What is the tone of Trifles?

Susan Glaspell's play Trifles is set in a desolate farmhouse where a grisly murder has recently taken place. Over the course of the play, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters uncover evidence that proves not only that a wife murdered her husband here, but also that she did so after suffering years of sadistic abuse at his hands.

Sherlock Holmes, who is a constant background presence in the play since the two women closely follow his methods of observation and deduction, observes in "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches" that more evil occurs in the remote countryside than in the city. In London, he tells Watson, the cries of an abused wife may be heard, and someone may summon help.

But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser.

This is precisely the atmosphere of the Wrights' farmhouse, and this mood hangs heavy over the play. The tone, therefore, is a dark and frightening one, imbued with an almost palpable sense of evil that intensifies with the evidence found by the two women.

There is also a strong sense of irony in the tone. This emerges in the men's lighthearted dismissals of the women's preoccupations, which continue even as the audience becomes convinced that the women have discovered something genuinely sinister of which the men remain blithely unaware.

What is the tone of the male characters towards the female characters in "Trifles"?

In the one-act play "Trifles" by Susan Glaspell, a group of people go to an isolated farmhouse to investigate the murder of John Wright. His wife, Mrs. Minnie Wright, has been arrested as a suspect, and Sheriff Peters, Lewis Hale (a farmer living nearby who found the body) and George Henderson (the county attorney) have come to the house to search for evidence to use against Mrs. Wright. They have brought along Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, who remain in the kitchen while the men roam the house looking for clues. By empathizing with Mrs. Wright, the women uncover evidence that Mrs. Wright may have in fact killed her husband, but because they sympathize with her they do not show the evidence to the men.

There are several ways to describe the tone that the male characters project towards the women. These descriptions each partially fit the tone, and together they give a comprehensive picture of how the men regard the women.

The tone of the men is superior. They seem to have no doubt that they consider themselves better than the women, at least when it comes to complex situations such as the investigation of a murder.

The tone of the men is condescending. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, to condescend is

to assume an air of superiority; to descend to a less formal or dignified level; to waive the privileges of rank.

In the context of the play, the men show condescension towards the women by acting as if talking to the women is descending to a lower level of intellect, as when the men make fun of the women for wondering whether Mr. Wright was going to "quilt it or knot it" in reference to something Mrs. Wright had been sewing.

The tone of the men is dismissive. To dismiss something is to reject or be disdainful of it. The men are constantly dismissive of comments that the women make.

Finally, the tone of the men is domineering and authoritarian. Although they express these attitudes in soft-spoken ways, it is obvious that the men expect the women to be subservient, to stay in their places doing domestic work, and not to step outside the roles that have been given them in a male-dominated society.