Trifles Women and Femininity Quotes

And the battle of the sexes is on! Here's the first time in the play that we see a woman stand up to the ogre-like men that are stomping around the stage. The County Attorney disses Mrs. Wright for being a bad housekeeper, which to him translates as being a bad woman. Mrs. Hale stands up for Mrs. Wright and puts the blame on men's dirty hands. Notice that the idea never even enters the conversation that the very act of judging a woman by her housekeeping is mad sexist. That would've seriously blown people's minds back them.

Oh, these two are at it again. The County Attorney pins the house's gloominess on the idea that Mrs. Wright was a bad homemaker, which again to him means she was a failure as a woman. But then Mrs. Hale flips the idea of being a homemaker on its head, pinning the gloominess of the house on Mr. Wright's bad attitude. So Mrs. Hale is basically saying that it isn't just the woman's responsibility to make a home. Men are homemakers too, and John Wright was a lousy one.

These days we might see the idea that "a woman's place is the kitchen" as offensive. But notice here that Mrs. Hale feels connected to Mrs. Wright though the kitchen. It seems like Mrs. Hale also feels like the kitchen is Woman Territory, and it's a territory that the men have invaded.