Odenthal 1 

Zach Odenthal 

SEL 266 75 

Dr. Jerz 

7 December 2018 

Countering the Patriarchal Narrative in Treadwell’s ​Machinal a

​ nd Glaspell’s 

‘Trifles” 

The dominant discourse for years has revolved around men. Those in the 

margins are silenced and rejected from the conversation, especially women. 

Through literature, one begins to see creative work turning up the volume on 

the voices of those who are marginalized. These artists’ work to show the 

world that there is more than a man’s voice-- more than a patriarchal 

narrative. Treadwell’s ​Machinal ​and Glaspell’s ‘Trifles” counter the patriarchal 

narrative to not prove the victimization of woman, but to encourage the 

empowerment of a female narrative by basing their texts off of real women’s 

stories, displaying the effects of a patriarchal media, and manifesting the 

immersion of the woman’s narrative through sisterhood.  

The story of real women begins with “Trifles” being influenced by 

Glaspell’s reporting career during the trial of the Hossack case. The Hossack 

case was the murder John Hossack by his wife, Margaret Hossack. It is similar 

to the cases of Ruth Snyder, Helen Jones (​Machinal c

​ haracter), and Minnie 
 Odenthal 2 

Foster (“Trifles” character). The coverage of the Ruth Snyder trial sparked 

Treadwell’s interest in the portrayal of a woman’s narrative in the hands of 

men and the media. The trials of Elizabeth Mohr and Ruth Snyder urged 

Treadwell to pen M
​ achinal​, which is loosely based on the patriarchal narratives 

written on these two women (Weiss 5). Ruth Snyder and her lover Judd Gray 

were charged for murdering Snyder husband; Snyder became the first woman 

to be executed in the electric chair in New York (Strand 163). Treadwell takes 

Ruth Snyder and reinvents her as Helen, an ordinary woman “worn down by 

the societal machine” (Ben-Zvi 142). The influence of these real woman’s 

cases urged these two authors to devise the stories of “Trifles” and ​Machinal​ to 

deconstruct the patriarchal narrative.  

In the stories themselves, the the patriarchal narrative is weaved 

throughout-- the narrative of the trials are told by, written by, men and the 

media. Glaspell was a primary reporter on the Hossack trial, which influenced 

her to then write “Trifles” (Ben-Zvi 144). During this trial, Glaspell wrote 

many articles that enforced the patriarchal narrative, rumoring “Mrs. Hossack 

thought to be crazy” (Ben-Zvi 145). However, Glaspell changed the angle of 

her reports as an attempt to shift the narrative of Margaret Hossack’s 

narrative, rather than the Patriarchal narrative she was reporting before. 

However, the roots of the patriarchal narrative ran too deep through the men’s 

court of law. Margaret was found guilty, and Glaspell ended her journalism 

career and moved on to write fiction. Glaspell’s guilt of originally contributing 

 Odenthal 3 

to the patriarchal narrative of Margaret Hossack influenced her to write 

“Trifles.” 

In M
​ achinal​, the same patriarchal narrative is evident. During Helen’s 

trial in ​Machinal​, the reporters all create their own narrative-- their own truth 

in the patriarchal media machine -- that denies Helen, a

​ ll women​, a voice. 

Helen calls out, “Somebody! Somebod--,” but is cut off-- killed, silenced 

forever (Treadwell 83). Furthering this, ​Machinal e

​ nds with the ultimate 

display of the containment of a woman’s narrative. Someone asks “what is she 

saying” and another character replies with “nothing” (Treadwell 82). Helen is 

destroyed by by the “machine of the state,” the patriarchy (Strand 174). Her 

last words are disregarded because they mean “nothing” (Treadwell 82), as 

her narrative was finished by the patriarchy, the “master narrative” (Strand 

174).  

The patriarchal narrative of women either paints them as a virgin or a 

whore. If they are found guilty then they are an “evil temptress,” and if they 

are found not guilty then they are a “tragic victim with no will of her own 

power” (Strand 166). Both outcomes cage the woman with a powerless silence. 

Instead of looking at the reasoning behind the murder, the media immediately 

paints woman who have commited murder as “hysterics” (Weiss 8). Woman 

who have killed are immediately labeled as hysteric or cazed because they 

evoke fear within the patriarchy. If the murder is to be explained then the 

crime cannot be viewed as “socially driven,” because then a woman’s 

 Odenthal 4 

stereotype would be challenged (Ben-Zvi 155). In an attempt to fix this 

“hysteric tendency” of women, society introduced electrotherapy, symbolized 

after Helen has an affair with Richard Roe in episode 8 of ​Machinal​ (Weiss 9). 

Helen is described as “coming to the light” (Treadwell 51), as she is 

“stimulated to the point of orgasm” by the representational electrotherapy 

(Weiss 9).  

On the other hand, the only way to not be deemed crazy is to prove the 

“good wife” stereotype of normality, of the virgin. The courtroom strategy in 

Machinal​ was to deem Helen Jones as a “normal woman” because normal 

women don’t kill their husbands (Strand 169). Yet, the woman are labeled 

hysterics. Ruth Snyder’s lawyer took this route of painting her as a “woman 

just as God intended her to be,” one who is “well-kept,” “pious,” and faithful 

to her husband (Strand 166). Proving Snyder’s “housewife” character was the 

only way the men’s courtroom would ever possibly see her as being not-guilty. 

This is associated with how Glaspell shifted the narrative for Margaret and in 

“Trifles” to portray the women as the “good wife,” it didn't work in her favor. 

Even though Glaspell shifted the narrative, Margaret Hossack was still guilty in 

society for “questionable female behavior” (Ben-Zvi 152). It was unthinkable 

to suggest that a woman of such nature could be innocent or have been 

justified in her action, especially in 1901 (Ben-Zvi 152).  

To counter this patriarchal narrative, women within the texts are shown 

identifying with other women to build the female narrative. Glaspell’s 

 Odenthal 5 

“Trifles” ultimately reveals the identifiability of women with other women. 

The women of “Trifles” uncover the evidence of the murder case with their 

“reconstruction” of Minnie Wright’s, the woman accused of murdering her 

husband, life (Holstein 283). Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are able to perceive 

Minnie’s life and motive because they “go through the same things” (Glaspell 

27), while the men simply “research one violent moment,” condemning 

Minnie as only being a murder (Holstein 286). Glaspell did not create an acting 

role for Minnie Foster, so this way the audience would be drawn to how Mrs. 

Peters and Mrs. Hale are able to develop Minnie into a full character without 

actually seeing her since they share similar experiences as her. It is not a 

coincidence that Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are able to solve the case, as they 

step into Minnie’s shoes while sifting through the woman’s place of the home, 

the kitchen and living room. As their experiences are similar to Minnie’s they 

look for the motive of the murder, while the sheriff and the attorney 

investigate the murder scene thinking they are leaving out “nothing of 

importance,” (Glaspell 8). By Glaspell setting “Trifles” in the kitchen and not 

in the courtroom, she offers the audience the opportunity to share a woman’s 

experience (Ben-Zvi 154). Having the evidence revealed by women, for a 

woman, in a ‘woman’s space’ sets the environment for a new jury (the 

audience) that is able to see Minnie’s right to take action. The woman of 

“Trifles” build Minnie’s character as not being an “abstract murder,” but a 

“fully developed, complex victim” who fought back against the patriarchy’s 
 Odenthal 6 

silencing of women (Holstein 286). Minnie retaliated against her husband for 

caging her her entire life. This same resistance is depicted within M
​ achinal​. 

Helen Jones, from M

​ achinal​, alienates herself from the patriarchal 

discourse roles of: daughter, wife, mother, defendant, and Christian. 

Throughout M
​ achinal​, Helen’s character becomes exponentially machine-like 

which peaks at the point of her conversation with her husband. Their dialogue 

is evidently “fragmented” like the mechanical responses from the Filing and 

Adding Clerks that spit out dialogue with little interest in what they are saying 

(Weiss 10). Helen Jones was not written as an extraordinary character, she is 

characterized to embody all “housewives of the day” (Weiss 5). Treadwell 

characterizes the traits of these everyday women as being “mechanical, nerve 

nagging” (173) as all of the aspects expected of woman, “work, home, 

marriage, maternity” (Weiss 6), develop a “life machine” (Weiss 6) that 

destroys young Helen. In M

​ achinal​, Helen develops from a “submissive child” 

character into an adult who, in an attempt to “change her despondent life,” 

commits murder (Weiss 4).  

In the mix of this patriarchal narrative and the display of power by 

women, there is a mixed portrayal of silence and what it means. Though Helen 

in Treadwell’s ​Machinal​ is silenced by the media and the men of the courtroom, 

readers/audience members do not condemn her for her actions because she 

ultimately had a “desire to live and love” (Weiss 13). The act of murdering her 

husband is not rightly justified, but Treadwell’s audience can “recognize 

 Odenthal 7 

[Helen’s] anxiety brought on by the modern world and commend her struggle 

to rise above it” (Weiss 13). On the other hand, silence in “Trifles” looks 

different. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale do not tell the men the evidence they 

found, so they remain silence. However, this is not a powerless silence, as so 

common to social-acceptable woman. Therefore the sheriff and the attorney 

do not recognize the women’s silence as being any different, yet there is a 

“new tone in the quite” (Holstein 284)-- the power of sisterhood. The women 

fight the patriarchy by identifying with Minnie and letting the men remain in 

“ignorance of that trifle” or ‘women’s business’ (Holstein 285).  

The idea of both texts proving the victimization of women is shattered 

by their push to reveal the female narrative and its importance. A suggested 

goal of Treadwell’s ​Machinal​ could be to rewrite a woman’s narrative that was 

always obscured by a “man’s plot” (Strand 163). Helen fights the patriarchy by 

attempting to reach for her own freedom through her affair with Roe, yet it 

backfires on her due to the eyes of society and her rebellious acts to break the 

law of the patriarchy; therefore, she must be alienated from society , as she is 

too much of a “tender-hearted fighter” (Weiss 11). I argue that Treadwell 

retold Ruth Snyder’s narrative through Helen Jones to not write a Chaucerian 

remix proving Ruth Snyder as a ‘good woman,’ but to symbolically retell the 

patriarchal narrative in a manner that brings the silencing of women to the 

forefront of society’s mind.  

 Odenthal 8 

By basing their texts off of real women’s stories, displaying the effects of 

a patriarchal media, and manifesting the immersion of the woman’s narrative 

through sisterhood, Treadwell’s M

​ achinal ​and Glaspell’s ‘Trifles” counter the 

patriarchal narrative to not prove the victimization of woman, but to 

encourage the empowerment of a female narrative. Men assume that women 

will not be able to “make intelligent use” of knowledge, therefore woman are 

not restricted access to it (Holstein 284). Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale show what 

a woman can become when given legal power (Ben-Zvi 156). However, Kay 

Ann Short argues that Glaspell should have given the women “her day in 

court” (63). But more importantly, M

​ achinal a
​ nd “Trifles” both manifest the 

brutality of a woman’s life, and the “lack of options” women had to get away 

from their husbands’ abusive nature (Ben-Zvi 157). Glaspell and Treadwell do 

not prove the victimization of woman, rather they prove what woman can do 

with power-- uncover a murder, empathize, and beat the system.  

 
 Odenthal 9 

Work Cited 

Ben-Zvi, Linda. “‘Murder, She Wrote’: The Genesis of Susan Glaspell’s  

Trifles.” ​Susan Glaspell: Essays on Her Theater and Fiction​, edited by Linda 

Ben-Zvi, U of Michigan P, 1995, pp. 19–48. ​EBSCOhost​, 

setonhill.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx

?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=1997035096&site=ehost-live​. 

Glaspell, Susan. 'Trifles." P

​ lays​. Boston: Small, Maynard and Company, 1920.  

7-29. 

Holstein, Suzy Clarkson. “Silent Justice in a Different Key: Glaspell’s ‘Trifles.’”  

Midwest Quarterly: A Journal of Contemporary Thought​, vol. 44, no. 3, 2003, 

pp. 282–90. ​EBSCOhost​, 

setonhill.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx

?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2003531485&site=ehost-live​. 

Short, Kay Ann. "A Different Kind of the Same Thing: The Erasure of  

Difference in 'A Jury of her Peers,' " ​Susan Glaspell: A Collection of Critical 

Essays​, ed. Linda Ben-Zvi. 

 Odenthal 10 

Strand, Ginger. “Treadwell’s Neologism: Machinal.” ​Theatre Journal​, vol. 44,  

no. 2, May 1992, pp. 163–75. ​EBSCOhost​, 

setonhill.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx

?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=1992066035&site=ehost-live​. 

Treadwell, Sophie. Machinal. Roman Catholic Church of the Diocese of Tucson,  

1993. 

Weiss, Katherine. “Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal: Electrifying the Female  

Body.” S
​ outh Atlantic Review​, vol. 71, no. 3, 2006, pp. 4–14. ​EBSCOhost​, 

setonhill.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx

?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2016381313&site=ehost-live​.