20th-Century American Theater & Susan Glaspell

19th-Century Drama The artistic style known as “realism”

becomes prominent during the second half of the 19th century.

Definition of Realism: an approach that attempts to describe life without idealization or romantic subjectivity….Realism has been chiefly concerned with the commonplaces of everyday life among the middle and lower classes, where character is a product of social factors and environment is the integral element in the dramatic complications. http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Realism

Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg are two of the most representative of realistic dramatists during this period. Some of their predecessors and contemporaries include the Russian dramatists of the 19th century, such as Turgenev and Chekhov. Three Women in Church (1878-82)

Wilhelm Liebl

19th-Century Drama: America During the 19th century, the number

of American theaters increased exponentially, from a few playhouses on the eastern coast in 1800 to thousands spread across the country by the end of the century.

While European drama moved gradually toward realism toward the end of the century, American playwrights continued to produce stylized material.

The most popular American stage productions during the late 19th century were melodramas, minstrel shows, and vaudeville.

Provincetown Players In the summer of 1915, a group of

young, amateur theater enthusiasts launched the Provincetown Players on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

The group wrote and produced its own plays—members were specifically interested in modern and experimental genres and material.

The Provincetown Players became so popular that the plays were soon being produced in New York City; as a result, the group disbanded by the late 1920s.

The Provincetown Players featured the work of Eugene O’Neill, Edna St. Vincent-Millay, Djuna Barnes, Wallace Stevens, Theodore Dreiser, and Susan Glaspell.

Susan Glaspell (1876-1948) Born in Davenport, Iowa Graduates from Drake University; works

briefly as a reporter for a Des Moines newspaper, and covers the Hossack murder in 1900.

Begins to write and publish fiction in 1902. Moves to Provincetown, MA with fellow

writer George Cook in 1915—where they marry.

Helps found the Provincetown Players in 1915; writes 11 plays and occasionally acts in them.

Continues to write stories, novels, and plays throughout the 1920s; wins a Pulitzer Prize in 1931 for Alison’s House.

Struggles with alcoholism and health problems during the 1930s, but recovers and continues to write novels.

Dies in Provincetown in 1948.

Trifles

Film version of A Doll’s House starring Jane Fonda, 1973.

In December 1900, John Hossack is murdered with an ax while he sleeps; his wife Margaret (age 57) was convicted, but her conviction is later overturned—she maintains her innocence until her death in 1916.

In 1916, George Cook asks Susan Glaspell to write a play for The Provincetown Players; Glaspell thinks about the murder she had covered 15 years earlier, and writes a one-act play in 10 days.

Trifles is first performed on August 8.

One year later, Glaspell reworks the play and publishes it as a short story: “A Jury of Her Peers.”

Study Questions What is the relevance of the play's title? To what "trifles"

does it refer, and what role do they play in the text? What might Glaspell be trying to suggest?

How does Glaspell indirectly characterize the differences between men and women?

Trifles grapples with the restrictions which society places on women. Other playwrights we have studied this quarter have dealt with the same issues, directly or indirectly. Do different playwrights use any similar rhetorical strategies? In what areas might the style and/or content of these plays differ?

How does Glaspell characterize human relationships? In what positive ways might Glaspell view society/community?

To what extent is Trifles a tragedy? What definition(s) of tragedy seem(s) most appropriate to this text?

“Mrs. Hossack is bearing up well under her trying ordeal, but day by day her countenance becomes more haggard and drawn. She may come out of the trial a victor, but the terrible strain cannot but have the effect of permanently undermining her health and bringing her to an early grave. To many it seems her hair is turning perceptibly lighter, and the gray is gradually giving away to silver.” —April 5th, 1901