866); Peer Gynt (1867); Emperor and Galilean (1873); Pillars of Society (1877); Ghosts (1881); and An Enemy of the People (1882).

A Doll’s House (1879), a play significant for its critical attitude toward the 19th century marriage norms caused great controversy at the time. It was also the play that propelled him into the European avant-garde.

A Doll’s House incorporated a plot that he repeated in many following works, Ibsen was in the phase when he cultivated the “critical realism”, where the individual experiences an opposition to the majority, the society’s oppressive authority. When the individual intellectually frees himself from traditional ways of thinking, conflict arises.

Ibsen was a major 19th century playwright, director and poet. He died in May 23, 1906.

References:

Hemmer Prof., Bjorn. "The Dramatist: HENRIK IBSEN." n. page. Web. 3 Nov. 2013. <http://www.mnc.net/norway/Ibsen.htm>.

Merriman, C.D. "Henrik Ibsen." Literature Network. n. page. Web. 3 Nov. 2013. <http://www.online-literature.com/ibsen/>.

Research on a Major Playwright - Susan Glaspell

Susan Glaspell, a playwright, actress, director, journalist and novelist was an American Pulitzer prize winning author. A writer of great production, she published nine novels, fourteen plays and more than fifty short stories. Her stories are often set in her hometown, Iowa, and contain semi-auto biographical contents, and touching on modern issues like gender and ethics.

Born in the 1st of July in 1876 in Iowa, Davenport, she was originally Susan Keating Glaspell. Her parents, Elmer Glaspell and Alice Keating, a farmer and a teacher respectively, gave her a conservative, middle class home and a family that was not well off. Living on the family farm, she was an animal lover and would often rescue stray animals. Later on, the family farm was increasingly threatened by urban development. Glaspell’s view of the world was shaped and formed by her grandmother’s tales who talked a lot about the regular visits of Indians to the farm in the years before Iowa became a state. Glaspell’s growing up across an ancestral village, she was influenced with the belief that Americans should worthy inheritors of the land. This became a recurring element in her elements. This lifestyle in Davenport had an intense influence in her work and gave her a voice that was unique from any other American writer of playwright of her time.

Little was known about Glaspell’s early life or her parents but one point that remains clear was that she had kept many virtues she acquired during her childhood and from her birthplace. These virtues were reflected in her works both positive element s and negative elements.

She attended public school in Davenport and in 1897, she entered Drake University in Des Moines. It was in college that she aspired to be a writer and was fostered. She then began to submit stories to magazines. Two years later she received her BA and went on to be a journalist for the Des Moines News. After years of works, she decided to give up her job and to go back to Davenport and focus on her own writing.

1903, Glaspell enrolled herself into the University of Chicago to do graduate work but it was known that she did not achieve any degrees higher than her BA that she received from Drake. During this period, Glaspell’s life was partially in shadows.

She was introduced to George Cram Cook who later became her husband after travelling together. They moved to Provincetown, Massachusetts where they alternate their summers and winters there and Greenwich Village in New York. Their migration between the two locations was a result of being involved with the Liberal Club. This group helped Cooks to create the Provincetown Players, the group of actors that help produced Glaspell’s plays.

Through 1915 and 1916, Glaspell had her first formal season with the Provincetown Players, who produced two of her one-act plays: Suppressed Desires (1915) and Trifles (1916). Suppressed Desires was co-written with her husband and Trifles was her most anthologized play. Trifles, one of the most commonly-taught plays in American Literature classes was surprisingly not an award winner.

The background for Trifles was from a crime Glaspell covered when she was working as a journalist for Des Moines News. On December 2, 1900, John Hossack was murdered with an axe as he slept. His 57 year old wife, Margret, was charged with the killing.the jury did not believe her story that she slept through the killing, even though she lay next to her husband as he was murdered. She was found not guilty.

Trifles was the play that allowed Glaspell to begin refining her technique of one-act plays, but more importantly, it allowed her to employ a device which she could make uniquely of her own. This device appeared numerous times through the span of her work and it became a trademark of Glaspell’s plays.

Seven years with the Provincetown Players and she contributed ten plays the theater group. After creating a name for herself, she left for Greece with her husband in March of 1922. After about two years there, her husband died in Delphi and was buried in Greece. Glaspell continued travelling Europe and had a second marriage with Norman Matson in 1925. Their marriage was short lived and divorced in 1931.

While they were married, they wrote a play together, called The Comic Artist, but like their marriage, it was not successful.

1930 Susan Glaspell wrote another play, Alison’s House. It was a play loosely based on incidents of the life of Emily Dickinson. Employing Glaspell’s signature device, the unseen central character, it was a full length play of three acts. It was not received well by audience and was only staged a mere 42 times but it was chosen to win the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1931.

Susan Glaspell died on 27th July 1948.

References:

Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 8: Susan Glaspell.." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. . n. page. Web. 3 Nov. 2013. <http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap8/glaspell.html>.

Simkin, John . "Susan Glaspell." Spartacus Educational. n. page. Web. 3 Nov. 2013. <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jglaspell.htm>.

A Date with a Literary Scholar: Refaat Alareer

A lecturer, a poet (though he claim otherwise), Mr. Refaat Alareer, graced us, the class of BBL3406, with his presence on the 21st of October.

Photo credits: Amy Amilia

His session with us was a powerful one. He brought us to Gaza with his words, paint mental images of the chaos in Gaza: how the boarders of Gaza is surrounded by Israeli soldiers; how they couldn't export nor import; how the fishermen couldn't go further than three miles in the sea for there, Israeli soldiers are guarding too; and, how it took him a month to get out of Gaza to come to Malaysia. He then told us the resilience of the Gazans/Palestinians: how despite being oppressed, they spring back almost immediately, continue living life.

"Poetry: the only way of defending and resisting the presence of oppression."

Palestinian poets who wrote in Arabic:
- Mahmoud Darwish
- Tamim Bargouti

Mahmoud Darwish, deceased, was the father of modern Palestinian poetry. Tamim Bargouti, son of a Palestinian father and an Egyptian mother, was a wonderful poet who inspired many and revolutionized how people think. According to Mr. Alareer, Tamim was "young and cute", so everyone like him. However, our speaker favoured Tamim for his originality in imagery and metaphors.

Palestinian poets who wrote in English:
- Rafeef Ziadah (We Teach Life, Sir)
- Susan Abulhawa (Wala!)
- Rami Kanazi

"More young poets write in English than in Arabic now"

Compared to their native language, Arabic, English is a more and the most accessible language. Work in the native isn't as influential and it would be in English. Poems in English transcends the boarders of Arabic. Other than expressing, they aim to expose the unjust, to remember and tell their stories, and most importantly, the readers are able to see the poets as they are through the writings. What frustrates Mr. Alareer the most was not only meaning might get lost in translation, but to be represented by a translator or a mediator "can never be the same".

"...believed I will never be able to swim, to drive a car, and to write..."

How it all started:

Mr. Alareer wanted to start a blog after the war. He wanted to see how the past and future relates and connects. 

Ironically, a lecturer of English in a university in Palestine, he believed he will never be able to write. His encouragement was from his students, who initially sent him creative works of their own. He started to see the "amazing stuffs" they produced and learned from them. Here, they broke the traditional teacher-student relationship. This became a two way learning, and he starts to follow his own advice: "get rid of this opinion that you can't write!"

His advice:

- read a lot of good and high quality poetry

- believe that you can write good stuffs

- have the will to do so

- scribble your thoughts. Always

- imitate

- be yourself

"To read poetry, you first have to like poetry"

Mr. Alareer personally like the Romantic poetry: the easy way around their words, the techniques used. 

"To write, you have to make long term goals" 

He gave an example of a book published by Bill Clinton entitled "My Life", where in the prologue Bill Clinton talked about long term goals and this was his: "I wanted to be a good man...and write a great book". These was listed by Bill Clinton when he "was a young man just out of law school". To Bill Clinton, being a good man was "for God to judge" but to write a great book, it takes time.

Mr Alareer showed us the significance of making these long term goals. Long term goals is "a decision and then you take it from there." A book isn't produced overnight but it take years to cultivate the skills. For example, noticing is a skill developed with time. The descriptions of people/characters J.K. Rowling used in her Harry Potter series depended on her noticing.

"It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default." - J.K. Rowling

Mr Alareer moved on to tells us the importance of failure, backed up with a quote from the author if the Harry Potter books, J.K. Rowling. We should not be discouraged by failures or rejections we receive.

"If learning or education is a prey, you should keep it in a cage."

He then prompted us to start writing: "the worst about writing is that it needs writing". He urged us to scribble down every idea, to note, to freewrite. In this modern age, our mobile phones could be used too. He said this as if he couldn't stress on it enough.

"Imitating is the first step, but somewhere, you have to stop imitating and be yourself."

He told us of his humble beginnings in the journey of writing, (refer to point 1) and how important imitation can be and at a point, we just have to stop imitating and be true, be ourselves.

What is in my poetry?

- dialogue

- performance/drama

- Palestine

These three are the elements that are always in his poetry. Element of dialogues, although he didn't intentionally create them, it just happened. His idea was that his poems can be recited solo or two way, making it into a performance. Palestine, the reason why he started writing.

Mr. Alareer then recited some of his poems, while pausing to highlight the important points and teaching us the basics of poetry: punctuation, tense, and verb change and the implications of these. Despite his many pauses to coach, the emotions were heartfelt. 

Mr Alareer explains how young poets rise up to publish their writings not only in English, but on social media. They are hoping to raise global awareness via social media. He then encouraged us to write/blog.

Q&As:

Ayuni:         Who are your favourite poets and why?

Mr Alareer: John Donne. The depth, layers and play with words and structure.

                  T.S. Eliot. Romantic poets.

Maya:         What was the style of poetry in Gaza before the war?

Mr Alareer: Before the war, it was mostly personal. Personal poetry was and is still there, but after the war, more time and effort war for Palestine war writing. It became more intense and "evolved" after the war.

Azze:

Mr Alareer: Bring a writer means being able to be everyone else. You don't have to be the person and have first hand experience. Living in that society. You don't have to be a mom to write about mothers. You can read and see from people around.

Significance of olives.

Olive and olive oil symbolise Palestine in culture. Olive is used to cure diseases and sicknesses. Olive trees symbolise the connection and interaction of man and land. 

"Resistance is creative; occupation is boring."

The Palestinian resilience shows creation. They never give up and keep going back.

'5 Broken Cameras' a film by Emad documenting the resistance and determination of the Palestinians. To the Palestinians, "forgetting is a crime", they are there, they need to tell the story.

"Writing: an important tool of resistance."

Get Refaat Alareer at thisisgaza.wordpress.com

Bill Clinton - My Life (PDF)

War Poems: From World War 1 to Contemporary Poems on War

Considered as the first modern war, World War 1 was one of mankind's greatest tragedies. Men went out to fight, thinking it was for an honourable cause but only to be greeted with gruesome deaths and mass murder. In this situation, poets played their part as soldier, onlookers and victims. What separates them is that the poets were those most talented to represent in words and depict the situation and experiences of war.

Some of the modern wars that happened were:
World War 1
World War 2

and various Civil wars

Some of the modern war poets:

Rupert Brooke
Edward Thomas
Wilfred Owen
Siegfried Sassoon
Herbert Read
T.S. Elliot

War poems generally revolves around themes of:

Death. Honour, Pride/Patriotism, Wastage (of lives and funds), Religion, Humanity, Sufferings

Some wrote of the glory to die for one's country (pro-war), others talk about their abandoned families and death (anti-war).

Women war poets wrote on the direct and active service and experience of war. Women war poets wrote on the themes of the losses of brothers, husbands and sons; making the weapons; and, nursing the wounded. Some of the names: Rose Macauley, Edith Nesbit and Edith Sitwell.

Links:

http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/warpoets_knew.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_poet
http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/forgotten-poems-recovered-by-american-civil-war-research

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/education/tutorials/intro/women

What is... Poetry? Drama?

Poetry
Poetry is a form of self expression, used to convey emotions or ideas. With the original intention to be read or spoken out loud, poetry makes use of rhyme, meter, diction to make the form of the poem sound pleasing to the ear, or at least, to the reader.

Due to it's compact form, words are normally chosen with care. Not only meaning of the words are crucial, the literal meanings and the images they depict, but the sounds of the words are important too. Syllables and sound adds to the musical quality of the poem which reflects the credibility of the poet.

Poetry is artistically rendered words to evoke strong emotions.

For example, the concept of poetry according to poets:
Wordsworth: "...poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings..."
Keats: "...if poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree, it had better not come at all..."

Drama
Drama is a story which is to be performed in front of an audience. The story unfolds itself in the form of dialogues and short narration to show the setting and the background, crucial and enables the audience to follow with the story line.