2026 Undergraduate Research Showcase

Canning, Quilting, and Ligature Strangulation: Women's Work in "Trifles"

Document Type

Student Presentation

Presentation Date

4-24-2026

Faculty Sponsor

Dr. Kim Carter-Cram

Abstract

This project focuses on the unspoken ways in which women communicate in Susan Glaspell’s one-act play Trifles. In an examination of both the verbal and non-verbal communication between the two female characters present in the play as well as the third female character who never appears but around whom the core conflict of the play is centered, I will demonstrate that the languages of safety and power in the community of women are invisible to the male characters to their ultimate detriment. There is special attention paid to the idea of reclamation, particularly reclamation of female silence as a means of conscientious objection to systemic patriarchal structures of power and justice.

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