Summary
Summary of Plays: Trifles, The People, Close the Book and Five Other Plays
Plays: Trifles, The People, Close the Book and Five Other Plays at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 3 h 25 min2 h 40 min fast, 4 h slow
- Length
- 48,400 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1920by Susan Glaspell
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
Small objects reveal an unseen life
John Wright has been found dead, and the men searching his farmhouse leave the kitchen behind as though nothing there could matter. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale stay below, noticing a half-cleaned towel, crooked quilt stitches and a bird cage with a broken door.
Those objects bring the absent woman of the house into view. Mrs. Hale remembers Minnie Foster as a girl who sang, and regrets staying away. The search becomes a question of whose attention counts, and what care allows someone to see.
Key idea 2
Words travel beyond their writer
In the shabby office of a radical magazine, Edward Wills has lost faith in the people he hoped to speak for.
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Key idea 3
Family pride depends on convenient stories
Peyton Root belongs to a family proud of its culture and importance.
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Key idea 4
Grief can turn life into silence
At an old life-saving station, Mrs. Patrick watches sand press toward the woods and wants the house left to herself.
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Key idea 5
Protection can become another prison
Gordon Wallace will not say where he was on the night of a murder because he claims the truth would shame a woman.
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Key idea 6
Love does not guarantee understanding
Bernice begins after the death of the woman whose presence fills her country house.
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Key idea 7
A theory takes over the household
Henrietta Brewster has become devoted to psychoanalysis, and her husband Stephen is tired of having his dreams examined.
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Key idea 8
Pure truth meets ordinary needs
Ian Joyce builds a sundial and declares that clocks turn people into machines.
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Key idea 9
Ordinary rooms hold questions of power
Across these plays, Glaspell puts people together in a room and lets an object or an argument expose what they cannot say.
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Go deeper: the whole of Plays: Trifles, The People, Close the Book and Five Other Plays
About 3 h 30 min to read.Start freeWho it’s for
Readers who enjoy sharp stage dialogue, stories about women's lives, early twentieth century America and short works that carry big ideas will find a great deal here.
What this book is
Picture a cold farmhouse kitchen where a man lies dead upstairs, and the men searching for a motive cannot see what two women see at a glance. That scene opens this collection of plays by Susan Glaspell, an American writer who helped found the Provincetown Players, the small company that first staged these works between 1914 and 1919.
The book gathers eight plays, some comedies and some quiet tragedies. Several were written with her husband, George Cram Cook. You get the people, the turns of each plot and the ideas underneath. Start with the kitchen in Trifles, where a quilt and a bird cage matter more than anything the lawyers say.
In this summary
- 1Small objects reveal an unseen lifeFree
- 2Words travel beyond their writer
- 3Family pride depends on convenient stories
- 4Grief can turn life into silence
- 5Protection can become another prison
- 6Love does not guarantee understanding
- 7A theory takes over the household
- 8Pure truth meets ordinary needs
- 9Ordinary rooms hold questions of power
Two women read the kitchen the men ignore
Trifles takes place in a farmhouse kitchen where John Wright has been found dead with a rope around his neck. The county attorney, the sheriff and a neighbour named Hale go off to look for a motive. Two women stay below, Mrs. Peters, the sheriff's wife, and Mrs. Hale. The men treat the kitchen as a room where nothing important can be found.
The women quietly notice what the men step over. A dish towel is wiped clean on one half only. A quilt is pieced neatly, except for one block sewn in wild, crooked stitches. Mrs. Mrs. Mrs. Hale pulls out those stitches and sews them straight.
Then they find a bird cage with a broken door, and Mrs. Mrs. Mrs. Hale remembers Minnie Foster, the girl who sang in the choir in a white dress with blue ribbons. She admits she stayed away from the house because it was not cheerful. Evidence depends on who is looking and how much they care to see.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Check yourself
Why do the women in Trifles notice evidence the men overlook?
Right. “The women quietly notice what the men step over.”Not quite. “The women quietly notice what the men step over.”
What do the strangers in The People reveal about Edward's words?
Right. “Words can matter more to the people who need them than to the person who wrote them.”Not quite. “Words can matter more to the people who need them than to the person who wrote them.”
What shared concern links Trifles, Woman's Honor and Bernice?
Right. “One thread links Trifles, Woman's Honor and Bernice: women are watched, judged and explained by men who do not listen to them.”Not quite. “One thread links Trifles, Woman's Honor and Bernice: women are watched, judged and explained by men who do not listen to them.”
Go deeper: the whole of Plays: Trifles, The People, Close the Book and Five Other Plays
About 3 h 30 min to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 48,400 words
- Reading timeAbout 3 h 25 min
Questions about Plays: Trifles, The People, Close the Book and Five Other Plays
What is Trifles by Susan Glaspell about?
Trifles is a one-act play set in a farmhouse kitchen after John Wright is found dead. While the men search for a motive, two women notice small household clues that tell the story of Mrs. Wright's life.
What plays are in this collection?
It holds eight plays: Trifles, The People, Close the Book, The Outside, Woman's Honor, Bernice, Suppressed Desires and Tickless Time. All were first staged by the Provincetown Players, and most are short one-act works.
What does the title Trifles mean?
It comes from a remark that women are used to worrying about trifles, meaning small things. The play shows that those small household details, a quilt, a dish towel and a bird cage, matter more than the men think.
Are the plays easy to read?
They are written as lively dialogue in plain English, with short scenes and full stage directions. Most run only a few pages, and the comedies move fast, so the plays are easy to follow and to read aloud.
What is the main message of these plays?
The plays ask readers to look closely at ordinary people and to distrust confident explanations. They show women being judged by others, families hiding behind pride, and people clinging to theories while missing what is in front of them.
Cite this edition
Glaspell, Susan. Plays: Trifles, The People, Close the Book and Five Other Plays. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/plays-trifles-the-people-close-the-book-and-five-other-plays.
Glaspell, S. (2026). Plays: Trifles, The People, Close the Book and five other plays. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/plays-trifles-the-people-close-the-book-and-five-other-plays (Original work published 1920)
Glaspell, Susan. Plays: Trifles, The People, Close the Book and Five Other Plays. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/plays-trifles-the-people-close-the-book-and-five-other-plays.
@book{glaspell2026plays,
author = {Glaspell, Susan},
title = {Plays: Trifles, The People, Close the Book and Five Other Plays},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/plays-trifles-the-people-close-the-book-and-five-other-plays},
note = {First published 1920}
}
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