and so much that Mrs. Hale compares her to a bird when she is telling Mrs. Peters about her. Wright wouldnt like the bird-a thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that too (Glaspell 1337). Mrs. Wright was not the only oppressed figure in the play. When the men are looking through the house for clues to the crime, they notice the women concerning themselves with trifles. For example, they notice that some of Mrs. Wrights jars of preserves are broken and to this the sheriff comments Well, can you beat the women! Held for murder and worrying about her preserves (Glaspell 1332). To the men all this womens work of keeping a house, and performing wifely duties is simply not important. The things women do are trifles. Some of the other images of oppression are not as obvious to someone who is not looking for them, but upon examination they are easier to spot. The incomplete kitchen work to the men seems like the work of an inept housekeeper, but the women understand this to show that she acted quickly in an aggravated manner (Smith 182). The last name Wright, as selected by the author, was a pun telling us about the lack of rights that the women had (Ben-Zvi 153-54). Finally, the jars of cherries were represented in Mrs. Wrights life. She was isolated on the farm and the coldness of her life finally caused her to break like the jars. The one unbroken jar symbolized the one thing left intact and that was her secret about the death of her husband (Ben-Zvi 154). This theme of the oppression felt by women is not only seen in the writings of Glaspell, but in Chopins The Story of an Hour, and the stories by Franny Fern. All of these female authors acknowledged the sexism in society and tried to wage war on it the best way they could. Too bad they wrote when the only people to analyze their works were men....
